Today we’d like to introduce you to Cate Caplin.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born in Charlottesville Virginia, the daughter of Tax Attorney, Mortimer Caplin and Artist/Writer Ruth Sacks Caplin. My father was a Law Professor at the University of Virginia and among his many students over the years were the Kennedy brothers. When John Kennedy became President, he asked my father to be Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service and our family moved to Washington DC.
Art, music, and dance have always been a huge part of our family life together and my parents loved to share their passion and appreciation for creative arts by taking us to concerts, art exhibits, theatre productions, and live dance performances, all part of the fabric of our ongoing development. Early on I was bit by the bug and fell in love with dance. Thanks to piano and dance lessons and later studies at performing arts camps and art academies locally and abroad, I was off and running!
My dream was to dance with a professional dance company. While I was still in grade school, I was training at the Washington School of Ballet performing first in their productions of Nutcracker, then going to dance camps in the summer, and by the time I reached high school studying abroad at the Royal Academy in London. When I returned, I continued my studies and danced with the Metropolitan Ballet company. The training was always a priority so I spent my junior and senior years at Sidwell with all my academic classes pushed to the morning and studying in a variety of dance styles every afternoon off campus.
Come the final semester of high school, I only had one class left to graduate that met once a week. I started living in New York City with my Grandmother up by Columbia University, 116th and Riverside Drive and I continued my dance training with many wonderful teachers while taking Amtrak back and forth to DC to complete my studies at Sidwell Friends.
I was accepted into all four colleges I applied to, NYU, Columbia, Indiana, and Cincinnati University, all of which had strong dance departments or access to high-level classes in the area – I ended up deferring to all four of them when I auditioned and got into North Carolina Dance Theatre, a classical and contemporary dance company based out of Winston Salem. I learned a lot continuing my studies at the North Carolina School of the Arts in between rehearsals and our touring schedule. After that season, I got into Ballet West, another reputable dance company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was inspired and challenged by the choreography we were learning and the ongoing training, performing, and touring life as a new professional dancer but… my DREAM of what I thought the life of a professional ballet dancer entailed and the reality of taping blistered toes and soaking aching muscles in between 6-8 hours a day in pointe shoes was hard on the feet and hard on the spirit… I wanted more!
It was now back to New York where I upped my training game to include commercial workshops, and voice and acting classes at HB Studio and the Strasberg Institute – The goal now became Broadway! I auditioned for anything and everything I could – I don’t know how I did it… I guess it was youth’s “blind faith in the possibilities” but amidst the sea of eager hopefuls competing for the same opportunities, I got cast in the company of The American Dance Machine that was completing its run on Bway and then going on tour. I started training at their school at the Harkness House, learning choreography, and now combining acting and singing while dancing. Lee Theodore was the Artistic Director of the company and it opened up a whole new awareness of integrating all the ingredients required to deliver fully in the musical theatre arena. Through working with the company, I got my Actor’s Equity Union card, we toured Japan, danced at the White House for Jimmy Carter, did special events, and graced stages regionally and on television with many luminary guest artists from Broadway and film. It was a wonderful awakening to an enhanced dimension of performance work and I was constantly learning and growing from all the artists we interacted with.
In between Dance Machine gigs and tours on the schedule, as always my training continued and I managed to book a season of summer stock shows, some commercial work, industrial trade shows, and some film gigs. Each and every experience came with its lessons, creative personalities, and artistic challenges. Lee introduced me to Legendary Adagio Dancer, Francois Szony whose unique style of partnering was featured on television on the Ed Sullivan show, on film, and on stages worldwide from Caesars Palace and the Palladium to Radio City Music Hall.
I was 19 at the time and working with an artistic master and mentor like Francois gave me a specialty skill and unique awareness of theatrical styling that influenced all of the work I did from that point forward in my career. Lee featured us in a television special on PBS called “From Ballroom to Broadway and Back with the American Dance Machine” and again in a stage production at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC called “Steps in Time”. Francois introduced me to the world of competitive ballroom dancing and we won Le Classique du Quebec our very first-time time out! We continued performing together as Guest Artists at special events, at the American Dance Festival, and at the world famous Roseland in NYC where Francois’s shoes were in a glass case along side other shoes from legendary dancers in history who had performed there….
Thanks to Lee, (who was the original “Anybodys” in West Side Story and was assisting Jerome Robbins in casting the revival of the show that was completing its run on Broadway and preparing for an international tour) I was invited to audition. I booked the job as a “Swing” covering all the Jet and Shark girls. Jerome Robbins directed, Leonard Bernstein conducted and needless to say, it was an absolute highlight of my career to be involved in my all-time favorite show with the original creators themselves. We did a 7-month international tour performing at the Paris Opera House and traveling all through Italy performing in outdoor amphitheaters, with a full orchestra. It was an amazing adventure that I never wanted to end…..
