BWW Interviews: Mitzi Hamilton Discusses TUTS' A CHORUS LINE

As summer rolls through Houston, Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) is ready to kick the heat up a notch with their free summer production of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical A Chorus Line. Sure to be "one singular sensation," the production tells the story of seventeen dancers vying to make their dreams come true by earning a coveted spot on the chorus line of a Broadway show. TUTS is notorious for producing high quality entertainment, and this production of A Chorus Line will be no exception. TUTS is pulling out all of the stops, featuring a supremely talented cast that will be choreographed and directed by A Chorus Line alumna Mitzi Hamilton, making it one of the most anticipated shows this summer. Serving as the inspiration for the character Val Clark, Mitzi Hamilton has been involved with A Chorus Line since its inception. She has served as an actress and dancer in both the Original London Company and the New York Company. As a choreographer and director, she has played a fundamental role in keeping the iconic production alive by passing it on to future generations. Recently she took time out of her busy schedule to talk to me about what Houston audiences can expect from TUTS' production of A Chorus Line.

BWW: You have had a very successful career as an actress, dancer, director, and choreographer. When did you first know that you wanted to have a career in the performing arts?

Hamilton: I think it was when I did my first musical in high school. I had been dancing and studying dance since I was a little girl, four or five years old. I had never done a musical up until, gosh, my senior year in high school. It was my senior year in high school, and I was cast as the lead in South Pacific. I played Nellie Forbush, and I realized, "oh my gosh. This is incredible. This is what I need to do." So, it was way back then in high school, when I got to do that glorious piece of theater, I knew that I wanted to be on the stage from then on. I mean, I loved dancing, I just didn't know where it was going to take me. I maybe didn't even think about it too much in those earlier years as I was growing up. I loved watching movie musicals on television or at the movies, but I didn't really grasp the whole idea until that first performance that I got to do. It was a wonderful experience and a wonderful time to learn all of that.

BWW: You've been involved with A Chorus Line since its inception, serving as the inspiration for the boisterous character Val. How does it feel to play such an integral part in such an iconic show?

Hamilton: I feel very blessed and privileged. At the time, we had no idea what it was going to turn out to be during those tape sessions. Looking back on it all, I'm just thrilled that I was around in those days and that I got to participate in something so special. I just feel like it's a great gift. So for me, now, well for the past twenty years that I've been recreating the show, I feel like I need to give back. I love passing it on. For me that's the best thrill, and it is the most gratifying to give it to new, young dancers. At the time when Michael [Bennett] brought us all together to do those tape sessions, I had already done six Broadway shows. I was definitely working on Broadway. (Laughs) But Michael was, you know, an up-and-coming new director and choreographer with lots of talent and genius, and we all wanted to work for him. A lot of us had just done SEESAW from Michael on Broadway, and that is how that group of us were invited to that beginning tape session. He then invited other, older dancers that had worked with him. He just, because Michael was a dancer himself, loved dancers. I don't know when he had the idea or how it formulated for him. I am just grateful that he wanted to do something for us and show the world that we're not faceless, anonymous people. (Laughs) So, he gave us that respect that was really not given to dancers in those days. They were the low man on the totem pole. You know, dancers were behind the stars and you never got to know who they were. He wanted to bring us into the spotlight, and he did that with this piece of theater.

BWW: Has your previous experience with A Chorus Line inspired, impacted, of affected you artistic decisions as a director and choreographer of the production?

Hamilton: Oh well, you know I was directed by Michael [Bennett]. I got to work with him for a long time because after London I went into the New York Company and practically lived at the Schubert Theatre for almost ten years. In New York, I just stayed with the show. I had left a couple of times to do a couple of other shows, but Michael was so good to me. He always brought me back into the show and kept me employed. (Laughs) Every time he came to work with us, I was just glued to everything he gave us. I just felt that it was pearls of wisdom and valuable information. I wanted to be an actress. I wanted to make a transition out of dancing. I studied acting for several years as well in New York, and that didn't quite happen. This happened instead, and it really kind of fell into my lap. I never dreamt that I would be doing what I'm doing today.

