#BehindtheCurtain: Get to Know Erica Kahn
School might be out for the summer, but our cast of 13 is ready to brave the halls of middle school in our Pre-Professional production which opens this weekend! They’ll be dancing through their first teen year thanks to the work of our talented choreography, Erica Kahn! Making her SDMT debut, but no stranger to the choreographer role, Erica brings such expertise to this production. With a duel bachelor’s degree in both Theatre and Dance with an emphasis on choreography and directing, as well as having worked with countless theatres and youth programs all across San Diego, there’s no one better to help lead our talented cast. Her dedication and love of her craft is infectious, and it has been incredible to watch it all come to life on the SDMT Stage through the hard work of our cast. 13 runs from July 19th to 28th, so you have eight performances to be able to witness it for yourself! In the meantime, this week we had so much fun getting to know Erica more, and we can’t wait to share her answers to some of our questions with you all. Just keep reading below to read her full blog and then get your tickets for 13!
How long have you been doing musical theatre, whether in a performing or choreographing/directing role? And what inspired you to get into it in the first place?
I started doing musical theatre when I was four and instantly fell in love with it. I remember seeing a production of Annie and telling my mom I wanted to be Annie. She put me in theatre, and the rest is history! Little did I know that my love of theatre would grow into a deep love of dance, and later a passion for storytelling through movement. I’ve been choreographing and directing for about twelve years now, and it brings me an immense amount of joy and fulfillment. I love telling stories and working with such wonderful artists, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Photo by Mark Holmes
If you could tell the audience anything about this show, what would it be? Does it have any special meaning or significance to you personally?
As a Jewish artist, it’s always meaningful to get to work on shows that tie into my personal background. I remember being thirteen and going to all my Hebrew school classmates’ bar and bat mitzvahs. Some of the parties were extravagant and some were smaller, all fun in their own way, but this show definitely emphasizes the social pressure as it collides with the weight of becoming a Jewish adult.
If you had to pick, what is your favorite scene or number in the show?
I really love the opening. It was the first thing the cast learned when we started choreography rehearsals, and it was a really exciting puzzle for me to figure out. I had so much fun choreographing it and even more fun putting it together with the cast, and I love watching their explosive angst throughout the whole song. It kicks the show off in such a joyful and high-energy way, and the whole cast has worked so hard to make it hit the way that it does.
What is a dream show of yours to choreograph? If you have a few, feel free to list them!
13 is a show I’ve always been aware of but until working on it, I never really listened to it. I knew the popular songs but beyond that just never found it or got into it. It’s been kind of an accidental dream show because it fits really well with my style and energy both as a person and as a creative, and it’s been an absolute blast to work on. I am very music-driven as a choreographer, in that I get ideas from listening to the lyrics, rhythm, and different instruments utilized in a song, and it’s one of those shows that I have yet to get tired of listening to, which doesn’t happen a lot for me.
Beyond 13, I have and will always have such a love and respect for West Side Story. So much of its heart and power lies in the intertwining of the music and movement, and it’s that same kind of physicalization of emotion, similar to 13, yet so different. The emotion is so much bigger than anything they could possibly speak to communicate so they must sing it and dance it. It reminds me of why I love musical theatre to begin with.
I was in a production of West Side Story when I was a teenager, and to this day it is one of the most powerful shows I have ever been a part of. To choreograph the masterpiece that it is would be such an incredible experience and even more so a dream to do it with live music.
Photo by Mark Holmes
This show dives into the tumultuous years of becoming a teenager and all of the joys and stress being 13 can bring. What’s something you remember experiencing during your own 13th year of life?
Oh my hahaha I mainly remember not having any idea what was going on (in any aspect of my life!). I think what’s so unique about being that age is that everyone has such vastly different experiences, yet the thing that’s so uniting is that everyone goes through similar feelings about those experiences. Whether it’s social pressures, home life, mental health, etc., it’s all heightened at that age, which makes it feel like it’s your entire world. I think all of that angst and those shared feelings are depicted beautifully in this show.
What’s the most challenging part about your role as choreographer? And on the flip side, what’s the most fun part of your job?
Every show comes with its own challenges, but I’d say the hardest thing is that sometimes I wish I could be my own outside eye and watch the show from the perspective of someone who has never seen it. I get so locked into watching specific parts, people, or spacing that sometimes I have to remind myself to watch the number as one cohesive picture. I love hearing people’s thoughts and experiences throughout the process when people come in to watch a run or rehearsal because it’s such a unique perspective I don’t have.
It’s impossible to pick the best thing about choreographing, but something that I will never get over is how cool it is to see a cast take what I’ve given them and run with it. Adding the character, the emotion, and the energy to the movement to make it mean something in the context of the story is truly one of the coolest things ever, and I am so grateful to get to do this. I also love the logistical aspect of choreographing; some things I can prepare ahead of time, but some things I can’t anticipate until I see bodies in the space and can work it out alongside them learning it. Those are some of the most exciting parts because it feels like the choreography is growing beyond what I could have imagined it being and molding to fit this group of performers. I love collaborating with them and also allowing them the autonomy to let me know when a pathway doesn’t work or when we need to find a different way to get to a new spot, etc.
“All Hail the Brain” is a number that doesn’t seem super complicated when you watch it, but it was quite a process to craft and teach. The movement is done in cannon, but an added layer is that the vocals are in a round, so each person’s movement is one by one count, but the timing of who is singing what is also different. This means that each of the eight people in the song have a different combination of choreography and singing. When they do the song, they each have to be really focused and aware of their own track and not get distracted by what everyone else is doing, which is especially challenging because they’re sitting at desks that are so close together. It was so much fun to choreograph this and figure out what I wanted it to look like and therefore how it needed to work in order to achieve it. I test taught it with some friends so I could see what worked and what didn’t before bringing it into the rehearsal room, and the cast welcomed the challenge with open arms.
With this being SDMT’s Pre-Professional show, what has been your experience working with a younger group of performers in this cast (ages 13-17)?
This has been such a wonderfully willing cast to work with, which is so refreshing. On the first day of rehearsal, I told them that more than anything, I really value effort and work ethic. To me, the willingness to play and try things outweigh the need for perfection in a rehearsal space, and this cast has really taken that and run with it. Sometimes I walk into rehearsal with a crazy idea, half the time knowing that it likely won’t work but wanting to try it anyway. I always tell them what the idea or goal is and then let them know that if it doesn’t work, I have alternate solutions. Every single time, they jump in and are more than willing to give it a shot. Most of the time, they have been so determined to make the ideas work that they have ended up in the show!
13 Creative Team:
Director: Sean Barnett
Music Director: Matt Ignacio
Choreographer: Erica Kahn
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