Crystal Keith is a 2008/2009 Ovation Award Nominee for Acting Ensemble for her work in MODEL BEHAVIOR, i.e. THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE at 24th Street Theatre.
If you’d like to add a congratulatory message for Crystal (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 Crystal the following questions:
What was the moment that first inspired you to pursue working in the theatre?
When I was 8, my parents took me to see my first play. It was a production of The Miracle Worker. The moment the house lights dimmed, I felt a deep responsibility - to the actors on stage and to everyone else in the audience. This wasn’t like tv. We were all creating this reality together. The actors by pretending it was real. The audience by pretending to believe them. It was all so fragile. A single sneeze could destroy it. It felt like holding a live bird in my hand and I loved it. I wanted in.
What do you feel made the production you were nominated for particularly successful, either overall or for you specifically?
I’ve been fortunate enough to be nominated for more than one - each of which succeeded because they posed awkward questions wrapped up in a go-down-easy confection. But Model Behavior is the show to which I made the most significant contribution and its success is owed not just to Richard Alger’s searingly funny, concise text and a story by R.L Stevenson in which readers recognize themselves. It is owed to the Theatre Movement Bazaar Company and our director Tina Kronis. She thinks of her cast as collaborators from day one, so nobody coasts. Everybody starts with their A game. Then she pushes and prods and sweetly asks the impossible. And you do it because she believes you can.
What project or projects are you currently working on?
I’m providing live music for holiday parties for the moment. Taking a breath. Making plans.
What do you love most about theatre in Los Angeles?
That there’s so much of it! Whatever you’re into and whatever you can afford there’s always a play for you. We spend so much time in our cars. We desperately need an interactive art form that brings us together in the same physical space. We need to feel that our presence matters - that the show is incrementally different because of what we laugh at and what makes us go quiet. So many of us are transplants who never really think of this city as our home. Theater makes us instant citizens.
What’s your dream project?
An Americana rock opera about California’s sordid history.
Biography: A native of Los Angeles and the only daughter of a husband and wife gospel music team, Crystal joined the family business at four. At five, she branched out into theater, stepping into the role of Mary just days before the school Christmas pageant when the original actress was stricken with stage fright. Since then, she’s been struggling to fuse her music and theater passions into one grand vision. She graduated London’s Central School of Speech and Drama and returned home with the questionable intent of making live theater in her hometown. Since then she has appeared in countless world premieres, comedy sketches and deconstructed classics. She also joined local power pop rockers Throttle Back Sparky, finding a new use for her gospel vocal training. Three albums later, she picked up a guitar, wrote some songs and formed The Honeysuckle Jones Revival with Sparky guitarist Dave Holcomb. She works as a session singer, live jazz vocalist, artist’s model and theater/music teacher. A recent transplant to LA’s vibrant downtown area, Crystal can’t wait to see these worlds begin to collide. She is a passionate advocate of cultural expression as a means to world peace.
For a full list of Ovation nominees, or for information about the Ovation Awards Ceremony on January 11th, click here!
