TEPPING
Marcia Milgrom Dodge's
successful career
in choreography
is moving in
a new direction.
It's fun directing a show at home.
hat started as a fun
mother-daughter
activity became a
successful career for
Marcia Milgrom
Dodge, director/chor-
eographer of Any-
thing Goes, which
runs through June
20 at the Birming-
ham Theatre.
SUZANNE MESSIER
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
The Cole Porter
musical brings Ms. Dodge
home to Michigan for her
second professional pro-
duction in Birmingham.
She is staying with her
parents, Jacqueline and
Myron Milgrom, who
often travel to see her
shows in regional the-
aters across the coun-
try.
"My mother took
dance classes, and
that's how I got start-
ed," said Ms. Dodge,
38, who remembers
her many sessions
with former teacher
Barbara Fink. "My
mother was in adult
classes at the Julie
Adler School, and we
actually did recitals
together at Masonic
Temple.
"She took me to all
my dance classes and
sat there with her
knitting. I'd come
home and cry because
I didn't remember a
step, and she would
say, 'Just start again.'
She was always very
calm, and she always
knew I would get it."
Much later, one of.her
three sisters involved her
in a production that
would decide her career.
"I started at the
University of Michigan in
the summer of '73 and
took two courses,"
recalled the speech, com-
munications and theater
graduate. "My sister,
Carole, who is a pianist,
was accompanying audi-
tions for the show The
Roar of the Greasepaint,
and she told me to audi-
tion. They needed
dancers.
"I got the job and met a
lot of wonderful people.
From that moment, I was
hooked on the stage."
Her first big break
came in 1985, when she
was hired to choreograph
a regional theater produc-
tion of She Loves Me in
Baltimore. Producers saw
her work, and she was
able to get interviews
that led to other choreog-
raphy assignments.
Ms Dodge found it par-
ticularly exciting working
with Stephen Sondheim
on a revival of Merrily We
Roll Along and Joanne
Woodward on a produc-
tion of Velvet Elvis.
"Stephen Sondheim was
lovely," she said. "He is
such a man of the theater.
There were times when
we disagreed, and he
would say, 'I don't think
there should be dancing
there, Marcia.' And I
would say, 'Well, Steve, I
think you wouldn't dance
but I think these people
would.'
"There was a scene
where I had people danc-
ing to evoke a sense of the
time, and Steve came up
to me and said, 'I don't
know about that.' And I
said, 'Well, watch it for a
couple more days and let
me know.'
"And then I remember
him literally leapfrogging
over about four rows of
theater seats, saying he
liked it and leaping back.
I was elated!"
Part of the fun of work-
ing with Joanne-
Woodward was getting to
know Paul Newman.
"She needed somebody
to choreograph some
sequences, and I ended up
helping her do a lot of
staging," Ms. Dodge said.
"She was really good
with the acting and get-
ting the actors to com-
municate. To watch her
go about that was really
thrilling.
"And then Paul used to
pick her up from
rehearsal and hang out
in the back and wait for
her.
"She brought lots of
lemonade and Paul
Newman popcorn, and he
actually drove me home
from rehearsal one day. I
immediately called my
mother."
One theatrical job was
based in large part on her
religion. "I did a very
interesting project last
year, a musical about
(Holocaust hero) Raoul
Wallenberg, with some
writers from Phila-
delphia," she recalled. "I
was hired because I was
Jewish, and I was the
only Jewish collaborator
on the team.
"I found it very moving
because there's a certain
innate sensitivity and
awareness that you have
just by being a Jew."
Her various productions
keep Ms. Dodge away
from her New York apart-
ment about half the year.
She and her husband, for-
mer Redford resident
Anthony Dodge, try to
work on the same shows
so they can be together.
In addition to playing
the role of Lord Evelyn
Oakleigh in Anything
Goes, he is assistant
director. This means his
wife is his boss.
"We're an incredible
team," said Ms. Dodge,
who met her husband
when they were doing an
Ann Arbor production of
Camelot in 1976. "He
trusts me enough and I
trust him enough so
there's give and take, and
we both learn."
Ms. Dodge also likes to
keep an open environ-
ment for the rest of the
cast.
"Because I was a chore-
ographer first, I am used
to collaborating with a lot
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