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Brian Hilbrand's interest in musicals started when he watched The Sound of Music, and his mom and her parents were musical.  He started school musicals in lower elementary/ middle school, and then I saw my first community production in 7th grade when Lion Heart Productions did “The Sound of Music”.   He was cast into the community production of “Oliver!” in the fall of 2001, and he did a run of shows after including “The King and I”, “Music Man”, and “Guys and Doll’s”, well writing the theatre column "Arts at Heart" for his High School newsletter.  He took a small hiatus from theatre to attend college for radio broadcasting/ telecommunications, where he did a lot of singing in public as well as hosting karaoke on campus to fill in that void.

After college, he returned to acting for Lion Heart theatre for “Wizard of Oz” in Fall of 2011,  “Annie”, “Shrek the Musical”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, and  “Mary Poppins”.   He has also assisted with many productions for Lion Heart off stage and backstage as a stagehand, rigging person (well-being in the production), an animal handler, child wrangler, and stage manager for kids theatre, since he loves to stay busy between his times on stage. All of his past experiences around the stage have led him to stage-manage for his other love outside the theatre, “Moose Fest,” an all-day country music concert for which he has done for 5 years (2015-2019), the last year. 

Brian also LOVES to attend Broadway Grand Rapids tours, Grand Rapids Symphony events, special community "arts" events, in addition to community productions, and write about them.  By doing so, he hopes to bring attention to the awesome shows we are blessed to have locally at the community level for professionals.  If you would like to have your show considered for local coverage, please send me the info for the show and a way to get in contact with you.  To keep up on where I will be for BWW, and my other appearances in West Michigan, head on over and give my Media FB page a BIG “Like” and follow me there as well. 

Emily Schenk works at the University of Michigan and lives in West Bloomfield, Mi with her husband and two dogs Daisy Rey and Scrumpy. She is a former thespian and current Broadway fanatic. She enjoys an annual trip to New York and monthly trips to Broadway in Detroit theaters to continue her support and love for the theatrical arts. You can follow her at @EmmySchenk17 on Instagram to follow her Broadway adventures!