Then, after I left the New York Company, I was doing the show in Europe. By then, I was doing Sheila, and I started to assist Roy Smith. He was an LA dancer and one of Michael's dance captains. He was putting productions together in Europe, and I started to assist him. He was unfortunately not well that last summer of 1990, and he unfortunately died of AIDS soon afterwards. I was to assist him that summer, but he couldn't make it. He was too ill. So, the producer asked me if I could do it, and I said "Yeah, I think I can." I just felt like Michael was sitting on my shoulder and whispering in my ear the whole time. (Laughs) In other words, I could still hear Michael's direction because I had listened so hard to what he was saying. I could still hear him saying it, and so I really felt that I knew what to do. And that was how many years ago? My gosh, twenty-three years ago, and I have been doing it ever since. I have been putting companies together.

It really fell into my lap at that time, but in retrospect, I don't think things just fall into one's lap. I think it was my destiny (Laughs) or that it was meant to be. Because you know, all those guys that were those dance captains and those assistants, they were all dying of AIDS, unfortunately. We lost a big part of that generation, of those guys that would have been passing it on today, that would have been doing what I am doing and what I have been doing. In my mind, I guess it was just meant to be for me. I couldn't be happier with how my career has gone because when I was still performing in the show I really, literally, did not know what I was going to do when I couldn't dance anymore.

BWW: That's great! Clearly, you have done wonderful things with A Chorus Line.

Hamilton: Thank you. Yeah, it has taken me around the world just about. I have worked with incredible dancers. I have never had any children. I was married once but never did have a family of my own. However, every time I work with a group of young dancers they become my children (Laughs) so to speak. So, I have had many, many, many families of beautiful people to work with. I just feel blessed.

BWW: Thank you for sharing that. I think that's very inspiring and wonderful.

Hamilton: Well, I'm glad you like it. (Laughs) Being in theater for me has just been a joy. It is filled with great people, talented people. I have no regrets, and I wouldn't have changed it for the world. I was just really, really lucky and things just always worked out for me. I have just been blessed. I mean the one regret maybe, was that I had to leave my family, but I left because I had to live my dream. I'm from Chicago originally, but I lived in New York for thirty-five years. I did get to go home and visit once or twice a year, but I didn't grow up with my siblings, and I didn't spend the time with my mother that I would love to have. It just wasn't meant to be that way. You know, when you are driven and you have to live your dream, then you do. You make those little sacrifices. Dancers, and I guess really in anyone's life, we make the sacrifices because we need to do what we feel we are meant to do. We make sacrifices and somehow it pays off, and it is worth it. It is okay to make those sacrifices. That's just life. That's just, you know, part of living. (Laughs) I think it makes us stronger.

BWW: What is your process for directing like?

Hamilton: First, I am really teaching the dance right now and getting the numbers under feet. I am also staging them, and they are working vocally. When I feel that they have danced enough (Laughs) and they need to just sit down for some time, I sit them down and we talk about the show. We talk about who their characters are, and their relationships with each other. I ask them questions like Michael [Bennett] did to us when we were young dancers. I ask them why they started dancing, what made them start, what was the reason, and what are they going to do when they can't dance anymore. I ask all those questions that are in the show basically, and get them to bring in their own experience. I get them to bring in their own hopes and dreams, fears and disappointments, or whatever their emotions are. I try to open them up to bring those emotions into the piece so that they can bring that to the stage, and show us what they are about. I mean, to find their humanness, their humanity. It is about getting the fear out of the way and breaking down those walls so that they can just be vulnerable, open, honest, and believable. It is very important for this show anyway, to not be on-stage performing. It is about their hopes and their dreams, and their need to be heard. They have to just have a great motivation for wanting this show and they have to be on-edge because the minute that they are comfortable, sure of themselves, and slick we are not going to root for them. You know, it's kind of like that Rocky Syndrome. We want to see them yearning for what they need so badly. Then we are going to root for them. We are going to be on their side as audience members. We want to see their humanness. None of us are perfect. (Laughs) We all make mistakes, and we all struggle. We all fall down, but it is about how you pick yourself up and keep going. I try to help them find their way to that truth. It's about connecting with those characters' needs and bringing their own personal needs to the piece and to their character so that we really believe them. We want to root for them, and we want them to win.

