Keith Nealy - Biography
Stage Director / Theatrical Projection Designer & Filmmaker
In 1960, at the age of thirteen, Keith Nealy began a career that spans five decades in entertainment and performing arts - from writing and directing film, television, dramatic and musical theater, to creating live and multimedia performances and pioneering unique "experience" theater.
Underscoring this is Nealy's love and understanding of music. He began playing drums at age 10 and soon added piano, guitar and singing. His formal studies began in high school and college, leading to his selection as a student conductor and election to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Orchestra for tympani, as well as singing tenor in a collegiate touring choir.
After college, Nealy joined the Navy, and after a few tours in Vietnam, he began a professional music career as a percussionist in the First Moog Quartet, joining them on a national tour. Nealy continued as a percussionist over the next few decades to this day, performing with jazz musicians such as Phil Woods, Bob Dorough, and Urbie Green. Nealy currently leads the jazz group, “Con’Cussion,” and plays big band jazz with the Olliephonics, a 16 piece orchestra.
Although music is a passion, storytelling is the focus of his career.
Film Director and Director of Photography
Nealy has has been creative director of Keith Nealy Productions for the last 30 years, producing narrative film, documentaries, advertising, and historical and cultural films. He is a Film Director and Director of Photography for National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel and PBS, and is currently writing and directing several feature films.
Nealy's passion for live theater and experience performances began by telling stories, reaching audiences with a multi-media sensibility and new technologies to create multi-dimensional experiences. Nealy pioneered innovations in storytelling using large-scale multi-media events incorporating thirty slide projectors and more projected across multiple screens. He integrated live elements, such as singers, dancers, pyrotechnics, image magnification and lasers.
Nealy was part of the team that innovated the first "Video Walls" that brought multi-screen projection into the next generation with the utilization of moving video images. Nealy designed and stage directed events for the advertising industry’s top creative executives, producing four major advertising industry awards shows, featuring large –screen video and special effects and video projection mapping.
Entertainment Stage Director
Nealy also focused his passion in the entertainment field, creating and directing live theater performances for Tony Bennett, Danny Gans, The Pointer Sisters, The Boston Pops, Jane Fonda, Ellen DeGeneres, Danny Kaye, Hal Linden, Peter Gabriel, Cab Calloway and many others.
Always looking for new ways to tell stories, Nealy employs techniques learned from film, television, advertising, theater, and special effects as artistic tools.
In the corporate world, Nealy used the power of theater, not only to entertain, but to shape minds and influence audiences. He wrote and directed dramatic and musical theater (“industrials”) to entertain and influence corporate messaging and culture in productions that explored issues and challenges within a company and took characters through an arc of transition or hero's journey -- providing a resolution to similar challenges facing the audience.
Nealy often uses theatrical screen projections with dynamic visual imagery for flexibility and the ability to change scenes instantly, harnessing special effect magic not achievable with hard sets.
Examples:
“WPIX-We’re the Hot One”
Nealy’s production for WPIX-TV "Channel 11"took home the Gold Award at the international Film and TV Festival for creative editing and a new video wall projection format that was the center piece of the new fall season rollout event in New York City.
"The Wizard of MPI"
Nealy wrote and directed a musical comedy based on the Wizard of Oz, depicting the trials and tribulations of “Dorothy,” a corporate meeting planner. The parody was written to improve the working relationships between corporate planners and their counterparts in the hospitality industry. Broadway singers and dancers were cast and rehearsed in NYC, a musical score was composed and recorded, scenery was designed to scale and hand-painted, photographed and programmed for sixty feet of seamless scenic theatrical screen projections fed by 12 projectors. Instant scene changes and magical effects were used throughout the production, presented to an audience of over 1300 executives in three acts at the Meeting Planners International annual meeting in Boston.
“Star Chek: The Next Generation”
Nealy wrote and directed this ten act episodic drama/comedy for American Express Travelers Cheques depicting an intergalactic sales and marketing team “going where no team has gone… before.” The Nealy Group was brought in to creatively motivate the international sales and marketing team, promote teamwork and improve international relationships. Sets, projections and video elements were created in NYC while casting and rehearsals were in Disneyworld, Florida. Three separate stages were built to represent different locations on the starship which enabled rapid cutting between scenes/stages creating an immersive wrap-around experience for the audience. Screen projections enabled starship “view-screen” telecommunications. Dramatic tensions were built throughout the “to be continued…” episodes leading to an epic laser and pyrotechnic battle sequence. The Admiral, played by actor Karl Malden, beamed aboard the Enterprise via a laser tunnel, to lead the victory.
