January 30, 2025 will mark the one-year anniversary of legendary Broadway actress and dancer Chita Rivera.
Rivera won two Tony Awards and was the first Latina and the first Latino-American to receive a Kenney Center Honor in 2002, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. She won the tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018.
After making her Broadway debut as a dancer in Guys and Dolls (1950), she went on to originate roles in Broadway musicals such as "Anita" in West Side Story in 1957.
Rivera was a ten-time Tony Award nominee, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical twice for her roles in The Rink (1984) and and Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993).
Someone who worked with her on Kiss of the Spider Woman is actor and dancer Robert Montano.
On this episode of The Art of the Story, Montano talks about how Rivera mentored him through the years.
Montano is now telling his own story at George Street Playhouse through February 2. SMALL is Montano’s true story of the him being bullied in school because he was smaller than most of the kids in class, starting off as a professional horse racing jockey, getting too big for his silks and eventually because of a Broadway dancer and television and movie actor.
You can SEE Doug Doyle's entire interview with Robert Montano and SMALL director Jessi D. Hill here.
