Q&A: What it’s like for Washington state actress to bring stop-motion ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ to life in nationally touring musical

Every holiday season, performer Callahan Gillispie, who grew up near Sumner and Bonney Lake, would leave carrots in her yard for Santa’s reindeer.

“I’m pretty sure my dad would go into the front yard and take bites out of the carrots that we threw to look like something was done, which is funny thinking about now,” she said.

Interference from her father aside, that goodwill toward Santa’s reindeer came in handy years later when Gillispie, who used to perform in productions at the ManeStage Theater Company, now based in Puyallup, and watch shows at the Paramount Theatre and 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, booked the role of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the musical’s national tour.

The tour stops by the First Interstate Center for the Arts on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Gillispie talked with The Spokesman-Review about honoring the TV movie, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, flight training and the importance of telling Rudolph’s story.

S-R: What did you think when you were offered the opportunity to audition?

Gillispie: This is actually the third year that I have gotten the audition invitation for “Rudolph.” I met the casting director through another audition that I did, and I guess something stuck in her head. I live in New York, and they cast out of L.A., so I’ve been submitting audition tapes for the past few years, singing the songs from the show, reading some of the slides from the show that they had requested. And then I got the request this year, and in the email it was like, “Just so you know, Callahan, we’re not accepting virtual tapes, just in person.” So I was like, “You know what? I’m going to book a flight to L.A. I think they need to see me in person. I’m going to fly in for the audition.” So I did, and then I got it, which is so cool. But you know what’s cool about that is sometimes you just have a feeling in your gut, you know what’s right and you know it’s meant to be. And I’m glad that I didn’t ignore that.

S-R: Why were you so interested in being part of this production?

Gillispie: This show is so special. It’s rare to find a story that was written so long ago in 1964 that all of the themes and the lessons are still quite prevalent and heavy today, stories about not fitting in and diversity and how we ostracize people who are different. I’ve always been attracted to that story, but getting the chance to do a national tour, let alone lead it, has always been a dream of mine, and so I’m so blessed and so thankful to get to go to these different cities that I would never have seen before. I am super glad that I took the leap.

S-R: What is it like for you as a performer to be Rudolph? Did you work on how a deer would move across the stage? You’re also working with a very top-heavy costume.

Gillispie: We always have to have our hands in these fists and then one foot in a bevel, just to give the illusion that we’re standing in something that’s nonhuman, but other than that posture, it’s a very humanlike performance that I try to give, because Rudolph’s a little kid experiencing the world for the first time. Something that’s super important to me is making sure that even though we’re playing this character that we all know and love, that I’m still true and human and believable, even though I’m not human, if that makes any sense. What is hard, though, is that head on the costume. It’s so heavy. It took a while to learn how to move around with it, rather than against it, but now it’s like it’s a part of me.

S-R: I’m happy you mentioned Rudolph’s experiencing things for the first time, because I imagine you’re seeing a lot of young children who this is their first time experiencing a live show. What’s that like?

Gillispie: Yeah, it’s an absolute honor, because I remember sitting in the theater seeing my first show for the first time and to get to give that back is seriously insane, and the privilege is absolutely not lost on me. It’s cool, because initially, as the audience, they’re so young, sometimes the kids are very reactive, and they’ll yell along to something that happened in the script or they’ll be like, “Oh no!” or they’ll cheer really loudly, which is really cute. And you don’t get adults doing that, so that’s really, really sweet. At the end, during bows, I’m flying up in the air and I always try to wave to all the kids that I see, just because I think it’s fun.

S-R: What was flight training like?

Gillispie: Flight school was very rigorous. We had multiple days with this great team from ZFX. At first, it was really scary. It’s weird. You’re being lifted in the air by nothing but two really, really skinny wires you can barely see, but it’s so much fun. It’s literally a dream come true, and it’s what keeps me going every night. Even if I’m having a rough show, I just think “I get to fly. I get to fly.”

S-R: Watching “Rudolph” is such a big tradition for a lot of people. Is being part of holiday traditions something you and the cast have talked about?

Gillispie: Yes, we talk about that a little bit. It’s cool that we’re bringing the tradition to a different medium, because I know most people are used to seeing it in the movie but because these characters and this world are so sacred and really important to people, they’re Rudolph mega-fans, we have to really always make sure that we’re referencing the source material, and we’re staying true to the original intentions of what was in the movie. We would sit down with a dialect coach, and he would literally play certain scenes for the movie, and we would recite them, word for word, tone for tone, say it exactly like how they do in the movie to give that nostalgia and that importance, because that’s what people are looking for when they come to see the show is the movie.

S-R: This is the 10th year of the tour, and the 60th anniversary since the TV premiere. What’s it like to be part of the show in this historic year?

Gillispie: It’s really cool. I didn’t even realize that this year was so special until I started, so it feels really special. I have this immense gratitude that I’m the one that gets to experience it and share all of this. It’s not lost on me. It’s a crazy honor, and I’m just super grateful.

S-R: What about Rudolph’s story keeps viewers coming back year after year?

Gillispie: I think Rudolph is really special, because he has this childlike joy and excitement, and there’s really nothing quite like watching a story of somebody who’s experiencing the world for the very, very first time. He’s so innocent and so naive, but in a good way, and open-hearted and that energy, those themes are hard to come by, I feel like, in a lot of recent holiday movies that are being made. And along with what I said before, the themes about diversity and not ostracizing others because they’re different, and celebrating our differences, that is always, always socially applicable every single year. I don’t know when that won’t be, so it’s an important story. It’s special, and it’s an absolute honor that I get to be the little guy.