Interview: Director Katie Spelman of BRIGADOON at Pasadena Playhouse

Lerner & Loewe’s musical Brigadoon centers around two American travelers, Tommy and Jeff, who lose their way in the Scottish Highlands and stumble upon a mysterious village that appears for just one day every hundred years. One they enter the magical Brigadoon, Tommy falls in love with a local woman named Fiona, forcing him to choose between his modern life or staying forever in the enchanted, unchanging village.

With its lush score featuring Lerner & Loewe Broadway standards “Almost Like Being In Love” and “The Heather on the Hill,” a live orchestra, sweeping choreography, and a newly adapted book by Alexandra Silber inspired by the original book by Alan Jay Lerner, this beloved classic promises a heart-stirring journey into a world where time stands still and love defies all logic.

I spoke with Chicago born, Brooklyn-based director/choreographer Katie Spelman about her focus on the unique blend of fantasy, Golden Age musical style, and deep romantic themes of Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon she is helming at The Pasadena Playhouse from May 13 through June 14, starring Happy Anderson (Jeff Douglas), Tyne Daly (Widow Lundie), Betsy Morgan (Fiona MacLaren), Max von Essen (Tommy Albright), and Daniel Yearwood (Charlie Dalrymple).

Thanks for speaking with me today, Katie. Please tell me about your history directing and/or choreographing musicals prior to your current production.

I started my career as a dancer in Chicago, and slowly began to shift into dance captain and assistant roles until I made the full shift to the other side of the table to become a choreographer. Because Chicago was my artistic home, as I began to work on shows as an associate in New York, London, and Australia, I was always welcomed back to do my own work…and eventually, that shifted into directing as well. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have the experience of working on giant Broadway and international shows, and then returning to where my roots are to put all I’ve learned and absorbed into practice. 

Betsy Morgan and Max von Essen in BRIGADOON
All Production Photos by Jeff Lorch

How are you balancing the fantasy elements with the human, emotional core of Brigadoon?

As an avid fantasy lover, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say this: the best fantasy works when it is centered on a human, emotional core. Especially in this exquisite new adaptation by Alexandra Silber, that is true for Brigadoon. Yes, the town appears one day every 100 years, which is incredibly fantastical; but the story behind that miracle is one of a community and a culture that did not want to give up their way of life or to lose more of their community to outside forces. Our Tommy and Jeff are contemporaries of the audience, and they live in our timeline – where we are technologically more connected than we’ve ever been, and yet loneliness, isolation, and disconnect are on the rise. So in a way, then, the humanity and vibrant emotional life of the town of Brigadoon become the fantastical element at play, much more so than the fact the town appears and disappears into the mist. 

Betsy Morgan (center) & Brigadoon Ensemble

How will you differentiate the of the American travelers?

The separation of a few centuries of humanity will do a lot to show our travelers are different – on a surface level, that’s what they wear, how they speak, etc. On an emotional level, that’s a modern sensibility: less saying what they mean, less faith in miracles and others, less sense of being from a community of people and more proclivity to be absorbed by their own experience as opposed to how they fit into a fabric of a larger one. 

 The Brigadoon Ensemble

How will you use choreography in the staging the funeral dance/sword dance, which is central to the plot?

One of the reasons Brigadoon is such a delight for a director/choreographer is the way dance is inextricable from the piece – cultural Scottish sword dancing and folk dancing are baked into the piece, and then Agnes De Mille pulled expressionism into the piece with the Funeral and Come to Me, Bend to Me. My goal with choreography for the whole show is for it to emerge organically, and to deepen our understanding of either the characters or the community. 

The Brigadoon Ensemble

Are you striving for authenticity in Scottish accents, or a theatrical approximation that prioritizes clarity?

We’re striving for authenticity as much as possible in all things Scottish. We’ve got an incredible support team for this, including a dialect coach who has been with us since day one. Al Silber and a few of our cast members are graduates of the Royal Conservatoire of Glasgow, so there is a great depth of knowledge having those folks in the room. Also, my Associate Choreographer Kim Hudman and I studied with a professional Highland Dance competitor and instructor to make sure our folk, ceilidh, and sword dancing are all rooted in authenticity. We really want this production to be a celebration of Scottish culture, and that desire stems all the way from dialects and choreography to sets and costumes.

Happy Anderson, Donna Vivino and Ensemble

How are you approaching the concept of faith that speaks to today's polarized world?

I think that faith, and our relationship with it, is the foundation of Brigadoon. Not religious faith, per se, although I think that is honored in the piece. But the beating heart of the story is about faith in true love, faith in community, faith in friendship, faith in the preservation of culture and tradition, faith in what can happen when a group of people band together. I think that the magic of Brigadoon is really about a group of people that choose each other over and over, in joy, in love, and in grief. I think that is a type of faith that feels a bit foreign in today’s world, and I think it is one of the reasons Brigadoon has stayed in the cultural zeitgeist for decades. 

Kylie Victoria Edwards and Daniel Yearwood

What are you hoping the audience feels in the final, quietest moments of the play?

I never want to be prescriptive about how an audience should feel – I think the beauty of theater is that people get inspired or moved by the things that hit them personally, and that is different for everyone. But because this show encompasses so much of what it is to be human, I simply hope that the audience feels seen in some way, and connected to the people around them.

Max von Essen and Betsy Morgan

Thanks so much! I am really looking forward to being in the audience.

* * * *

Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon runs Wednesday, May 13 to Sunday, June 14 at The Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101 on Wednesday and Friday evenings at 8:00 p.m.; Thursdays at 7:00 p.m.; Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; Sundays at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available online at pasadenaplayhouse.org, by phone at 626-356-7529, or in person at the onsite Pasadena Playhouse Box Office.

Tyne Daly

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