It’s a strange feeling when you go from measuring time by shows to measuring by decades. But… here we are. Like many of the people in this theater, Journey has had an extraordinarily large impact on my life (though in my day it was still part of CYT).
Growing up, my grandma would take us to plays at local theaters, but it never really seemed like something I would be interested in doing. In fact, I didn’t even know it was an option. I was always a sports kid. But let’s just say I got reeeeeally good at riding the bench. So in middle school, when I was asked to play a part after the kid who originally had it backed out, I just thought, “Eh, it’s something to do.” I had a blast!
Then, my teacher heard about a new youth theater company coming to town: CYT. She told my mom, who signed me up for the first summer camp. That fall, I decided to audition for You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. I had never been in a musical before. I’d never really sung on my own in public before. I didn’t know what an audition even looked like. That teacher happened to have a karaoke CD of TV theme songs, so I walked in with “Gilligan’s Island” and got the part of Snoopy. I never looked back.
My life from then on was theater. I quit everything else and became a full blown theater kid. I got to play some amazing parts in Journey, from Snoopy to Daddy Warbucks to Horton the Elephant. After I aged out in 2007, I went to Chicago to pursue a degree in theater, then transferred to a school in LA. After graduating, I moved to NYC to try and make a life on stage. Theater has taken me to some amazing places, and the friends I made along the way are still my best friends to this day. The people who got me started are still a big part of my life.
In every program for every show I am in, I thank the women who started my life as a performer: Bethany Larson, who brought this incredible organization to Vancouver; Beka Hardt, my first Journey director, who made every day feel like the most fun day I’d ever had; Laurie Gaither, that teacher who saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself; my mom, who has been at almost every performance of every one of the dozens of shows I’ve been in over the last 20 years,
drove me to rehearsals, and let me be me; and my grandma, who supported me in everything I did, and supported Journey in huge ways in those early days.
This life of theater isn’t for everyone, but everyone can find a place at Journey. That’s the beauty of it. For some, it may be the spark of a career. For others, it may simply be a fun time with good friends. But for everyone here today, whether on stage or in the audience, you are a part of something big.
Welcome to the family.