The Director

Director -C.J. Keith 

Taking a few minutes from her incredible busy schedule, director C.J. Keith answered some questions about herself, her career, and this "quirky" show she has taken on for this fall. 

C.J., you are an accomplished director and respected faculty member at SDSU, having recently won an award for outstanding advisement, but even more astonishingly I’ve heard that you are more a cat person, than a dog person. Is this true? If so, what is your ideal cat, and what would its name be?

Actually I like both cats and dogs; I’m a “bothie!”  But some years ago without my doing anything at all cats began just showing up in my life:  they appeared on my doorstep, in my yard, one summer evening a cat walked right through my back door jumped up on my sofa stretched out and took a nap!  My neighbors started calling me the Cat Whisperer.  I took in a cat whose owners just moved away, leaving her.  I adopted a cat whose owner was 95 years old and didn’t seem to be able to care for her cat anymore.  A couple had a baby and their cat came over and adopted us, wouldn’t leave our house.  Three years ago my husband and I adopted two adult cats from the San Diego Humane Society, they are brothers, never been apart since they were born.  The vets at the SD Humane Society told us they were pair-bonded.  We named them Toby and Watson, and our house is brighter with them in it, and we are better people with them in our lives.  So at this time they are my ideal cats.

 I’m curious if you can talk a little about your early experience as a director? What brought you down the path to this position?  

Good questions!  I never sought directing jobs, they just kind of found me. Even though I was much more passionate about acting, as early as high school I was being asked to direct. At the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts I was an Artist In Residence, acting and teaching.  It was there that I was offered my first professional directing job.  I initially didn’t want to do it!  But I loved the script and the rehearsal process, and one thing led to another and I just kept directing.  I still have my actor’s Equity (union) card, but as I got older directing became much more exciting and challenging and I rarely act any more.

If you could give your early self one piece of advice, what would that be?

 “The road to success is always under construction.”  I heard that on NPR the other day and it’s been ringing in my head ever since.  I’d tell Young Me to trust my instincts and not second-guess myself so much.  To strive for perfection but not worry so much when things came up short, or promising ideas or people failed to deliver.  I’d tell myself to embrace “the divine dissatisfaction” of being an artist; words to live by from the late, incomparable Martha Graham.

Oh, and less lofty but crucial:  go to the parties, go to the social events, the galas, even when you’ve been rehearsing for 10 hours and you’re dog-tired.  You’d think Young Me would have done this.  But I was always working hard and didn’t socialize as much as I could have – that’s where connections and networking happens and you never know who’ll you will meet, and who might become a supporter, an ally, a friend, a collaborator.

What has been your scariest moment as a director (for any show in your career)?

Oh boy.  Well.  There was this one show I had been asked to direct at a small professional theatre.  I was a guest director, new to the company, and didn’t really know anyone. 

The lead actor developed temper tantrums, emotionally blackmailed everyone, and during the last week of rehearsals threatened to quit unless he got more money.  Another actor was an alcoholic, drinking backstage, in the bathrooms, and in the dressing rooms, but we couldn’t prove it until tech week, then had to fire her and find a last minute replacement – three days before we opened.  Another actor just quit.  No announcement, no talking about any problems, just disappeared one day in the second week of rehearsals.  Had to find a replacement for that, too.  There was some really bad costume designing by a well-meaning but too-young and inexperienced friend of the artistic director.  The whole show from the first rehearsal on was one big “scariest moment.”  Learned a lot of lessons from that show.

What’s your process for choosing a show to direct?

I read a lot of new scripts and if I fall in love with the language I usually want to direct the play.  Certain playwrights can have me under their spell from the first page:  Nilo Cruz, Sarah Ruhl, Jon Robin Baitz, Richard Greenberg, Rajiv Joseph to name just a few.  When I direct these plays I have little love affairs with them.  They consume me, I’m exhilarated!  And then closing night comes and I’m bereft.  Unless, of course, I have a new play waiting  J

When did you first experience Sylvia? What were your first reactions?

I’ve never seen a production of Sylvia.  I read the script some years ago, it’s been around a while, and the play has been produced many times but I’ve never seen it.  It’s still new to me that way.  I was charmed by the convention of having the character of a dog that could talk and understand people when they talked back, and no one thinks twice about it in the play!  Ludicrous, right?  But charming and quirky and lots of fun; and for many people a fantasy come true:  my dog understands me and we can talk to each other!

What excites you about the group you’ve assembled for this production?

I adore my cast, my stage managers, and my design team!  Sometime things don’t work out with casting or the chemistry of a group just doesn’t gel but I got lucky with this production team.  My designers, what creative, wonderful young artists they are!  My set designer and I have collaborated before, though on sound design.  This is the first time David has designed a set for me but it feels seamless, we communicate so easily and well.  And my two costume designers are a joy, they are so creative and passionate and have given me a wealth of visuals and ideas.  I am especially in love with the tutu they designed.  My cast is a dream, they come to rehearsals with fun ideas, they are open, take direction well, they were pretty much off-book (memorized) in the first week of rehearsals, and we all seem to laugh a lot as we work.  No one is perfect, I’m including myself here, but working with this group is perfectly terrific and exciting.

Please, if you can, tell us any mysteries of unanswered questions you’re allowing to be explored as you begin rehearsals?

We just don’t know how the dog can talk to people and they can understand her and talk right back.  That’s a mystery.  None of the other “implied dogs” can talk, the dogs at the Dog Park, only Sylvia.  Why just her?  A messy flea-ridden saucy mutt of a dog?   But it’s the convention of the story and we need to roll with it.  I must say we are having a great deal of fun exploring, and rolling with it J

If you could describe this show in one word, what would that be?

Quirky!

Finally, if you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would that meal be and why?

Oh, only one??!!  Okay, Italian:  lots of pasta, rich creamy sauces, spinach and ricotta ravioli, fresh fish and vegetables, hot crusty bread, big huge fresh salad, red wine, and something very chocolate for dessert with champagne.  And then just roll me from the table to my grave fat and happy.