Natasha Katz, Lighting Designer for MJ

Join eight-time Tony Award winner and the lighting designer for MJ, Natasha Katz, and DMPA President and CEO, Jeff Chelesvig, as they discuss Natasha’s incredible career, how she approaches her craft and what it takes to illuminate a show like MJ.

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Thank you for joining us for thisepisode of DMPA Conversations. I'm Jeff Chelswig,
President and CEO of Demain Performing Arts. Today I am joined by eight
time Tony Award winner Natasha Katz,lighting designer for MJ a production in our
Willis Broadway series. These podcasts aredesigned to give you an insider's perspective of

(00:25):
the fantastic performances headed to our stages. Thank you again for joining us.
And now here's my conversation with NatashaKats. So do you want to be
starting SAP star? And Sup saidyou want to be starting? Sup started
Suck. Natasha, thanks so muchfor joining me today. You've been doing

(00:50):
this for a long time. Howdid you get started in lighting design?
I grew up in New York Cityand my parents took me to the theater
all the time, So I'm firstand foremost a theater lover and then a
lighting designer. It's really I justall I wanted to do was work in
the theater, and it, youknow, it really happened by chance.

(01:11):
I don't think that there are manypeople who were born sort of saying I
want to be a lighting designer.It's something you have to sort of find
out about it, to even knowthat it exists. And I went to
Oberlin College in Ohio, and that'swhere I really learned about lighting design,
and they happened to have a program, an internship program, and I came

(01:32):
to New York for a full semesterand got college credit to work with Roger
Morgan, a great lighting designer whohad just won a Tony Award for a
show called Crucifer of Blood. Andthe show that I worked on with him
was I Remember Mama, which wasRichard Rogers's last musical starring leave Oleman,

(01:53):
and I was able to go toPhiladelphia out of town and then come to
New York with the show, soand then I was hooked. Everybody was
so kind to me at such ayoung age and helpful to me. I
find that happens a lot in thecommunity of theater, which is people helping
younger people and helping each other outthat we really are a community. And

(02:15):
I, you know, lighting takesa lot of people to do lighting,
and so it's its own sort ofsubset of the community. And I just
loved it. You know, Ifound my family, really and I've been
finding many families since tell us aboutyour first experience working on Broadway as the
designer. Oh, that was ashow called Pack of Lies starring Rosemary Harris.

(02:39):
I was twenty six years old.Again, you know it's it was
because of people bolstering me and helpingme that it happened to me at such
a young age. But I metRoger Morgan, turned down a job at
the Ohio State Theater, and Idid this show with an amazing director named
Clifford Williams, who English director.And Clifford, I couldn't believe it invited

(03:06):
me to do a Broadway show.And I will tell you, I got
a letter in the mail. Thea was broken on the typewriter, so
my name is Natasha my name,so it was dirt and I could re
read between the lines, and itsaid we'd like you to do a Broadway

(03:28):
show. The producer was Arthur Canter, and I almost thought it was a
joke, like it was hard totell, and I called Arthur and it
was it was real and it wastrue. And then Clifford went on to
do two more Broadway shows consecutively intwo more years. And so I did
three Broadway shows right away, whichreally sort of it honestly really helped my

(03:50):
career. So our listeners will behappy to know that you do have a
history with Des Moines, and thatis that you were the lighting designer for
the musicals state Fair, which openedits pre Broadway tour here in Des Moines
in August of nineteen ninety five.And oh my goodness, which will be

(04:12):
how many years thirty years next year? And that was my first year being
here in Des Moines. And Iremember the tech period of State Fair as
if it were yesterday. I rememberbecause the company was here for practically an
entire month working on rehearsals. Tellus about your experience being here in Des

(04:33):
Moines. I had a fantastic timein Des Moines. A number of things.
There were big moments in my life. I had recently had a child
and my daughter. My mother andmy daughter traveled with me to Des Moines.
I had the biggest hotel room Ithink I've ever had before or since,
and so my mother took care ofmy daughter while I was in the

(04:58):
theater. It was also during theState Fair, that's right, hey,
all the it was. I mean, I'm from New York City, so
something like that really is in moviesfor me, and then I saw it
in its reality. I saw theanimals going down your main street. What
is your main street called? Isit Grand Avenue? Yeah? Grand Avenue?

