Christine Lakin is a 2008/2009 Ovation Nominee in the Choreographer category for her work in Alice in One Hit Wonderland 2: Through the Looking Glass at the Troubadour Theater Company. She was previously nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her work in The Break Up Notebook: The Lesbian Musical, and for her choreography in Zanna, Don’t!

If you’d like to add a congratulatory message for Christine (or any other Nominee or Nominated Company), to the Ovation Awards commemorative poster (distributed to all nominees and all attendees at the Ceremony), click here!

As an Ovation Award Nominee, LA Stage asked Christine the following questions:

What was the moment that first inspired you to pursue working in the theatre?

As a child I was always influenced by movies, particularly musicals.  I watched everything from the Fred Astaire classics to Annie and Fame.  I could quote Grease beginning to end- with movement- and often did, much the chagrin of my parents and the fireplace “stage” in our living room.  I think I was 5 when I saw my very first show.  It was a community production of Annie in none other than an old barn, which had been converted to a theater.  I’m almost positive you could also buy feed at the consession stand.  Seeing the stories and music brought alive like that just blew my mind.  Once my family moved to Atlanta, my parents got season tickets to the Fabulous Fox Theater where I religiously saw every bus and truck show that came to town.  Armed with my Kit-Kat, binoculars and booster seat, I knew I wanted to be on that stage.  I know it sounds cliche but it’s true.  The binoculars particularly came in handy during a rather randy production of Hair, after which, I knew I simply had to be a part of whatever happening up there someday.  Joining the Atlanta Workshop Players at the ripe old age of 7 gave me my first taste of performing and from then on I was hooked.  The lights, the dance, the costumes… the sweat, the quick changes, the laughter and applause… how could you not love it?  Theater is and will always be my first love.  I began choreographing after college, which really started out of necessity in Equity waiver theater for a dance captain.  Being that I had a dance background, I found myself captaining, assisting, lending choreography, and ultimately choreographing, which has been an extremely rewarding process for me.  It uses a completely different side of my artistic brain and I find is more akin to directing, being that I’m telling a story with movement.  I also love working closely with a director, understanding his or her vision and how I can facilitate that.  I particularly love teaching actors to dance and find a great deal of satisfaction when an actor comes up to me at the beginning of production, eyes wide with fear, gripping their script, and defiantly says “I don’t dance”.   Always makes me giggle inside as I come from the school of “anyone can dance”.  If you can count, you can dance.  And if you can’t count… well then you should be on The Hills.  The point is, it’s my job to figure out how to tell the story in the most entertaining way, with movement that looks best on the bodies I have and actors who feel confident.  So much of it is about confidence.  Don’t get me wrong, they all end up paying in sweat, but regardless of technical skill, if the audience is entertained by the story, we’ve accomplished the goal.

What do you feel made the production you were nominated for particularly successful, either overall or for you specifically?

As U2 Like it was easily inspired for me because I am a huge U2 fan.  I love the driving beats of songs like “Vertigo” and passionate lyrical qualities of “With or Without You” so the movement came really easy to me.  The story of As You Like It is also fun because of the love triangles, unrequited love, angst, etc.  I had people chasing each other around the stage, jumping on backs, using a mini trampoline, crawling on the floor…  I have to say one of the luckiest things about choreographing for the Troubadour Company is that there are no rules.  The show is half Shakespeare, part musical, a pinch of clowning and a dash of improv… which really winds up being more like comedia del arte than anything, if you were to try to define what we do.  In addition, you have performers who are also well versed in clowning, trampoline, acrobatics, tricks, etc. so that gives me a lot to play with artistically.  Matt Walker also gives me a lot of room to play and find what works.  I think I pushed them a bit in the dance arena during U2.  Small, sharp, clean movement is always preferred to me over a grandiose sloppy number, especially in smaller spaces, which as we know in LA Theater tends to the be norm more often than not.  Castmembers always tell me my choreography is fun, which I always appreciate hearing and ultimately I think if the actor has fun performing night after night, that pays off in a big way in the performance quality.  For me, fun and engaging tells the story more than technically perfect and passionless.

