She's a self-described taskmaster with an exacting eye for detail and a demand for nothing short of perfection.
She's also a warm, genuine, enthusiastic soul who's clearly charmed and delighted by the opportunity she's been given: to choreograph Royal City Musical Theatre's production of My Fair Lady.
Longtime New Westminsterite Suzanne Ouellette is thrilled to be working on the classic Lerner and Loewe musical, which runs April 9 through 26 at Massey Theatre.
"I'm really enjoying getting a chance to finally choreograph Royal City Musical Theatre," she says with a smile, chatting over coffee about her work as choreographer.
Ouellette's resumé is a long and impressive one that includes a performance career both as a dancer with Stuttgart Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet and as a musical theatre performer. She served as rehearsal director and ballet mistress of Ballet B.C. for five seasons and also spent many years running the professional ballet and musical theatre programs at the Richmond Academy of Dance.
To be home in New Westminster, working on a Royal City production at the Massey, pleases her to no end. She's worked with RCMT before - she served as an artistic associate on Annie and Oklahoma - but to take charge of the choreography of the whole production is something she's thrilled about.
The special challenge of musical theatre, she notes, is to ensure that the choreography doesn't just look pretty but that it actually helps to move the story along.
Added to that, of course, in a community theatre production a choreographer is faced with a huge range of ability levels - from highly trained, highly experienced dancers to those who've barely danced a step in their lives.
Ensuring that each and every one of the 30-plus cast members understands not just how to move but how important they are to the production at every step is a challenge that she relishes.
"I think that's really important, making everybody feel that every single moment they are on stage is really important to the story," she says.
She loves that My Fair Lady offers an opportunity for such diverse kinds of movement - from the joyous dances of the Cockney folks on the street to the formal Viennese waltz in the high-class ballroom.
"My challenge was the Viennese waltz," she admits. "That's still a challenge."
But, she says, she's been able to realize her vision of having the dance and the storyline intertwine - and she's impressed by what the dancers have been able to achieve.
"I'm pretty proud of the way it looks with them," she says, though she adds with a grin that she's not entirely easy on her cast members.
"I'm a bit of a taskmaster. I definitely ride them."
Ouellette can't say enough about the performers she's working with - starting with John Payne, who's taking to the stage as Alfred P. Doolittle, father of Eliza, Cockney flower seller-turned-fine-lady of the title.
"He said to me, 'Make me dance,'" she says with a smile - and she's pleased that two of his big numbers, A Little Bit of Luck and Get Me To The Church on Time, are indeed full of memorable movement.
And, of course, there's the duo at the heart of the story: Tracey Neff as Eliza and Warren Kimmel as Henry Higgins, the professor who decides that he can take on the challenge of turning the flower girl into a lady.
Ouellette already knew Neff, as she served as a singing teacher at the Richmond Academy of Dance.
"She has the most glorious voice," says Ouellette. "This is the role of a lifetime for her."
She's perfectly paired, Ouellette says, with Kimmel.
"Warren is born to play this part," she says simply. "He is a Higgins. Warren is to die for."
In fact, she could go on - there's the comedic presence of Michael Wild as Col. Pickering, the vocal prowess of Thomas Lamont as Freddy ("what a find!," she says of the young NWSS grad), and the "gorgeous, gorgeous dancers" who are part of the ensemble. In their ranks, incidentally, are two of Ouellette's own past students - New West's own Claire Wardle, and Chelsey Yamasaki of Richmond.
Ouellette is also impressed by the way Royal City Musical Theatre operates, giving young and up-and-coming types a chance to be mentored by professionals on both the performing and artistic side.
"Royal City, the whole team and the whole way they've got it going on, it's quite something," she says. "I'm so impressed with working for this organization."
Ouellette notes that the production team - which includes artistic director Valerie Easton, director Max Reimer, musical director James Bryson and associate director Cory Haas - is first-rate.
Add in the extravagant sets and costumes, plus the full live orchestra, all within the incomparable surroundings of the Massey Theatre, and you've got a night at the theatre that promises to be nothing short of absolutely stunning.
"I hope everybody makes it out," Ouellette says. "It's a fun show, a great cast. I'm hoping it works as well as I see it in my head."
My Fair Lady runs April 9 to 26 at the Massey Theatre, with official opening night on Saturday, April 11. For tickets, see www.ticketsnw.ca. For more, see www.royalcitymusicaltheatre.com.