(05:19):
Yes, yes, yeah. Soit was a great time. It's
a very strong memory for me anddes Moin. I'd like to go back
to Des Moines, honestly one dayto sort of relive it. We'd love
to have you back. It's theState Fair is still a huge draw here
in the state and I'm a bigfan of it. I remember opening night

(05:40):
the song all Io io Iowa stoppedthe show and standing ovation in the middle
of show. I don't think that'sever happened since. So that was so
much. Oh my god, ohgod, isn't that something that was great?
Great fun. Well, let's talkabout the show that you designed the
like for that's coming to the CivicCenter, MJ and this show primarily looks

(06:04):
at Michael Jackson at a point intime when he was creating The Dangerous Tour,
which was in nineteen ninety two.We're back to the nineties here.
Let's start with your involvement with theshow. Oh I well, Chris Wielden,
who directed it and choreographed it,we've worked together. It's almost thirty
years now we did. I methim on Sweet Smell of Success. He

(06:28):
choreographed Sweet Smell of Success, andI think it was two thousand and one
that we did it on Broadway.And then Chris took me into the world
of ballet and I've done many balletswith Chris since then. And so that's
one reason Leah Volak are protu sure. She's a good friend, and she
asked me to do the show.So once again another family exactly right.

(06:53):
Did the show have a pre BroadwayI can't remember it. We were supposed
to have pre Broadway, but wewe really came in in the time of
COVID, so that pre Broadway wascanceled and then we just opened cold in
New York. A number of workshopsand a lot of meetings, and then
COVID ended up in some ways helpingus even have more time to kind of

(07:15):
lend knowledge work on the script.Chris worked on things, I worked on
things. But no, we didn'thave a we didn't try out out of
town. Let's talk about some ofthe elements about the show, because the
show takes place in the nineteen nineties, so this makes this kind of a
period piece, right, Does thatinform your design in some way? Oh,
it really informed the lighting for theshow because the show does take place

(07:40):
in a rehearsal room for the DangerousTour, and when you walk in,
it just feels like the whole eveningis going to be in this rehearsal room.
So you talked about it being innineteen ninety two, but what happens
in the show is there are alot of memories that so they go back
even further in time, and thememories are sort of through Michael Jackson's own

(08:03):
eyes. They're also through questions thathave been asked of him by a reporter.
So it's kind of what memory bringsand how we deal with memory.
So there are a couple of thingsin terms of the period. So there's
the period of nineteen ninety two,the period of being in this rehearsal room,
the period of the day sort ofgoing on as they're rehearsing. So

(08:24):
as a lighting designer, that's excitingto me because the day is progressing and
sunlight is coming through and how allof that affects the mood of how the
characters feel. But the real sortof exciting part then happens as we go
back in time. It's all reallyabout sort of transformation and transitions and through

(08:46):
his emotions and feelings and that earlierperiod when the Jackson Five were started.
They started in a crummy club calledLucky's. It's in our show. Not
only is there the patina of whatlighting can do for memory and make it
change from the sort of harsh lightof the rehearsal room into this warm memory

(09:11):
feeling, there's also the kind oflighting that they had at the time,
those lights like Marquee lights that arearound and how do you make a club
feel sort of dingy and dirty wherethey first started. And then as you
see the rise of the Jackson Five, not only does the lighting change,
but the kind of environment that they'rein completely changes, and all of a

