Neighbor News
Broadway Actress Turned Artistic Director Reels in a Big Fish
Teaneck Director Delights Audiences With Tall Tales
“If I could find a word in the dictionary that adequately described someone who can focus on multiple tasks with equal efficiency and skill, then there would be a picture of Kate Swan next to it,” says 4th Wall Executive Director Gwen Ricks-Spencer. Kate has been the Artistic Director of 4th Wall since 2009. “She directs, choreographs, leads the artistic vision of the company, and is possibly the most organized person I’ve ever known-- all while being a first class singer/actor/dancer in her own right. We’re so lucky to have Kate and all her talents, which she shares so generously with the company.” Right now, she is focusing all of those talents on directing 4th Wall’s 19th season-closing production of the musical, Big Fish.
Swan, a Teaneck resident, began her love affair with the arts long ago, back in Texas, when she began performing professionally in musicals at age 8. Her dance studies included many years of training at the best schools in the Dallas area and performing as a member of the Chamberlain Ballet Company. Kate studied for two summers in New York City at Lee Theodore's American Dancemachine, a company dedicated to preserving Broadway theatre dance. After graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in theatre, Kate worked as a performer in Chicago briefly before being cast in the European tour of West Side Story with stars from Jerome Robbins' Broadway and A Chorus Line: The Movie.
Immediately after moving to New York, Kate was cast in the original Broadway Company of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. She later served as dance captain for the national tour and then the Broadway Company. She eventually became the Associate Choreographer for all productions worldwide through 2008, mounting and/or maintaining the Broadway, US national tour, UK tour, Korea, Brazil, and Mexico City 10th Anniversary Revival companies. During her 14 years of working on Beauty and the Beast, she also maintained a career as a professional freelance choreographer and director, starting with co-choreographing the World premiere of Schoolhouse Rock Live! in Chicago and spanning theatres from Utah to Florida to upstate New York.
She admits to being a little “nervous” when she made the transition from choreography to directing, but quickly came to see that her skills in the art of making people move through dance segued seamlessly into her work as a director. “It’s all about storytelling," Swan says. "In a musical, the choreographer and director have the same story to tell, and they work with the artists to create that story on stage. While the choreographer moves and focuses the story with dance vocabulary, the director will do it with stage blocking and business that define the way characters move through their lives. Working with the performers to develop their relationships with each other is a lot like developing dances for two, three, or a large group of dancers.”
Kate has had a great time directing Big Fish. “The musical is all about big stories with heart,” she explains. The plot revolves around Edward Bloom, a traveling Alabama salesman, who has lived a full and fantastical life, populated by witches, giants, and mermaids, marked by true love that stops time in its tracks, and framed by heroics that push the limits of believability. His adult son, Will, is no longer amused by his father’s fantastical tales, insisting on a rational rather than a fantastical account of one’s life. When Edward’s health declines, and Will learns that he and his wife, Josephine, will have a son of their own, Will decides to find out his father’s “true” life story, once and for all.
In addition to 4th Wall, Kate continues to work regularly at the Fireside Theatre in Wisconsin. Her Off-Off-Broadway and regional work includes the Wings Theatre in Manhattan’s west Village, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Seacoast Repertory Theatre, Lyric Stage (Irving, Texas), Surflight Theatre, Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, and Purdue University Theatre.
Big Fish has three final performances, June 10 and 11 at 8:00 pm and June 12 at 3:00 pm, at the Westminster Arts Center on the campus of Bloomfield College. More information, is available at www.4thwalltheatre.org. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online or reserved at 973-566-9255.
