Interview: Camille A. Brown Shares the Advice That Changed Everything

Who run the Broadway world? Girls. This March, BroadwayWorld is excited to spotlight five incredible female theatre-makers who are changing the game from offstage. In this first edition of 'Women in Theatre' we are catching up with the incredible director and choreographer Camille A. Brown. 

'Women in Theatre' is sponsored by Roundabout Theatre Company's world-premiere of Liberation, which is set to run through Sunday, March 30 at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. Get tickets today!

Four-time Tony Award nominee Camille A. Brown is a surefire trailblazer within the industry, having made history on multiple occasions. Her 2022 Main Stem directorial debut with “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf” — which came 10 years after her Broadway debut as the choreographer for the 2012 revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire” — garnered her Tony nods for Best Direction of a Play and Best Choreography, marking the first time a single person was nominated for both categories in the same season in over 50 years. 

As a choreographer, she currently has two hit shows running on 44th Street in the Tony Award-winning musical Hell’s Kitchen and this season’s star-studded revival of Gypsy – her fifth and sixth Broadway choreography credits, respectively. Not to mention, her eponymous company, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, just had a sold-out run at The Joyce Theater in early February with the New York premiere of “I AM,” a follow-up to 2017’s “ink.”

Regardless of the production, Brown’s choreography is a dance of precision and passion, blending the right amount of sharpness with the fluidity of surrendering to the moment - but always infused with the singular trait that makes Brown quintessentially Brown: joy. Her work is rooted in exploring the culture and personal experience of being African American — something she’s now been able to share with thousands of theatergoers.

But getting to this moment in time – where she can stand on a singular street in the heart of the Theater District and claim choreographic ownership of two productions – has come with its fair share of ups and downs.

Early in her career, Brown recognized the importance of putting your name and interests out into the world — a crucial piece of advice from former Executive Director of the Baryshnikov Arts Center, the late Georgiana Pickett. Doing so spurred countless connections to people who have championed her as a concert dancer and in her theatrical career. But her honesty in proclaiming her goals and desires also left her, as a young Black woman, grappling with harsh realities.

Brown recalled one specific conversation when she wanted to be put forward for a project but wasn’t being supported. “They kept focusing on the word traditional,” Brown said of the feedback she received; the subtext clear. “I was very discouraged by that.”

But that closed door didn’t keep Brown down. Instead, she knocked on another. At a meeting with a new potential manager, she laid all her cards on the table.

“Listen, I'(M) Black, I'm a woman, I'm a Black woman,” Brown remembered saying in a meeting with a potential manager early in her theatrical career. “I know that I'm going to have to work extremely hard. I understand that the Playing Field is uneven. But I'd still like to give it a shot.”

That conversation helped catapult Brown into the musical theater world — and she hasn’t looked back since.

Years later, when she was tackling “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf” in the dual roles of director and choreographer, Brown struggled. She recalled it being “one of the scariest things I've done in my life.” The beloved piece has a rich history but this marked the first ever Main Stem revival; the enormity of that weighting heavy on Brown. But a friend stepped in and offered advice that changed how Brown approached her Broadway directorial debut — and that would help her again in due time.

“Don't even think of it as a revival,” Brown recalled being told. “Just think about it as, ‘This is your contribution to this legacy.”

Now, just a few short years later, Brown has taken a similar approach with “Gypsy.” The 2024 revival is the latest in the show’s storied history and, for the first time, shares the story through a Black lens with Rose, Louise, and June all played by Black women. This particular production also marks the first time brand-new choreography has been mounted, breaking from tradition. 

Naturally, there were questions about what the production would look like. And again, Brown found herself confronted with similar questions from her past experiences of being doubted by onlookers. So she reminded herself of many of the same principles that guided her a few years earlier — but with a sprinkle of her own wisdom.

“I told myself to be patient,” Brown shared. “Don’t feel like you have to defend yourself. And focus on the work.”

That “work” led to stellar reviews for the production and for Brown’s choreography. But it also led Brown to another discovery as she prepared for her dance company’s run of “I AM” at the Joyce.

“I realized that Louise's ‘I am’ was that last striptease,” Brown said. “In a way, I felt like I was also saying ‘I am’ to the world, too, in terms of, ‘Don't put me in a box.’”

The thought of confining anyone as vibrant as Brown to an old-timey notion of what choreographers “should” be is infuriating in 2025; yet, for many, it remains a reality. During a talkback held after a performance of “I AM,” Brown shared many of these sentiments and more with the still-full audience hanging on her every word.

Now, the singular beauty of “I AM” that stood in contrast to Brown’s Broadway work was the fact that she herself took center stage for a brief solo. And while the cheers were deafening when Brown took the spotlight, it took quite a bit of convincing to get the multi-hyphenate to get onstage in the first place. Some continual prodding from a coach of hers combined with the confrontation of age did the trick.

“That solo just is all, you know, the climb, the fall, the acceptance of who you are, the fight of it, and why you must keep going,” Brown said. “That solo made me find my joy again.”

And, as anyone who has seen Brown’s work live knows, joy is the guiding force behind the movement.

“What I learned,” Brown said, “is that there may be many challenges, many obstacles that detach you from your joy — but you never lose sight of the joy.”