Profile: Melissa Crespo
Melissa Crespo never had to ask herself what she wanted to be when she grew up. Asked when the theater bug bit her, the fast-rising young director answered immediately.
“As soon as I could talk!”
Ask her why and the answer comes even faster. “I always liked attention,” she says, offering a quick laugh. “I’ve never been the shy type, really, and I just loved being on stage. My mom put me on stage when I was 5. I started dancing. I just always wanted to be an actor.”
By the time she arrived in Charlottesville, after a year and a half at Ithaca College, Crespo already knew something else. Like so many of her fellow thespians, what she really wanted to do was direct. It was during a summer program at what is now the American Shakespeare Theater in Staunton that a friend suggested that she try life from the other side of the footlights.
“She gave me a showcase to do, and, I tell you, it was like a light bulb went off. It was awesome because it really matches my personality as well,” she says, “because I’m a control freak and I love the challenge of getting people where they need to go.”
From the moment she arrived on Grounds, Crespo took on the challenge of getting where she needed to go, thanks in large part to a few key mentors. “I ended up getting into Betsy Tucker’s directing class. From then on, I got her encouragement and realized ‘wow, I can actually do this.’ I directed every semester after that.”
In fact, she was a smash hit right out of the box, directing “The Colored Museum.” “That was special, because we did three performances and it was standing room only each time. That was like my hook, every show I did, they would promote it by saying ‘from the director that brought you “The Colored Museum.”’
“It always worked.”
For the next two and a half years, Crespo always worked, too, taking full advantage of the drama department’s abundant, and accessible, opportunities. “The thing I loved about U.Va. was it was small enough that you could do whatever you want. … You want to direct, you want to design, you just find the right people to talk to and you can do it.”
Talent doesn’t hurt either. Crespo left her stage-managing obligation until her final semester, when she worked with Richard Warner. “I consider him my mentor,” she says. “I think he is amazing.” Warner obviously saw something amazing in Crespo as well, adding to her stage managing duties and giving her the opportunity to direct one of a show’s six one-acts.
He’s obviously not the only one. Crespo was the first undergrad ever offered the chance to come back and direct a mainstage production the year after her graduation. She had to pass for a very good reason: by that time she would already be on the first stop of a fast-track career with a prestigious directing fellowship at Washington’s Arena Stage. And after the fellowship wrapped up, it took her a mere week working on an awards show at The Kennedy Center to get where she is now, right in the heart of it all with a two-year directing fellowship at New York’s Second Stage Theatre.
With a formidable talent and ever-expanding resume, Crespo is poised to be telling people where they need to go for a long time to come.