BWW: That sounds like a great process, and it makes me even more excited to see this production of A Chorus Line!

Hamilton: Yeah, it's a great process. That part of it, I really enjoy, making them aware and giving them the space to let go and allow themselves to have that freedom on the stage. It is not an easy thing to be that open and vulnerable and to feel naked, so to speak, on stage. So I work in that direction more or less.

BWW: So let's talk Houston. Without giving too much away, what can Houston audiences expect from this summer's production of A Chorus Line?

Hamilton: A great dance show that is beautifully played, I hope. I am only on day three, (Laughs) so I am not sure what the outcome is going to be! If I think of my past experiences with the show, in the end it turns out to be a pretty thrilling experience. I think people can still relate to the show. I think it is timeless and that is what I am doing with the piece. I'm not confining it to 1975 because it is timeless. It is about these dancers today and their lives now. So, I think, people, especially young people, I hope, will come to see it because it is for the new generation now, really. Hopefully, people in all walks of life can relate to the dancers' struggles and their hopes of living their dreams. I think that no matter what those young people out in the audience are striving for or are wanting to be career wise, I think that they can relate to that passion. I think that it will be inspiring, hopefully, for them to continue on with their dream.

BWW: That's great! That actually touched on my next question. I wanted to ask, as the director and choreographer of this production of A Chorus Line, do you have any plans to update or modernize this production in any way?

Hamilton: We are actually just updating the year that they were born. In the beginning, when they introduce themselves one by one, they are asked where they are from and when they were born. In the script, of course, it says 1943/1947. So, we are just adding the thirty-some years to those dates so that it makes it now. I am saying in the program for Time and Place, that the Place is Here, and the Time is Now. Costume wise, I think what dancers wear is similar to what we wore back then, but because we are outdoors and in the heat, (Laughs) we are going to lighten up their line costumes a little bit so that they are not wearing big, heavy sweaters or double-knit dance pants. They will be in lighter fabrics. But for the finale, we do have the wonderful finale costumes. Basically, that is the only change that is necessary to bring it up to date, and it is an easy enough fix. I don't think that there is really much else that is dated in the show. I mean the orchestrations are a little bit of that period, the mid-seventies, but I think the music is still exciting enough that people can relate to it today.

BWW: A Chorus Line is about seventeen dancers vying for a spot on A Chorus Line of a Broadway show, and illustrates the competitive nature of the performing arts industry. Do you have any words of wisdom or advice for those aspiring to become dancers, actors, or aspiring performing artists?

Hamilton: Perseverance is the main thing, and hanging in there. Competition is fierce, but you have to at least go for it, if that is your dream. I have always felt that even if things didn't work out, if you at least did your best and went for it giving it a hundred percent, you could always say at least I tried. I think persevering is key. If you really don't want to give up, you just keep hanging in there. I mean it is tricky. In musical theater, you have to be a triple threat. You have got to take all of those classes because you have to have that triple talent. If you have got to support yourself in the meantime and you have got to do a day job or work part time, it is a strain. But, if you go for it as best as you can and do the best that you can, that is all that you could hope for.

Theatre Under the Stars' production of A Chorus Line runs from July 16 to July 21, 2013 at the Miller Outdoor Theatre, 6000 Herman Park Drive, Houston. Free tickets are available at the Miller Theatre Box Office beginning at 10:30 am on the day of each performance. Don't feel like waiting in line to get tickets? Donate to TUTS and get reserved tickets ahead of time! Each $50 tax-deductible donation comes with two tickets. For more information about A Chorus Line or how you can donate to TUTS, please visit Theatre Under the Stars at tuts.com or Miller Outdoor Theatre at milleroutdoortheatre.com.