Kudzu combined the wit of cartoonist Doug Marlette and the infectious music of the Red Clay Ramblers in a coming of age story set in the American South. Humor was the hallmark of the choreography; my challenge was to bring to life this quirky world where barbeque sauce and the rapacious kudzu vine figure prominently in the plot line. The Red Clay Ramblers, best known for Broadway's Fool Moon, infused the score with their special blend of old-time mountain music, country, rock, Dixieland and gospel. Working with a comic strip as inspiration posed a special challenge: I had to find the emblematic gestures or compelling compositions that could speak with the same iconic power as Marlette's brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoons. At the same time, the piece needed to be theatrical—to move—with three-dimensional characters compelling the story forward through dynamic and inventive musical staging.

A videotape of Kudzu: A Southern Musical can be viewed at the Lincoln Center Library of Performing Arts in New York City. To make a viewing appointment, call the Theater on Film and Tape Archive at 212-870-1642.