Seizing Oppurtunity!
Ambiance: Opening Up from Waitress the Musical
Written circa Fall 2021
Ladies! Guess what? I have a testimony. I’m on Broadway! I’m. On. Broadway! ME! What? I’m actually doing theater in Times Square in a bona fide Broadway show. They don let ya girl IN! There are other Broadway actors, crew, and creative team members that surround me daily. (I even get to share the stage with a whole superstar.) What is life? How did I get here? How does a girl from the hood in Cleveland acquire two degrees in singing and end up standing across from people 8 times a week that she would only encounter on Google? How am I making my Broadway debut in September 2021 in WAITRESS the Musical, a show that closed January 2020? A show that I haven’t auditioned for in 5 years and landed because I was auditioning for something COMPLETELY different? Crazy, right? Maybe but let’s talk about when opportunity meets preparation meets resurrection meets redirection.
            I am from the inner city of Cleveland, OH. I grew up afraid of my own voice, intimidated by it. Something in me knew that it was bigger than me and would require all of me to maximize. I also was aware of how different it was from those around me. Those powerhouse gospel singers who could tear the church down? Yeah, that wasn’t me. Mine was powerful in a different way. Its audience would be found in a different venue and that arena found me. Freshmen year of high school, the religion/drama/speech and debate teacher heard me singing in the hallway and asked me to audition for the musical. To which I responded, “What’s a musical?” I had no idea what I was getting myself into but that high school production of Little Shop of Horrors at St. Peter Chanel High School opened a world to me that I didn’t know I needed. Fast forward to now where I have a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Theater from Baldwin Wallace University, after getting rejected the first time and having to endure 6 years of undergraduate studies. I’ve coupled that with a Master of Music degree from New York University, graduating during a global pandemic mind you. There’s so much more to this story but I only got 600 words, y’all!
            Have you ever felt like something was chasing you down? Like it was after you and with all that you may have done to shift gears or maybe even not deeming yourself worthy, it kept finding you? That’s how I feel about music theater. It found me. Moments in life where I didn’t know what to do next or even have knowingly gone in the wrong direction, God would order my steps back to Him and then back to it. When I left the high school where I originally learned about the art form, transferring and then not afforded the opportunity to do theater because my grades plummeted, God redeemed those two years with two years at a state college where I learned what I needed and who I was in the art. I then transferred to my dream university and earned my BM and moved to New York. Not knowing how I would make ends meet in New York City and scraping to get by, I was then able to tour the country with musicals like Wicked and The Color Purple to get back on track financially. Having to defer a year before going to graduate school meant graduating in 2020, not knowing that a global pandemic would be waiting for us all BUT what redemption that 18 months later, I’m back on stage. Not just any stage either, I’m on THE STAGE! I’m on Broadway y’all and it’s just so sweet.Â
