Role: Stage Director - As a Stage Director, my role (much like a Creative Director) involves transforming conceptual visions into immersive artistic experiences. Directing is designing - harmonizing various elements of a play – actors, lighting, sound, set design – to create a unified and evocative experience. I interpret the script, infuse it with my unique style, and create a visual and auditory storytelling experience that engages and moves the audience. A stage director is a leader guiding skilled craftsmen while fostering an environment receptive to innovative ideas. The director must effectively convey their vision, ensuring that the transfer of ideas resonates through the minds and emotions of others. The director's challenge lies in their talent for touching the magic wellsprings in others with what they so vividly imagine and feel themself.

Concept: Kentucky Madam, a play written by Margaret C. Price, is based on the real life tragedies and successes of Belle Brezing. Belle ran “the most orderly of disorderly houses” in Lexington, Kentucky at the turn of the 20th century and is said to be the real life inspiration for the Belle Watling character in Gone With the Wind.  To workshop and showcase a new vision for this play, I directed an immersive showcase through the lens of an intimate party at Belle’s grand house at 59 Megowan St.

Development: Having first worked on a staged reading of “Belle Brezing” in 2004, I was captivated by Belle's story. After moving to New York, I collaborated with the playwright to rework the script and develop a new vision for the play. This culminated in a staged reading at The National Opera Center in 2013, where we further refined the concept. The staging concept was to develop and design a large scale immersive portal to the past of Belle Brezing, re-creating the space and time of the old Victorian house on 59 Megowan Street bringing all her southern charm and etiquette north. The first big step came in 2018 by developing immersive elements that would create a new experience for audiences to discover and step into the life and times of a once great southern madam, her demise and her redemption. Imagine being able to partake of her bourbon, sit with the painted ladies and dance to the music of that time and that place.

Execution: In 2018, I brought this vision to life by creating an immersive experience at a historical speakeasy in Manhattan’s Lower East side. The event allowed audiences to step into Belle's world, interacting with the elements and characters of her time. The showcase was an intimate, invite-only experience where art, food, and community collided, inviting audiences to connect with the themes of freedom, love, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Note: A full scale immersive production is currently in development.