RW
Do you think there are still things yet to be learned from that particular company? Do you think it was disbanded too soon?

AD
I think its still here, I mean a lot of the senior folks are again still here or are directing elsewhere. Look at Glen Keane. There’s tremendous legacy to be had from a lot of these guys and I think we’re going to be able to reap the benefits of it.

RW
What does a good producer learn from a good director?

AD
I think a lot of the things that I’ve learned from the directors I’ve had a chance to work with here has to do with faith and process. It sometimes a process that just cannot be mandated. You can’t say “you need this done by here or this done by there.�? Sometimes things happen quicker and sometimes things happen slower, and to have a sense of when process is happening and it’s being productive even if the timetable needs adjusting. So the timetable is my job, and I can keep honing that and working with my staff to make sure that we’re supporting their process whatever that emerges to be, and just staying that flexible. The theatre timeline is six weeks – if you’re lucky. Our timeline is quite different, and that was something that took me a bit of time to learn, just how …oh this is going actually quicker than we thought, so let’s move this part ahead or put a pin in that and let that just sit for a minute and put our attention over here. Keeping all the plates in the air and knowing that no schedule is sacrosanct and everything is up for grabs. And allowing people time to think. I think we sometimes overbook our creative folks and don’t allow them to just bake on an idea, and have a response that comes from some thought. So on almost every picture that I’ve done we’ve had retreats where – for example on HERCULES with Gerald Scarfe and the animation team we were able to go on retreat and really just get away from the day to day pressures and schedules and phones and just draw for a few days. On this show we were able to go on story retreats where we got out of the building and were able to hone in on what some of our key issues were on the story. That part, right there, I think is worth so much and it’s so helpful for everybody. You get so busy keeping 800 people going, it’s just a lot of people to keep feeding information to. (sic)

RW
Do you ever miss directing, stage directing?

AD
I don’t miss the schedule. That’s the hardest part of the theatre lifestyle. You really are separate from everybody else because of the schedule. And it’s the fun of it, too, because you really are part of a cadre and a merry band, and it’s like a minstrel touring in medieval England or something (she laughs). The pros of that were great in my twenties, but the cons of that caught up with me when I had a family. So I really like the fact that I don’t travel as much and that I have my evenings at home. But you’re right in that the community here is so similar that in a way I don’t miss it. And I’ve stayed in touch with a lot of my friends.

RW
If you look back at your career trajectory through professional theatre and where you’ve worked here as a producer, you truly have been the producer most involved with productions that have pushed more boundaries. HOME ON THE RANGE is also a boundary pushing film in many ways. Again, it’s design and layout do things that are braver than other pictures of late – at least I see it that way. It’s a film that uses music and a sort of musical structure but in a very different way than other animated musicals. What’s the thread – or am I grasping at straws? There’s something here that has either drawn you or maybe even required you to be a part of it. No? I can’t just be a matter of chance that you’ve ended up producing these films.

AD
I do love the musicals, and as I said I came from that background, especially in New York. But this I wouldn’t say is the traditional musical structure picture, and that’s been really interesting for me – how to work on a film that has songs but that is not a traditional musical structure. Only one character sings in the whole movie, the rest are all voice-over songs. And for Alan Menken, too. This is the first time he was writing in this style. And it’s sort of a film with music, if you will. More of a film musical than a stage musical.