What Made You a Theatre Person? [MUSICALS]

WE ASKED OUR AUTHORS, WHAT MADE YOU A THEATRE PERSON?

Douglas Lyons

Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical, Chicken & Biscuits

I became a theatre person when the national tours of Rent and Cats toured through The Shubert Theatre in my hometown of New Haven, CT. I was blown away. I had sang in church all my life and danced recreationally, but never saw the arts as a viable career. I thought that Broadway was a distant intangible dream, but little did I know it would become the heartbeat of my life. Theatre is much more than what happens on the stage. It’s the collaboration, the exchange of joy with a live audience, and the magic of creating a family from what was once a group of strangers. I don’t know who I’d be if I hadn’t found it.

Tom Kitt

High Fidelity, Flying Over Sunset

When I was sixteen years old, I spent my summer studying piano at the Interlochen Center for the Arts . It was a revelatory experience and it introduced me to so many important artists and new forms of artistic expression . One evening, towards the end of the summer, I went to see the high school division’s production of Cabaret . Though I had been to the theater many times with my family and performed in several shows as well, what I saw that evening was like nothing I had ever experienced . The power and urgency of the writing along with the brilliant creativity that rendered it left me speechless and in need of a walk to collect myself. It was the first time a musical had left me so broken; so affected; and yet, so exhilarated by the possibilities of the form. I thought to myself, “that’s what I want to do.”