[music]
If you want to perform, you gotta follow these rules; you have to practice a lot, because
without practice you can’t really go far.
You cannot look out into the audience, it’s tempting, but you cannot do it because then
the audience feels kind of weird.
Plus, they’re not in the scene.
Third, you have to build up your self confidence before you go onto the stage.
Even if you’re playing somebody timid, like Lawrence, it takes a lot of guts to project still.
You can’t whisper everything, or else the audience won’t understand anything that you’re saying.
[Over speaker system] Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, or evening, which it is.
It’s seven o’clock, this is your half hour call.
At this evening’s performance...
[continues]
[chatter]
I started off playing with my ukulele at an audition, and then they’re like, “Oh, cool, great.
Bring your bass next time.” and I’m like, I don’t really play the bass, this must
be a mistake.
And then my dad’s like, “Oh, maybe we should go to Guitar Center.
It’s a good excuse to get a bass.”
And then I learned Teacher’s Pet for the next audition, then I kept getting callbacks
and then I got the role.
I had to send in a video audition because they wanted me to come out here in three days
and I’m from Portland, Oregon, so that was kind of hard.
And then after that for my two callbacks I had to fly out for both of them and we did
dance calls and singing calls.
[chatter]
[vocal warm-ups]
For my ninth birthday, my dad finally got me a singing lesson; I’ve always begged
him for it.
I actually auditioned for the original cast, didn’t make it in then, but then I got a
manager and got a little older and I auditioned, not too long ago, actually.
[vocal warm-ups]
When I started with musical theatre, I found out that I wasn’t very good at dancing and
acting, so I took lessons appropriate to my weaknesses.
[show lyrics]
Thank you, young rockers!
The first time I ever played on a stage, it was for my class at lunch.
They had a talent show and I just went on and I never had stage fright.
And now, instead of at a lunch meeting, I’m playing in front of fifteen hundred people
and it feels the same.
I just pray to God before I go on stage and I don’t think about the audience because
the audience isn’t really there right now when we’re performing, it’s just us in the classroom.
You’re just kind of in the moment and if I’m in another role, if I’m a different
person, I feel like I’m not nervous.
When I get on stage, I feel this thing called “the rush”, which is the excitement and
the fear mixed up together that creates this magical sensation in your body,
which makes it feel like play time.
Because it’s what you love.
My routine every day is I get up, go to the shower, go to Starbucks, get my tea for my
voice and then I’ll come to tutoring or I’ll go to school and then after that I
do the show and then after that, I’ll practice my guitar and go to sleep.
It’s basically eat, music, sleep, repeat.
A lot of the kids are home schooled, a lot of the kids go to brick and mortar school,
so it really depends on the kid.
Right now I’m home schooling but a lot of kids are doing online school or going to school
so we’re all on different schedules.
My mom works at the middle school and she’s sending me the work that they’re doing in
class and I just do it at home.
I go to a brick and mortar school on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays but on Wednesdays,
we have an earlier show so we come here to do our work with our tutors.
For every day of school they miss, they’re required to do three hours of schooling.
They come in to school for three hours and then go right to the theatre.
In rehearsal, sometimes it’s crazy because they have to rehearse all day; they have a
day of rehearsal and we have to fit school in.
So sometimes they’ll do an hour of school, two hours of rehearsal, take a lunch, then
an hour of school, then two hours of rehearsal.
The good thing about most of these kids is they’re very good individual workers and
they understand that part of their job is school.
If they don’t do the school part, they can’t do the Broadway part.
It’s illegal.
The difference between going to a real school and what I do now, just doing work at home;
it’s a lot different because I don’t need to wake up at a certain time, which is awesome
but also, I’m not around other kids, which is sometimes really weird.
I’d rather go to regular school.
You actually have your friends there; like I’m just by myself, just doing my work.
At my old school, since I was in elementary, we got to do recess and I’d hang out with
them all the time but it’s different now.
These kids are very much forced to be adults, even though they’re kids.
So they have a lot of responsibility, so we really try to make sure that they can connect
with kids their own age and relate to each other about how it is to do this kind of stuff
together.
Before I moved here, I lived in California and it’s a big change from the beach to
a big, busy city.
I also left my mom, brother and sister back in California.
I’m living here with my dad so I was nervous about that, but I did it.
My mom and my other two little sisters are back home in Oregon ‘cause they still have
to do school and my mom has work, so my dad and I are here right now.
But I miss them all the time, they miss me.
But we FaceTime every day and my family’s really cool about it.
When I got involved in this job, Joann Hunter asked me to be the assistant dance captain,
and I don’t have actually any formal dance training.
She asked me primarily because of the children and making sure they know I’m someone they
can go to if they need anything on stage, off stage, it doesn’t matter.
I’m there for them.
[chatter]
They are in an age group where they’re really in the epicenter of growing up, so they’re
curious, they’re sometimes confused and it feels so rewarding to ever be able to answer
any of their questions.
[dance instructions]
They bring such a fresh energy every single day; it’s like you never really know what
you’re going to get.
There’s just this energy in the building that they put off that is so exciting.
[All shouting] Five, six, here we go!
As an adult, we have a totally different life.
We have to put most of the money that we make away in different places and pay bills and
that kind of thing.
These children have no concept of that.
They’re not there for the money.
I don’t even think of it as work, really.
I love doing it every day so I don’t think of it as oh, I’m going to work.
I think of it like, yay!
Going to work!
Another day to just jump around on stage!
[dance instruction]
It’s so cool to be on a stage and all of your thoughts clear, you don’t have to worry
about school or anything you have in the real world.
You’re just in this moment.
[dance instruction]
The most fun part of the day is, well, there’s two times.
Walking in front of the theater and seeing my picture up just makes my heart melt every
time I see it and after the show when I walk out and I’m doing signatures; that was once
me in that line, waiting to get signatures and now I’m the one giving out the signatures.
A lot of the kids either get too tall or they outgrow the part.
I’m leaving in November.
It’s very hard to do eight shows a week but I’ve had such a fun time.
It’s been a great experience for me, hanging out with these awesome kids every day and
I feel like I’ve made life-long friends.
[Ensemble singing] When the world has screwed you and crushed you in its fist, when the
way you’re treated has got you good and pissed; there’s been one solution, since
the world began!
Don’t just sit and take it!
Stick it to the man!
That movie, School of Rock, made me play guitar.
I’ve never been an actor, but now I am and they taught me how to sing better and act better.
And maybe, who knows?
Maybe I’ll be a Broadway star one day.
[Ensemble singing] Rant and rave and scream and shout and stick your middle finger out!
And wreck your room and rip your jeans and show ‘em what rebellion means!
[Singing] Why march in someone else’s caravan?
Especially those you’re so much cooler than?
[Ensemble singing] Stick it to the man!
Stick it to the man!