(09:33):
sudden, all of those lights startto get more and more and more modern,
and the lighting gets more modern andmore exciting and more like what you
might remember from a television show withthe Jackson Five or Soul Trained with the
Jackson Five. So then we startto touch on what we think the audience's
memories of that period are. Andyou know, it's so hard to talk

(09:56):
about lighting, but lighting has somuch to do with some what A lot
of these transformations are in the show, which hopefully people will you don't have
to notice it, but at leastit will carry the story on. I'm
so fascinated by lighting. In fact, I studied lighting design. I did
a little bit of lighting design,which is why I remember seeing you in
the theater in nineteen ninety five,you know, sitting at the desk in

(10:20):
the middle of the house working oncues and just I remember that distinctly.
The technology has changed so much overthe last fifteen twenty years. Is it
make it easier or harder? It'seasier. It actually is easier. That's
great the technology. It is easier. So when we did State there we

(10:43):
did not have what they call todaymoving lights, which means lights, the
robotic lights that can be controlled froma computer. So if the light is
hanging there, you can from thecomputer point the light over here, change
the color, make it big,make it small. When we did State
Fair, you'd have to get fourpeople at the bottom of First you have

(11:05):
to pull the ladder down off thewall, and you have to roll in
on the stage stand at the bottomof the ladder, so that nobody will
fall off, and then Electrician goesup the ladder and hangs the light or
points the light in only one directionwith only one color in it. So
the versatility of what we have todayis astounding compared to what we had during

(11:31):
State Fair. And I'm very proudof the work on State Fair. I
thought the show looked beautiful, gorgeous. It was really was, but I
was really proud of it. ButI had no idea then where technology would
take us to today. And Ithink we can do many more sophisticated things
than we could do before. Youcouldn't have the lighting from MJ twenty years

(11:54):
ago that we have today. I'veseen the production only in New York.
I have not seen the touring production. I'm looking forward to it, but
enjoyed it very much. Is therea favorite moment of yours in the show?
Oh? My god, you knowwhat, of course, I'm going
to say there isn't. It's chockwell with so many incredible moments. It's

(12:16):
a visual delight. The choreography isinsanely good. There are not enough superleances
for me about what this show is. It's got to be one of my
favorite shows that I've ever worked on, because you know what, there's a
seamlessness between all of us. Weall worked the costumes, Paul Taswell's costumes,

(12:39):
Derek set the sound design for theshow, Chris's choreography, the music,
it all really blends into one ina way that I find absolutely astounding.
You mentioned the choreography and I wasblown away by it. And our
audiences have seen Chris's work, mostnotably American and Paris that we presented a

(13:01):
few years ago. He's just sucha terrific choreographer. I just went to
the Duain Ballet actually performed a coupleof his pieces recently that I saw and
oh great. Yeah. So it'sreally this is a show that's selling extremely
well. It's going to be,I think, a high point of our
season. It astounds me every timeI see it. It's always got something

(13:24):
new. And we opened a productionin London now, which is right.
You know, every time Chris addsstuff, so he's added us up to
the tour that as a matter offact, we so we did the tour
in Chicago. We started in Chicagoand then we went back to New York
City and added a lot of thethings that we had put into the tour

(13:45):
into the New York City production.So there was a lot of things in
the tour that were better than NewYork, so we had to put them
into New York. I love hearingthat. I know that happens more frequently
than people might imagine. To beable to step back and reimagine the work
when it goes out on tour andthen go and put it back into the

(14:07):
Broadway production. I think that's socool, yes, because you learn and
you learn so much from the audiencesand what the audiences really want and how
to sort of craft the show basedon that kind of reaction, and a
lot of that we learned when weafter we left New York and had another
chance to do it. Thank you, Natasha. We appreciate you joining us

(14:46):
for this special conversation. The dmp A Conversations podcast is produced by Andrew
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foundation for great performances and educational opportunitiesat Des Moines Performing Arts. Visit DMPA
dot org or wherever you get yourpodcasts for future conversations like this one.

(15:07):
Thank you for listening