How'd You Get Into Theatre?- Page 2

[HowtoCatchWonderland]

Posted: 8/11/11 at 5:18pm

It all began when my big sister found Phantom. I always liked what my big sister liked and we would have sing offs to the title song. It was then the I began researching ALW and all his shows. However I took a break untill 2008 when I watched the Tony's for the frist time. I remember cheering for Patti and loving Lin-Manuel. I hope one day I can see a show outside of my computer and local productions.
Oh.. I guess I should say this: it was next to normal that made me never go back to the cold unfeeling mainstream

[dragonlp86]

Posted: 8/11/11 at 8:28pm

First I got into movie musicals (Moulin Rouge was the first non-Disney musical that I adored). Then (and please don't look down on me for this) I saw the RENT movie, and fell in love with it. Loving the movie turned into wanting to know more about the show, which eventually lead to me seeing the show when it was on tour. After that, I was totally hooked.

So I'm a relative newbie compared to most of you. But my family really isn't one for theatre; just me!

[showchoirguy]

Posted: 8/11/11 at 8:31pm

^i totally know how you feel!

[Nettik]

Posted: 8/11/11 at 9:48pm

When I was nine, friend of mine was involved in community theatre. I joined her for a production of a show and was indifferent to the experience. I did another show when I was 10 and was still indifferent. I saw a few shows at our regional/touring theatre and enjoyed them, but wasn't too excited about the prospect of being in a show.

Then I turned 13 and longed to get back into theatre. Another friend of mine was in a local production of "The Music Man," and seeing it just got me obsessed with theatre. I auditioned for the next show (A Christmas Carol) with the community theatre she was in, got the role of one of the Cratchit children, and loved the experience. I think that I always liked the theatre medium, but just had some bad experiences with the community theatres I had been a part of up until then.

I took a few college classes for high school, and one of them was Intro to Theatre. That course really changed my perspective on theatre, and it made me seriously consider theatre as not only an obsession, but possibly a career.

[Hest882]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 1:09am

Honestly? It started with watching (and loving) all those old movie musicals (Sound of Music, etc.) and, oh, all those Disney musicals on TV, both the cartoons but also especially the live-action ones. I adored, as a kid, "Follow Me, Boys" and "Summer Magic" and "The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band" and the like. Once one gets into musicals, period, it's just one step away from live staged musicals and then another step into straight plays.

[scott68]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 2:02am

I grew up watching movie musicals - my mom force-fed us Singin' In The Rain (still my favorite movie) every chance she could get. The high school I eventually went to was also, conveniently, huge on theatre. I saw then do Brigadoon, Bye Bye Birdie, The Music Man, and several other musicals and plays before I was old enough to know what Broadway really was. We lived within a few hundred miles of New York City, so I was lucky enough to see a few shows early enough to hook me for life.

Once I made it to high school, I did everything I could to get involved with theatre. I hung out with the theatre kids, I played in the pit orchestra, I conducted the pit orchestra (very poorly), and eventually even made it onstage in the cast, despite having no discernible talent for singing, acting, or dancing.

I set my mind on coming to New York for college, and spent a few years interning at various theatre/Broadway-oriented companies in school (very much offstage, thank goodness). I was lucky enough to get offered a job at one of them once I graduated, and have been working on Broadway/off-Broadway shows ever since. It's been an absolute dream, though the hours are... endless, and I wake up each morning thinking how lucky I am.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 3:16am

My mom was a ballet dancer when I was a kid so the theater wasn't a foreign place to me, and I remember when I was about five I was a Munchkin in a local production of The Wizard Of Oz. At some point in elementary school I started listening to musicals a lot (Cabaret was my favorite) and apparently at some point I asked my mother, "Is it okay that I like musicals?", because I was a boy and I suppose I thought it was wrong somehow. It kind of stuck with me through high school (in twelfth grade I took Theater ROP where we built sets and I got to crew for the first time; the show starred Chris Colfer) but I didn't really get into it until college where I developed an intense passion for stage design. It's been a year since I've really been involved in theater and it's kinda bumming me out. Being part of that is probably the most incredible experience I know of. Even just pulling flies is exhilarating.

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 8:15am

I used to visit my Aunt V in Center City Philadelphia every spring. She took me to see the operetta BLOSSOM TIME with music by Shubert in the late 1940's. I was so young that I could not understand if Shubert was actually dead then how could he be up there on stage? So, I don't really count that as my first show. That distinction goes to FLAHOOLEY with Barbara Cook at the Shubert in Philadelphia in 1950, I believe. That is the show that got me hooked. My first Broadway show was in 1954 at the Winter Garden: the Mary Martin PETER PAN. I have been going to Broadway shows ever since.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 9:23am

I killed some dude and stole his identity. He was in theater.

It wasn't the ideal situation, but I've grown to appreciate it.

[addamsfamily#1fan]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 9:12am

One day when my Mom and I were going into the city she randomley said "Wanna see 13 the musical." so I said "Sure. I dont care.". Then later that night I was obsedded with that show and then started my broadway obsession.

[beingalive123]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 3:21pm

I had been singing since I was three, and my parents all the way through my childhood tried to get me involved in musicals. At the time, I had no interest, my focus was on sports. A cycle of my parents telling me about a show I could audition for and me refusing went on until I was twelve, when my parents finally forced me to audition for our middle school's production of Honk Jr. I was cast as the lead and the rest is history I suppose.

[budfrump]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 4:23pm

I joined a children's theatre group at age 11 and I've loved seeing theatre and doing theatre for over 5 years now!

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 4:52pm

I was indoctrinated into theater and opera from the cradle. The only music that was ever played in our house when I was growing up was classical, opera and showtunes (no, not one single Sinatra album, or Tony Bennett or Perry Como or any other “popular” music). My mother in particular had a love for the theater and had been introduced to it at a very young age by a maiden aunt. My mother remembered being taken to see Anna Pavlova dance when she was four years old (my mother, not Pavlova). She was determined to pass this love on to her children and from the age of about three on my brother and I were taken to every children's production of both music and theater in Chicago. I have strong memories of going to see shows at The Goodman Theater. I can’t even tell you the first show I saw because I was so young, but I do remember seeing a production of G&S’s “The Gondoliers” when I was about 4.

My mother was very upset by the lack of theater in general (well, culture in general) when we moved to Los Angeles (I was 5) but she managed to find a children's theater program at UCLA and a few other venues around LA. This was about when the Music Center was being built and when the Ahmanson opened in 1967 (with Man of La Mancha) my parents became charter season subscribers with tickets for the three of us (my brother, considerably older than me, wasn’t interested) so I got to see every show (Broadway touring company and others) that played the Ahmanson, as well as whatever came to UCLA and the Shubert Theater and the Pantages. End result was I became a devoted fan of classical music, opera and theater for life. As an adult, and after my parents died, I maintained these subscriptions (along with one for the LA Opera after it was created) until financial considerations forced me to give up most of them.