My Favorite Theatre Roles - and What Each Taught Me About Life

Lesson #1 - You have to be cutthroat

It was the summer of 2013, and I am preparing to enter my first year at the North East School of the Arts (NESA), a performing and visual arts high school in San Antonio. I was cast as Tobias (Toby) in Sweeney Todd – Teen Edition at the Georgetown Palace Theatre. For any horror fans who also happen to do theatre, this is a dream role. Sondheim’s music was new to me, but immediately I fell in love with it. This show is still my favorite musical of all time, but something was brewing that I wasn’t expecting. Playing that character was an absolute joy, and I was going to get the chance to do it again. NESA was going to do it as the winter musical that year. 

I thought that this would be the perfect way to start my high school career, by booking a lead role as a freshman in a mainstage musical. My audition was solid; I landed a callback for the role alongside two other boys. Once I saw who I was auditioning against, my stomach sank, and my confidence exited stage right. There was a boy I had done shows with before, and I knew he was talented. In the callback room, we had to watch each other’s callbacks one after another. I showed up in a fitted button-down shirt and jeans. He showed up in a full-on Tobias costume like he just waltzed off the national tour.  

He sings the callback song, and it is glorious. Fully memorized, well-rehearsed, and creepy. To make matters worse, he looks like a full-blown Tim Burton character. I get up to go after him and despite the fact that I know every line and song by heart, I carry my music up there with me. I sing half-heartedly while staring at the page, afraid to make eye-contact with anyone else in the room. Suffice it to say, I didn’t get the role. But that is when I learned, to make it in a competitive field, you have to be cutthroat (pun intended). 

What I really mean is, you must always perform to the best of your abilities. I was fully prepared and capable of landing that role, but I got in my own way. Doing your best is imperative to your performing arts personal growth. Pursuing theatre is not for the faint-of-heart, and it is not for the weak. This was the first time I did not get a role I wanted, and it would not be the last. Learning to cope with disappointment is one thing, but had I done what I knew I was capable of, I wouldn’t have been disappointed in the first place.  

Lesson #2 - [insert lesson about trust here]

If you aren’t aware of the meta-musical [title of show], I am happy to educate you on a piece of musical theatre gold. It is a musical about four people writing the musical that they are currently performing in. The music is fantastic, and it is hysterical. As a sophomore, I was cast as Jeff in a student-led production of this show. We had a small team of 6 people putting this show together and we spent months rehearsing and connecting. The beautiful thing about working on a team that small is how close you can get to your teammates in such a short amount of time. Building creative teamwork was at the heart of the process for making this show.

The show itself allows for artistic interpretation and lent itself to some very funny moments that were born out of our sense of trust in each other. That sense of safety we were able to create gave us the space to play with the text, timing, and development of these characters in a way that I had not experienced before that point in time. We received good feedback (from what I can remember...the show was ten years ago). The lesson I learned from playing Jeff is that trust-building and teamwork are essential to the creative process. We aren’t ever really creating anything in a void; we will always have people we need to work with to get our projects out there. Artistic fulfillment is rarely accomplished alone.

Lesson #3 - Long Live the Queen (of the Desert)

In 2019, I dropped out of Oklahoma City University and went back home to perform as Felicia/Adam in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert at the Woodlawn Theatre (now the Wonder Theatre). When I made that decision, I was terrified. OCU is known for being one of the most prestigious schools for Musical Theatre in the country. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I knew what it meant to work hard and until then, I was as dedicated a student as anyone else who went to that school. Things changed for me when I got to college, in good ways and bad. In the end, it was very difficult for me to know what choices to make, and I became so overwhelmed by my personal life that it took a massive toll on my educational journey.

Back then, the term “burnout” was new to me. Struggling to recover from a bad breakup and leaving everything behind to move back home was not a fun time, but it was necessary. The truth of the matter is that I was not being honest with myself. I had not been honest with myself for a long time before that, but that was all about to change. Playing Felicia/Adam taught me one of the most important performing arts life lessons - that honesty is the best policy.

I was cast in the show, and I accepted the role. The great thing about Priscilla is the fact that it is so much fun. Felicia was the perfect role for me. She’s cocky, bitchy, sexy, witty, and above all, she was honest. That character doesn’t hold back; she lays it all out on the table and doesn’t care whether or not anyone likes it. She is absurd. It was a great lesson for me in reclaiming my confidence at a time when I was so low. Felicia’s only goal throughout the show is to sing a medley of Kylie Minogue songs at the top of Kings Canyon in the Australian Outback. There is something so pure about her intentions and I realized that if I am going to climb to the top of my own mountain, I need to do the same. 

Every role I’ve played didn’t just live onstage — it lived inside me. The lessons I learned through performing — honesty, resilience, trust, and teamwork — continue to shape how I show up in every part of my life today, from building marketing campaigns to launching new creative projects. Theatre taught me that our stories are never fully our own; they are stitched together by every person we meet, every risk we take, and every connection we make. And whether I’m stepping into a character, writing a new campaign, or chasing a dream halfway across the world, I’ll always be grateful for the life lessons the stage gave me.