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All that stamina from fencing, all that breathing from choir class...it all comes together on stage to produce moving musicals with a ring grand enough to get the audience standing from shock. Mind you, I've been the pepper shaker for Beauty and the Beast. I, as a male, have worn a silver leotard with a shoulder-strapped, glittered, cardboard tube over it. Oh, and let's not forget the bruise that tube gave me from having to lift it in a pose solely on my right upper arm. It was still worth it. I was the weasel king in Wind in the Willows, Willy Wonka and Phineas Trout in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bedevierre in Knights of the Rad Table (humorous kids' play in which Arthur is a skater from the future), Glen in The Wedding Singer, and finally, I have been all four of the school board members in The Music Man. I have vowed to never perform in that show again, or at least wait five years. You have no idea how annoying it is when you know the show inside and out and all the new guys come in. Time screeches to a halt, no lie.
(pic on right) I have seen it twice, and God above I dream of being in this show some day. My advice to any and all dreamers out there: have a job ready so you can make a living long enough to get discovered. That's the key. You can have all the talent, but if you're not seen by the right people, you end up dust in the wind. Find your way to Blues Alley or another really well-known (on world scale, not just community or friends) spot, and just place a few heart-felt acts there. Put in a showy one, a deep one, and something that really shows who you are. It may take two, three, ten years before you are really discovered by the right agent or producer, but if you can keep yourself alive, it will happen. Sing or play for a benefit concert. Put yourself into community theaters. If you do all of this and don't get discovered, you have my sympathy, and you may someday have this obscure connection to a guy who may or may not in the future be discovered himself. Be nice to the people you know. Nerds you know could end up your bosses someday. The more people you know in your high school and college, the better off you'll be. My uncle was a theater geek for a long time in college. He and his friends basically traveled in a commune... supporting each other, finding connections everywhere, and looking for the next hotspot. Take every opportunity by the horns with modesty, and the world shall be kind to you.