Guest Blogger: Arielle Jacobs

Arielle Jacobs has starred on Broadway in the smash-hit Wicked (as Nessarose) and in the four-time Tony & Grammy award winning musical In The Heights (as Nina Rosario) opposite creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. Currently, she is living and working in Sydney, Australia, in the Australian production of Disney's Aladdin (as Princess Jasmine). Off-Broadway, she has starred in two world-premiere plays by Pulitzer-winning playwright and director Nilo Cruz; entitled Sotto Voce (as Lucila Pulpo) and Farhad or the Secret of Being (as Farhad, a young Afghan girl who was raised as a boy to avoid social exile but then reaches puberty and struggles with the limitations of becoming a woman in the Middle East.) She had the honor to perform in the Guggenheim Museum's "Works & Process" series, singing songs from a new adaption of George Bizet's Carmen with the Tectonic Theater Project (directed by Tony-nominee Moisés Kaufman, with musical adaptions by Afro-Cuban jazz legend Arturo O'Farrill). Jacobs was seen in the original National Touring companies of In the Heights (Nina) and Disney's High School Musical (Gabriella), in Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of Two Gentlemen of Verona: a Rock Opera (Julia), in Into the Woods (Baker's Wife) opposite Tituss Burgess as the Witch, and in the musical RENT (Mimi) at Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center. Broadway workshops include: Between the Lines, Atlantis, Diamond Alice, Secondhand Lions, It Shoulda Been You, Head Over Heels, Nightingale, MASK, GoGo Beach, The Boy from New York City. TV/film credits include: "Taxi Brooklyn (NBC);" “Commander in Chief;” “Dance War;” “Water Lilies”; “Disney’s 365.” While her singing voice can be heard on film scores and on television, she has also performed onstage in many of America's greatest concert halls (including Lincoln Center in NYC, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Symphony Hall in Boston, Yale Hall, the Saenger Theater in New Orleans, Kauffman Center, and many more) beside legendary artists such as Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Damien Sneed, Chaka Khan, Teena Marie, and Stephen Schwartz. She has also had the honor to sing the National Anthem for the LA Kings (twice!), The Boston Celtics, and the Texas Rangers! Outside of performing, Arielle founded The Girls Camaraderie Project, an non-profit organization that inspires camaraderie and community, instead of competition, among middle-school girls. More info at www.ariellejacobs.com. Twitter/IG: @ArielleJacobs