Meanwhile, back in New York winters were tough for me and my film producer brother Lee invited me to come out to visit him in California. At first, I didn’t know what to make of Los Angeles. Everything seemed so spread out compared to New York and I had no sense of where I was. I was swimming every day at the time and when I finished my laps outside in the WARM October sunshine (!) I looked up at the beautiful blue sky and I was hooked. I tell people all the time, “it was ALL about the weather!” And it really is true. I flew back to New York, packed up my life there, and leaped. And I’m happily still here 30 + years later!
Creative life in LA flourished for me quickly. I became actively involved with Women in Theatre, a networking organization of like-minded theatre makers. I joined their board of directors and started writing, producing, and acting with a theatre company, hosting symposiums, and editing their in-house WIT Magazine. I started branching out into the Los Angeles theatre community which is surprisingly fertile and prolific.
I met a World Champion Ballroom Dancer (Tom Slater) who had broken up with his dance partner and was looking for someone to fulfill a television engagement he had booked, NBC’s “Symphony of Sports”, a celebration of sports that included a segment paralleling the physical art form of Figure Skating with Theatrical BallroomDancing. I jumped on board and didn’t look back. After that special, we stepped into the world of competitive ballroom dancing and became Champions in the Theatre Arts Cabaret Division which is the one division of competition that allows for any style of music, specialty costumes, lifts, tricks, props, and storytelling. It was the perfect culmination and artistic marriage of all the ingredients I had been studying up until that point in my dance and theatre journey. Tom and I went on to book a 22 city tour with Disney’s “Symphonic Fantasy” dancing a theatrical adagio to “A Whole New World” as Princess Jasmine and Aladdin. We opened at the Hollywood Bowl and ended up at New York’s Metropolitan Opera house – Talk about a thrill of a lifetime!
My theatre passion continued, I wrote, produced, directed, and choreographed work that went to the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, I was doing some work on a soap opera for a period of time, hosted my own radio program for a bit, and managed to book a few film jobs and commercials along the way. I continued my deep dive into all different kinds of theatre projects here in Los Angeles, working with a variety of theatre companies and independent productions, sometimes directing, sometimes choreographing, sometimes both, all the while rehearsing with my dance partner and doing gigs and competing selectively in and around my other creative projects.
Flash forward several decades and two more dance partners later (Murray Phillips and Gary Franco) I now had 34 Regional and International FirstPlace titles to my credit. Since then I’ve added teaching and coaching to my list of many creative jobs that I love to do and I’ve returned to my roots and training at Interlochen Center for the Arts joining their artistic staff for several summers as a Guest Director and Choreographer, teaching master classes in Musical Theatre, Jazz, Tap, Ballroom Basics, and Ballet.
Most recently I Executive Produced and Directed a feature film which I am in the process of editing while I rehearse a stage play that I am directing. I have now shifted gears and am more singularly focused on my directing work and have no more desire to perform on stage myself (although I’d never say never!) – I find I enjoy coaching and nurturing other artists in THEIR performance on stage and on film very much and the issues I face on the other side of production are just as demanding (sometimes frustrating) and equally challenging in different ways, but also richly satisfying and rewarding…
I don’t see myself ever “retiring” per se. There are always projects and people and ideas I have percolating and I seem to jump back and forth between creative mediums. I enjoy that freedom of options as they emerge. I continue my studies as a Directing Member of the Actors Studio, I still enjoy regular tap classes and am absolutely religious about my own personal workout regime daily!
During the pandemic, I lost one of my former dance partners Murray Phillips and two very special dance mentors in my life, dear Francois Szony who trained me way back at the beginning, and my beloved tap teacher for many years Bill Barlett. Both my parents have passed now as well and they truly are the ones who made everything possible. I carry them with me always and am forever grateful for my life, the many blessings, and the endless creative possibilities that continue to emerge thanks to their unconditional love and support…
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Cate Caplin has produced, directed, and choreographed over 200 productions and her work has been seen on television, in films, music videos, commercials, and in theatrical venues worldwide from the Paris Opera House to the Broadway Stage. She is a published writer, a theatre and dance educator, and a 34 times Regional and International Theatrical Ballroom Dance Champion. Cate wrote and directed her first feature film, Mating Dance which won an Accolade Award, Best Indie Feature at NYC’S 2021 Oniros Film Festival, and additional Awards of Merit from IndieFest 2022 for Feature Film, Script/Writer, and Direction. Cate has been the recipient of a Garland Award, a Women In Theatre Red Carpet Award, multiple LA Stage Alliance Ovation, Eddon, and Scenie Awards, and was honored with an Award of Excellence from the LA Film Commission for her work as a Writer, Director, Choreographer, and Producer. This last year she was invited to be listed in Who’s Who in America and most recently Executive Produced and Directed the feature film “The Unicorn Diaries” which is currently in post-production. Cate is an Associate Member of SDC and a Directing Member of the Actors Studio.
I think anyone who stays in this theatrical business needs to have an iron-strong constitution, an impenetrable tolerance for rejection and disappointment, and an unwavering love for and commitment to the work, the process, and the quality of the projects they get involved in – otherwise, why bother? Why put yourself through the level of effort and endurance required to do what we do?!
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