A Conversation with Kirsten Childs

Raised by parents who encouraged their children to “follow their dreams,” Kirsten Child’s dreams took her from a middleclass childhood in Los Angeles to UC Berkeley as a French major and then to New York to be a dancer.  The cross-country move was inspired by Ntozake Shange, a unique performance artist best known for blending poetry, dance and theatre in For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.  According to Kirsten, “I was determined to dance with her so I came to New York and I did!  I lived in total poverty, but also total happiness.”

In our phone interview last month, I asked Kirsten how her family happened to produce not one, but two children with distinguished careers in the arts.  [Her brother is Billy Childs, the Grammy award-winning jazz pianist, composer and arranger.]

You know, I don’t know.  I think it was our parents.  They were teachers who came from North Carolina in the 60’s when there was a huge exodus of Black people from the South to places where there were lots of teaching and government jobs.  They were coming out of a world where who you were was defined by the color of your skin to a place they thought would be better for their kids.  We were encouraged to follow our dreams, in a very clear way.

How did you connect with musical theatre growing up in L.A.?

Television was what we paid attention to.  My parents would sit me and my brother and sister down in front of the television to watch all the Broadway shows that were aired back then.  And I was always dancing so I loved watching dance in movie musicals. 

That is true! I did not, however, do the audition that is in the show.  I didn’t know who anybody was and had no reason to be nervous so I just had a great time.  I think he delighted in the fact that I had a passion for what I was doing.  I was hired for a tour of “Chicago” that culminated in my playing Velma to Chita Rivera’s Roxie.

I guess the short answer is that the 80’s was an incredibly devastating time when I lost practically every friend I had in the dance world to AIDS. I did one last performance in an all-Black production of “Boys from Syracuse.”  The idea was to set it during the Harlem Renaissance, but the Rodgers’ estate wasn’t interested so there we were in our togas feeling ridiculous.  What struck me was here are all these incredible African-American actors with no proper work.  I thought, “Well, I could complain about it— or I could start writing.”

Since Bubbly Black Girl… was first done by you as a performance piece, can we assume that it’s autobiographical?

I would say that it’s based loosely on events from my life, but to shape it into a story you have to play with the truth of things to make it work dramatically.  It does follow the inner life track that I have—though people close to me tell me I’m sometimes an untrustworthy narrator!   

Its progression is a development model as it went from Musical Theatre Works to the NAMT Festival and the O’Neill in 1998 and on to Playwrights’ Horizons in 2000, picking up every major cash award along the way for you—the Richard Rodgers, the Jonathan Larson, the Kleban Award— 

That one was particularly exciting because I was a dancer and the first musical I ever saw that was not on TV was “A Chorus Line.”  And it was more money than I’d ever seen, frankly, which afforded me time to write.    

The only misstep was when the expected Broadway transfer not happening. 

Break my heart!  There was so much excitement about it.  I heard they did market surveys and couldn’t figure out the market for it, which I don’t understand.  Even at Dixon Place when I was performing the piece myself, there were so many people who related to it who were neither Black nor a girl.  The first person who came up to me and said, “I’m the Bubbly Black Girl!” was an Asian man!  I just don’t know. The bottom line is: it got done, people liked it and now it gets done in other places.  It always makes a connection with people.

Now that there’s finally going to be an original cast album, perhaps even more interest will be generated.

Yes, I am thrilled.  What really delighted me was that when I asked the original cast to come back to do it, they jumped in as if the show was going on today.  They were all so lovely and fun to work with on the album.  I’ve heard it and it sounds “pretty gosh darn good!”  

Has your involvement with TDF’s “Open Doors” [a program that puts groups of students from New York City’s public high schools together with theatre mentors for a year of theatergoing] given you hope that the Broadway audience could become more diverse?

Yes, the program is extraordinary.  The kids lap it up—and I learn so much from them.  I will always love Wendy Wasserstein for initiating it because what she did has made a ripple that can change the fabric of our society.  She got kids who thought theatre is only for privileged people—and, frankly, privileged White people—who’ve now found themselves part of that audience.  I think that’s wonderful. She planted a seed that flowers and grows. 

One last question-- how did you come up with the title?

It seemed to be the perfect thing to say because it was all about shedding— stopping hiding, stopping trying to be other people.  My nephew, who was about three years old at the time, suggested  “Auntie Kirsten’s Rock & Roll,” but I think I chose the better one.

 --Suzanne Bixby

Photo: Max Ruby