What project or projects are you currently working on?

I just finished my first experience assistant choreographing on a Disney film with Mary Ann Kellogg called You Again, which was an amazing experience.  Again, small spaces and actors with varying degrees of dance backgrounds and confidence levels, so my experience in theater prepared me really well for this arena.  They all did an amazing job and teaching Sigorney Weaver sexy dance club moves was pretty much the coolest thing I’ve the opportunity to do.  My other musical Big closed this past summer for West Coast Ensemble, which was a wonderfully creative process with Richard Israel and a fabulous experience working with kids and adults alike.  Now I’m rehearsing for the Troubadour’s Christmas show, Frosty the Snow Manilow, gearing up for a workshop of Heathers, The Musical, and working on my webseries Lovin’ Lakin, which I write, produce and star in, debuting in 2010.

What do you love most about theatre in Los Angeles?

I love the intimacy of Los Angeles theater.  I love finding a gemstone in play or a musical and sharing the experience with 98 other patrons, where you almost feel as if the show is only for you.  I love the community of LA Theater- I don’t have an exclusive theater agent and certainly don’t have choreography representation (seriously people, call me!) but I have had some of the best, most fufilling experiences of my career in Los Angeles theater.  Most of my theater jobs have been because I’ve been asked to audition through a friend or someone who’s seen me do another show…  It’s an amazing group of collaborative, creative people that keeps growing for me.  Because it’s harder to actually make a living doing only theater in Los Angeles, (sadly) everyone who is doing has such a love for it.  LA Theater reminded me again why I desired to be an actor when I was 7 years old watching those shows at the Fox Theater.  That’s an invaluable feeling, especially in a town of highs and lows like Hollywood.

What’s your dream project?

Dream project?!  Well, aside from the dream to continue stumbling into projects I love… I would secretly love to choreograph something from the Rockabilly era.  The sounds of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis always make me dance.  I think there’s something really interesting about that time in American culture- when music was changing, youth culture was emerging, and people were really moved by music.  Music was changing the way young people viewed the world.  To me, there’s something very sexy and subversive and exciting about that.  Plus, a live rockabilly band on stage?  That’s a party I want to buy a ticket to.  On a completely different note, I would also like to choreograph something with tap.  I tapped for years and it is so rarely used in shows these days but it is one of my favorite kinds of dance.

Biography: Christine Lakin got her start choreographing by skeleton crewing for Emmy-nominated Mary Ann Kellogg in Showtime’s Reefer Madness. She went on to lend additional choreography to The Breakup Notebook (Garland award) as well as choreographing the west coast premiere of Zanna Don’t (Ovation, LADCC noms). Ms. Lakin is a proud member of The Troubadour Theater Company and was nominated for an LADCC award for As U2 Like It. Other work includes, Big! The Musical, A Charlie James Brown Christmas, Alice 2 and It’s A Stevie Wonderful Life. Most recently, Ms. Lakin assistant choreographed the Disney film, You Again starring Kristen Bell, Jaime Lee Curtis and Sigorney Weaver.

In her acting life, she is best known for her role of “Al” Lambert on the popular ABC sit-com Step By Step. TV/Film: Valentine, Rita Rocks, Bones, CSI, Georgia Rule, The Game Plan, The Hottie and The Nottie, Race to Witch Mountain.  Theater: Heathers, The Musical (workshops), Dog Sees God (LA Weekly Award), The Breakup Notebook (Ovation nom), Alice in One Hit Wonderland, Happy Days, Ann E. Wrecksick, Sneaux. Next year she can be seen in You Again and Garry Marshall’s Valentine’s Day. Christine also writes, produces and stars in her own webseries, Lovin’ Lakin, a comedy she sold to Andy Fickman’s Oops Doughnuts productions, slated for release in 2010. www.christine-lakin.com

For a full list of Ovation nominees, or for information about the Ovation Awards Ceremony on January 11th, click here!