PIVOT POINT

During her college years at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, Schulz was a three-year member of the concert choir and intended to pursue a career in music performance, but she came to a fork in the road that changed her focus. The competitive aspect of auditioning began to feel very negative. Additionally, she perceived that she would need to make a difficult choice of either family or a career in performance. Though the wisdom of maturity would allow her to see her options differently now, she altered her plans. In 1994, Schulz married her husband, Brian, and they settled in Moorhead, Minnesota. While Brian pursued his business career with Microsoft, Schulz taught elementary, middle and high school music, private piano and voice lessons, and also worked for Wright Funeral Home where she shared her gift of music with people during the tender times of family funerals. During these years, Schulz and Brian welcomed three daughters, Amie, Sarah, and Sophie, into their family, and all the busyness that comes along with parenting enriched their lives even more.

Through it all, Schulz continued her performance career, starring in over 30 shows around the FM area. Whether as a nun in “Nunsense,” a witch in “Into the Woods,” Frau Blucher in “Young Frankenstein,” or Grisabella in “Cats,” each role became her favorite and received her enthusiastic best. While the girls were small, they frequently attended rehearsal with Schulz and that early exposure allowed them to see the arts as a regular part of everyday life. As Amie describes it, “Mom’s work as an actress was just a part of our family’s life.” Perhaps it was funny for others to see an expectant nun with young kids driving around town in the carpool, but “to us she was just our mom and she happened to be dressed for work.” This past summer Schulz was a guest performer with MSUM’s Straw Hat Players and this fall she is looking forward to serving on the artistic staff for “Aida” at Moorhead High School.

A conversation with the Schulz family is fast paced and fun. The three sisters can practically complete each other’s sentences and together they enthusiastically explain how music, family time and love were integrated into every aspect of life in their home. Broadway show tunes filled the air as they cooked dinner or completed homework and house work. This love of music and drama naturally permeated their playtime. During their elementary years the Schulz basement was transformed into the Basement Theatre Company (BTC) where they spent hours writing scripts, rigging curtains and lights, and then performing original plays for family and friends. As the girls grew, they took their spot on the stage in roles truly too numerous to mention. Memorable roles include Amie as Mama in Moorhead High’s “Chicago,” Sarah as Ariel in Trollwood’s “The Little Mermaid” and Sophie as Addaperle in Horizon Middle School’s “The Wiz.” The 2011 Straw Hat Players production of “The Sound of Music,” in which they all performed together as Louisa, Marta, and Gretl

Von Trapp, is an especially fond memory for the whole family. Sophie recalls, “It was fun to work together with the people I most admire.”