MOORHEAD—A new faculty has joined the theatre department: Leslie Stevens, a Broadway performer, director and choreographer.
Originally hailing from Tulsa, Okla., Stevens had only visited the Minn. area on touring shows. She had visited performance spaces around Saint Paul and St. Cloud, where she found “farm art.”
“There was some theatre when I was in a dance company, and there were backyards with like old tractors and plants growing through them, and I took all these, what I thought were artsy pictures at the time,” Stevens said. “There’s a different feel. You know, it just, it’s different. I was like, oh, it’s art, it’s farm art. It was funny.”
Stevens wanted to start directing shows on her own, and when the opportunity to direct Concordia College’s production of “Oklahoma!,” it lined up perfectly.
“It was not something that I sought out,” Stevens said. “So it was just the right timing of what I was looking to do, and the timing of when they needed somebody, it just lined up strangely enough.”
Though Stevens grew up in Tulsa, Okla., she moved to St. Louis, Mo., where she got a job at the MUNY Opera in their production of “Carnival.” Stevens gained an equity card after the production and after that, she made a deal with her parents that changed her life forever.
“I would go to New York with my equity card and live with my aunt and uncle in New Jersey for two months. And I could take the train into the city and take classes and audition for stuff. And then I would have to come back to Missouri and go to college or something,” Stevens said, “and I just never came back. I just turned 17.”
From there, Stevens starred in the 1983 Broadway production of “La Cage aux Follies,” originating the role of Anne Dindon. She was 17 when she accepted the role. In 1984, it won the TONY Award for Best Musical.
From there, Stevens went on to star in an NBC soap opera but decided to step away after a year to focus on her mental health and her dancing abilities.
“I mean, I was a maniac. I’d go to dance class between matinee and evening shows. I mean, it was bananas. But this is the thing, the imbalance of that was that I had no emotional foundation to be stable for myself. It was totally overwhelming for a young person,” Stevens said. “I thought I was going to have time to learn this, but I was learning how to act while on Broadway.”
After taking some time off, Stevens joined the company of “Victor/Victoria” in 1995, where she was able to work with Julie Andrews. During this time, she also decided to study acting. She enrolled in the three-month Shakespeare program at the Public Theater in New York City while in “Victor/Victoria.”
Stevens could not originally afford the program through the Public Theater. However, after a phone call with her cast-mate, Andrews helped Stevens fund her classes at the Public Theater, with Stevens repaying her back a few months later.
“She was creating the tone of the whole ride, and graciousness was important,” Stevens said, “She even sent me flowers for my opening night at the theatre.”
Now living in Los Angeles, Calif., Stevens choreographs and teaches dance. Teaching a method in which she calls her “Christopher Lloyd” self.
“You know, like, crazy scientist in the basement self, which is teaching the anatomical and like somatic underpinnings of dance and movement, which sounds real academic,” said Stevens, “but I have a high school diploma, you know? I don’t have academic credentials, but I have a lot of hours in this investigation and it’s so interesting to me. One of the things I really like doing is to give anybody, but specifically young people, the best information possible to develop an awareness with their body so they can use it effectively for whatever they want to do.”
Stevens is teaching THEA 380 at Concordia College, where she teaches this method to over 25 students in Olin twice a week. She will also be directing “Oklahoma!” this November.
“Then what I get to do, which is cool is I get to create a storyboard,” said Stevens, “Not just with, not the lyrics are what the literal story, what is happening here in the behavior of the people and how is that reflected in the movement?”
Stevens is excited to get into the nitty-gritty of “Oklahoma!,” and cannot wait for audiences to see this show. Tickets will go on sale on Oct. 31, 2024.
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