This season, Sammi Cannold made her Broadway directorial debut directing How to Dance in Ohio. The show, based on a documentary of the same name, centers on a doctor who plans a dance for his autistic patients.
The show marks not only Cannold’s Broadway debut but the debut of the seven autistic actors portraying the principal roles. Cannold says she hopes that after the show closes, the industry will be forever changed in casting people living with disabilities.
Hear what Cannold has to say to Camp Broadway’s Lauren Van Hemert about the show, the process, and how Camp Broadway informed who she is as a director.
How to Dance in Ohio is playing through February 11 at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway. For more information visit: https://howtodanceinohiomusical.com/.
Q & A with Sammi Cannold (Interview Highlights)
Camp Broadway
For folks who don’t know, the show is based on a documentary of the same name, which I also loved, which follows the work of a doctor who plans a dance for the folks under his care who are living with autism spectrum disorder. So how difficult was it to adapt a documentary? So how is it to take that documentary piece and then adapt it for the stage and keep the integrity of the original source material?
Sammi Cannold
I get asked that question a lot and it’s something I think a lot about because, because I didn’t think a lot about it, if that makes sense. And I think the reason why is because the writers really did the heavy lifting when it came to the adaptation. By the time I had come on board, there was a full draft of the show already on paper, and they had spent hours and hours and hours and hours and hours going through not just the documentary, but they were given all of the footage that was on the cutting room floor by the amazing filmmaker, Alexandra Shiva. And they used that to sort of inform their process. And a lot of the lines in the show come verbatim from either the doc or that cut footage. But what ended up happening over time is that the material evolved to be part documentary, part what was sort coming out of the writer’s brains and then part what our actors were bringing to the table. And so it was really a collaborative thing that was made over time. But I think adapting a doc if you’re going to be extremely faithful to the details of what happened and to the plot line, I think is very challenging. In our case, the writers decided to use the true story as a jumping-off, but not to be beholden to all the details that are depicted in the doc.
Camp Broadway
I would be remiss if we didn’t mention how Prince who had started working on this and developing this piece, what notes or vision had he had for the show that you and the creative team were able to use and glean from?
Sammi Cannold
So at the point that he very sadly passed, the riders had completed a draft of the show and they were about, they had had sort of an internal reading, but they hadn’t had anything beyond that. And so Hal never got to stage the show or design a set or anything of that sort. That said, he did have three copies of the script that he had written all his notes in the margin of, and those scripts were given to me. And then I used them to sort of craft and mold sort of the direction that I took, which was such a gift. And I also had recordings of his meetings with the writers and with the producers about the show. And so I used those recordings to also sort of inform the choices that I was making, but unfortunately, he never did actually stage or design anything on the show. And so it was sort of up to the team that came on board to kind of take his vision and run with it as much as we could.
Camp Broadway
At the beginning of the show, right at the start, the seven principals come out and they say if one person with autism, one person with autism, now seven, the seven young people in this live on the spectrum. And what’s so interesting to me is as I’ve done so many of these interviews and talked about inclusivity, a lot of the producers I’ve spoken to are hesitant to cast people living with disabilities either because they’re afraid that they won’t be able to make accommodations or they’re afraid of not getting it right, not getting it a hundred percent perfect. And so I want you to speak to that because I know you brought in accessibility coordinators and folks to help you make those accommodations. And so can you speak to that process and what kind of accommodations these performers needed?
Sammi Cannold
Yeah, absolutely. I think in our case it was about making sure that everybody, I think it’s exactly what you say, everybody had what they needed. I think that we as a team felt like it was our responsibility and our job to make sure that both the audition process and the rehearsal process were ready to meet our performers, autistic or otherwise, wherever with what they needed. And I think that in the audition process, a lot of that was just sort of breaking down different parts of how to make it as human as possible. So for example, some audition rooms that you walk into, you just automatically are supposed to start doing your material, and there’s not sort of any introduction or conversation or anything of the sort. So what we really wanted was an actor comes in the room and we say, hello, here are the names of everybody at the table. Here’s how this audition process is going to work. We walk them through it. And I think to people who aren’t in the theater, that’s a little bit like, well, duh, why wouldn’t you say hello? And I think to people who are in the theater sometimes that’s like, oh my gosh, you have to fit so many people in one day. How do you have time to do that in the audition process? And I think it was really just about saying, our priorities are where our priorities are, and so we’re going to prioritize saying hi. And then that’s just one example of many, many, many different things that we did to sort of adjust the process. And I think that one of my big takeaways is of course the impetus for adjusting the process was that we had autistic actors in the room and were going to have autistic audience members as well. But ultimately, a lot of what we learned from making the process more accessible is that we should really just be doing this always. It is really just about asking what people need and then figuring out how to make sure everybody can do their best work. And that’s something that I will carry with me into any other process I do regardless of who’s in the company.