"A Day in the Life"
Nealy created this fantasy musical/comedy for Computer Associates to help ease transition tensions created when small computer graphics software company, ISSCO, was swallowed up by the giant software conglomerate, Computer Associates. "A Day in the Life" exposed employee fears and showed the potential advantages of working in a much larger company. Extensive theatrical stage projections were used as well as creative stage magic and special effects to defuse tensions and raise the hopes of everyone at this first meeting of the two merging companies.
“A New IDEA”
Starring comedian Ellen Degeneres and aerobics queen Jane Fonda, Nealy created and directed this innovative aerobic dance/musical/comedy which was presented at the International Dance Exercise Association (IDEA) international meeting at Disneyland, Los Angeles. Extensive use of screen projections, musical production numbers with dancers and special laser effects highlighted this story of the future of IDEA.
Musical, comedy or dramatic plays for television
“The Blood Counts”
When the aids crisis reached epidemic status, the International Red Cross experienced another crisis: a dramatic drop in blood donations affecting millions. AT&T, a Red Cross sponsor, had previous success with Nealy’s company and their ability to change perceptions and affect public opinion during AT&T’s “Baby Bell divesture phase,” and sponsored Nealy to create a television program to put the crisis in perspective for the American public.
Nealy wrote and directed “The Blood Counts,” a musical/comedy starring George Plimpton, a barbershop quartet of Count Dracula-type vampires, and cast of actors from Broadway. The production was designed to take place in an old castle and Nealy hired a scenic design team from the Metropolitan Opera to create a dusty old castle on a soundstage. Why the castle? The Blood Counts ran the local blood bank with a special musical flair to lure in their customers.
After a successful national showing on PBS, blood donations began to increase beyond normal levels.
“The Smell-O-Phone Chronicles”
One of the most interesting creative challenges came in the form of a request from the president of AT&T to help change some behind-the-scenes deal-making behavior of high-level executives – without confronting them directly. Nealy created a production starring a cast of specially designed puppets performed by an all-star cast of puppeteers from “Sesame Street.” “Puppets can say anything and get away with murder – and it’s funny! You just couldn’t do this type of humor with real actors,” said Nealy.
“Quest for Quality”
When American corporations were obsessing about “Excellence” and showing off their Malcom Baldridge Awards, AT&T failed and could not share in that limelight. How could “Ma Bell” fail? Nealy’s team was called in to reverse this trend and motivate the troops across America. Wanting to be positive and avoiding any ”make-wrong,” Nealy decided to call in the puppets once again to add a little levity to the situation. With an entirely new cast of characters on an intergalactic hero’s journey, AT&T achieved the Award the next year.
Nealy finds his “Cross-training” in all media – playing music, directing actors, blocking movement, evoking emotion, lighting scenes, writing screenplays, inventing new display technology - all translates into more innovative productions – on film or on the stage - which allows them to connect with the audience in new and meaningful ways.
Making a difference
“Huliau: Turning Point”
Hawaii has had a tragic history unknown to most Americans. Almost 300 years ago, Hawaii’s sovereign nation was stolen by the United States to help American businessmen. The Hawaiian people, once the healthiest in the world, upon losing their nation and culture, succumbed to social and economic pressures as their health status declined. Responding to a request from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, local philanthropist and inventor of the heart pacemaker, Dr. Earl Bakken, took on the challenge to address this issue. Nealy’s team was called in to tell this emotional story in a production that was shown to the U.S Congress in an appeal for healthcare funding. The film “Huliau” was a success, and resulted in millions of dollars of aid.
Education
- New York University Tisch School of the Arts for filmmaking.
- Ithaca College in New York where he also studied theater and television.
- U.S. Navy Deep Sea Helium Diver, electronics technician, Combat Salvage Vietnam 1968-1972
Teaching
Nealy regularly teaches filmmaking for the Hawaii State Film Commission and teaches workshops on acting for the stage and screen.
4D Extreme Entertainment
Exploring new technology, Nealy created a new firm creating 4D films for worldwide distribution. 4D is special theme park ride format in which 3D film is shown in a custom-designed theater with dynamic motion seating and environmental effects, such as wind and rain.
Awards and Recognition:
Winner of many national and international industry awards in film, video, and advertising including Cine Golden Eagles, International Film and Television Awards, and awards from the ADDY's, ANDY's, One Club, and the Ad Council.