Creative Courage

FOREWORD

When I met Welby for the first time, one could say that part of the setting was somewhat familiar to the world I was creating in the script of the TV show CSI. There was obscurity surrounding us, even if we were not in a dark alley. Then the shadowy, tensed atmosphere was sporadically disturbed by shots of light and music, video projections, dances, and incredible acrobatics and by a flurry of activities onstage and in the working theater, filled with computers, artists, technicians. As I sat with my team at the back of the house, I felt the whole energy of Las Vegas concentrated inside the performing space where Welby was busy creating the show Michael Jackson ONE with Jamie King and a talented team from Cirque du Soleil and beyond.

I grew up in Las Vegas, where my love for music and live stage performances started. My mother worked at the Riviera Hotel, where legends like Bill Withers and the 5th Dimension performed. Music never stopped inspiring me. So, it was extra special for me to meet with Welby at that moment. He was in the middle of creating a hit show, although he didn’t know it back then. That too was familiar; I was catching him as the work was still in progress, in flux, in that fragile and vulnerable place where you are not sure if it’s going to work or not, your heart full of hope and caffeine.

I should know a thing or two about being vulnerable and about dancing with the unknown. When I first imagined, dreamed, and created the TV show CSI, nobody knew ...