Camp Broadway
The show is sadly closing, but I feel like there’s been so many conversations and narratives around the show that I’m hoping it changes the industry. Do you think we will, not just with this show, but even with performers like Ali Stroker who won her Tony Award, even with that kind of representation that we’re going to start seeing a shift on Broadway as to the kinds of stories we’re seeing in the folks who get to tell those stories?
Sammi Cannold
Absolutely. I mean, I think to me, the show’s closing is first and foremost related to the financial state of Broadway right now. And the fact that of the five new musicals that opened in the fall, only one will still have survived a week from now, and that’s back to the future, which has its own built-in audience. So I think that to me, what’s happening with these shows, and it’s not just ours, is that the cost of running them and the time it’s taking to build an audience for titles that people may not be that familiar with, isn’t aligning. And it’s really unfortunate and it’s really sad. That said, on the other side of it, I think that to me, the legacy and the purpose and what the show has accomplished stands on its own regardless of the length of its run. And that’s not my sort of patting myself on the back. It’s about a company of hundreds of people that made this happen. Because I think that to me, the victories are a few different things. One, I don’t think you’ll ever be able to have a musical on Broadway that has an autistic character and not cast an autistic actor. Again, we’ve proven that the talent is out there, and so that happen. Two, I think that it’s a plan to take these stories and have the platform of Broadway says, these stories are important, these stories need to be amplified. And I hope that it, for folks who might not be that familiar with the subject matter, I hope it encouraged them to go learn more, ask more questions. And I think it’s a step in a series of many steps, but I think there are many different ways in which the show, being on Broadway at all or existing at all is really important. And so I’m excited to see what comes next in terms of where else it could be performed. And I’m really excited to actually see productions one day directed by other people in schools and community theaters and everything. And that will be such a joy for me.
Camp Broadway
You’re a Camp Broadway alumna. So I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you about your Camp Broadway experience and how going to Camp Broadway informed your approach to theater or even you wanting to go into theater.
Sammi Cannold
My Camp Broadway experience was a spectacular, and B, so much of the reason I do what I do, I think I went like seven summers, six summers maybe. I don’t know the number, but I do know I got the gypsy robe, so there’s that now legacy robe, but at the time it was called the Gypsy Rope, but it was so formative. I think it’s so funny to me that the New York program, at least at the time, and I think maybe it still is, it’s only a week, and yet that week was the seminal week of my year. I was like everything built up to that week. And I think it’s both what I was learning as a camper in the studio, the practical skills, the choreography and everything, which obviously I don’t use as a dancer today, but I use my understanding of them as a director. But it was also the pre-professional exposure of meeting people from all corners of the industry going to the show on the Wednesdays of that week and talking to the cast. And I also, I mean, I remember things like we would meet with makeup designers, and I remember meeting many directors through the program, and I think that it really gave me, and I know for several other alums, a sense that you don’t have to be an actor to be involved in theater. There’s so much more you can be, but for those of us who do not have the talent, there are other ways to be involved. So I was really excited about that. And yeah, I loved it a lot. And I also, in addition to camp, I did the parade and I did Carnegie Hall.
Camp Broadway
What advice would you have for those kids who maybe feel othered or who just don’t fit into the box, what advice would you have for them as they move forward in pursuing their dreams, either in the theater or not?
Sammi Cannold
I would say I do as much as you can in the theater. And what I mean by that is try as many different parts of the theater that are exciting to you. I think that once you reach maybe like 13, 14, opportunities start popping to be on crew or help with the advertising of the show in your school or wherever it may be. And I think that to me, a sort of well-rounded theater education where you understand all the moving parts and not just what it’s like to be an actor can lead to so many career paths in the theater. Because I think a lot of people when they’re growing up don’t know that there are all these other peoples in arts. I think they know that there are actors, they see the actors on stage and they know that part, but they don’t really see much beyond that. And I think that for me, camp Broadway was a huge part of the reason that I understood that there were all these people off stage doing all these different things, and that was more where I belong. But I think to me, so much of theater is about passion and love. And so if you love it, do it. And if you don’t love it, don’t do it. A lot of, I think that working in the theater is a lot harder than enjoying it as a consumer. And so you really have to love it to keep working in it, because working in it is very hard and not very lucrative.
