Celebrating Black History Month: Hailey Kilgore Honors 'Epitome of a Legend,' Camille A. Brown

In honor of Black History Month, Broadway.com asked actors, directors and playwrights to tell us about black theater-makers who inspired them. Stars jumped at the chance to honor those who came before them, and in the process, taught us about the fundamental contributions of black artists to the American theater. To read the other entries in this series, click here.

Hailey Kilgore made her Broadway debut as Ti Moune in the 2017 Tony-winning revival of Once On This Island, which earned her a Tony nomination. Upcoming, she will appear in the biopic Aretha as Carolyn Franklin, Aretha Franklin’s youngest sister. When asked which black theater artist inspired her, Kilgore said Camille A. Brown, the choreographer for Once On This Island. 

Brown made her Broadway debut as the choreographer for the 2012 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. She then choreographed Once On This Island in 2017, and was nominated for a Tony in 2019 for choreographing Choir Boy. Off-Broadway, she has choreographed seven shows, including The Public Theater’s groundbreaking all-black Much Ado About Nothing (2019) and 2019 revival of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf. She recently choreographed the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Porgy & Bess. Her upcoming projects include George C. Wolfe’s Netflix adaptation of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and the 2021 Aida tour. She is the artistic director of Camille A. Brown Dancers, which she founded in 2006; they have performed Brown’s trilogy on the rituals and vernacular of the African Diaspora: Mr. TOL E. RAncE (2012), BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play (2015) and ink (2017). To read Brown’s own tribute as a part of this series, click here. 

Kilgore on Brown: “Camille A. Brown is the epitome of a legend. How she moves, how she can get other people to move in ways that are both soulful and spiritual, is beautiful. Working with her on Once On This Island, I learned strength. When it comes to Broadway, people see the pretty costumes, the amazing singers and the hair and makeup; it’s all exciting. But for the actors, the strength of showing up, being vulnerable and working hard is what matters. Around the time I heard I was going to work with Camille, I went to see BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play. What I remember was her strength, both physical and mental. I loved that she wasn’t blowing smoke up your ass. Her movement forced you to think. In rehearsal for Once On This Island, she did the same. She inspired me to be in rehearsal one minute and then be in a different rehearsal on my own, practicing my dance every day and thinking about what it meant, what her choreography meant to her and ultimately to all people of color, all women of color, the liberation. 

It’s crucial to have black people telling black stories, and Camille, through her movement, her physicality and her research, would inspire powerful conversations about the social stigma of black women in our company. I don’t think the show would have been what it was without Camille. I can’t see Once On This Island without her. When it comes to Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Haitian styles, there’s such a spiritual and ancestrally rooted element to the movement. That can’t be taught. You have to find it internally, and that’s why having a choreographer like Camille attached to the show was crucial. The crazy thing about Once On This Island was that the vast majority of people who came to see the show—and the majority of people who are typically allowed to see Broadway shows—were not people of color. Broadway is not made made available in their communities. But Camille brought that light, that knowledge, to everything she touched. She educates, and she deserves to be talked about."