Director/Choreographer

Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

Big River at McLeod Summer Playhouse

As a Director & Choreographer

My product: I am a storyteller and an entertainer. Everything I do as a director and choreographer is an attempt to tell the story more effectively, to have the greatest impact on the audience. To carry them away to another world where they can escape their current life dramas. To be a fly on the wall in a different realm, connecting with honest characters, living real moments. To be touched, inspired, uplifted, and entertained. Every choice an actor/character makes, every bit of staging, and every piece of choreography, is to serve that purpose...to better tell that story.

Working with the cast: As a professional actor, singer, and dancer, I have a solid understanding of how these three elements work in harmony to achieve the desired product. I believe in creating a safe environment where the cast feels free to take risks and explore. This freedom allows them to find vulnerable moments of discovery, all supported by effective coaching and direction. Having expertise and professional experience applying this process helps in efficiently breaking down and communicating this complicated process.

Collaboration: As a director, I allow actors to think for themselves, asking key questions which lead to valuable discussions. I strive to always maintain a collaborative environment of trust and mutual respect with my cast and colleagues in which all designers and members of the creative team feel free to contribute and create.

WE ARE THE BOYS!

"WHOEVER WANTS TO JOIN HAS GOT TO TAKE THIS OATH AND SIGN HIS NAME IN BLOOD"

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More about Cody

The summer of 2015, Cody directed and choreographed Big River and Legally Blonde for the McLeod Summer Playhouse, a professional summer-stock theatre in Southern Illinois. In the fall of 2015 he choreographed Southern Illinois University’s main-stage production of The Addams Family.

In 2016, Cody directed and choreographed Catch Me If You Can at Interlochen Center for the Arts and returned to direct and choreograph their main stage production of Evita in 2017. The same year, at Weber State University, Cody directed and choreographed a production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and he directed and choreographed the World Student Premiere of We Foxes by Ryan Scott Oliver, in a season of entirely new works.

In 2018, Cody choreographed West Side Story (COLUMN nominee for “Best Choreography of a Musical”) and directed The Lion King, Jr., both at Artisan Center Theater. Most recently, in 2019, he directed and choreographed Newsies at ACT.

Director/Choreographer

Actor

cody WALKER

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Director & Choreographer

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