Backstage Spotlight: Disney and Pixar’s Finding Nemo

Meet Director, Eric Quang Gelb, and get your tickets for this family-friendly show running through May 10th!

What inspired you to become a theater maker and director?

As a young person, seeing magic onstage and understanding suspension of disbelief. Any illusionist will tell you it’s about the journey of the illusion, not stumping the audience. I’ll let you in on a theatre secret: in Wicked, Elphaba summons the broomstick she used to barricade the door to demonstrate to Glinda that she possesses powers. It’s a crucial plot point – but in reality, the illusion is so simple. The broom is on a stick, sticking out of a trap door in the stage. As a kid, I remember sitting there knowing exactly how it worked, but marvelling at it for the effort, context, presentation, acting, and hardware. I was like, “now THIS is make-believe”. 

What kind of education prepared you for this career?

I love this question! Uniquely, I didn’t start as an actor or a singer. I enjoyed performing in high school for fun, but it was always a means to get behind the table.  I’m a proud graduate of New York University, where I received my Bachelor of Science from the Program in Educational Theatre. We’re one of seven programs in the country that offer a bachelor’s degree specifically in the intersection of theatre and young people/education. 

What school subjects that our students may be studying do you use every day?

I use history a lot. Whether I‘m striving for historical accuracy or purposefully standing in stark contrast to it, knowing who or where to source that information from is crucial. Also, historical cartoons: those clearly interpretive, larger than life pieces of art that can take on dual meaning depending on how you view it.  They’re great models for what we’re doing onstage.  

What is your favorite part about being a theatre director?

The ability to impact the quality of the work. I always tell companies that we are someone’s birthday gift, maybe the big family outing of the month, even the first part of a child’s afternoon out with grandma and grandpa. Those are important, core memories. So getting to ensure that our part in it is thoughtful, fierce and excellent – I love that responsibility. 

What about the story of Finding Nemo do you connect with?

Not surprisingly, the father and son theme! My dad is a psychologist with every degree in the book—he’s an academic, intelligent, Jeopardy playing, book reading person. As a kid, I was creative and entrepreneurial (fully starting businesses out of our basement) with huge aspirations. I was counting the days until I could graduate and move to New York. I tell people I don’t know how my parents knew what to do with me or be able to really tell if I could do all the things I was asking to do. So in “Go With The Flow”, when Marlin asks “But what if they’re not ready? I mean, how do you know?” and Crush sings “well, you never really know / But if they’re ever gonna grow / You gotta let ’em go, you know?”, I always think of him. 

Can you tell us about something in Finding Nemo that you’re especially excited for our audiences to see?

I’m especially excited for audiences to experience our show in this space with this custom built design.  Every seat is a great one – and the puppets, color and whimsy will feel so close.  When I go to show, while it’s cute to see the kids get on their tippy toes in their seats to get a better look at the magic onstage, I think we were really thoughtful on how to play to every side of the theatre to all heights. We wanted to maintain the excitement of the audience, given their age, throughout all sixty minutes. It impacted how we thought about scale and proportion of the staging.

What is one thing you hope the audience feels or learns when they watch Finding Nemo?

Perspective. It’s a great “modeling” story. By following the father, not the child, I’m hopeful – even in a very elementary way – it can start conversations “for the car ride home” to introduce the concept to young folks of how their guardian might feel sometimes. These are themes they may never have considered or fully understood before.

What are three words you would use to describe this production?

Magical.