Introduction (otherwise known as: my attempt at making you think I'm interesting so you go read my other articles)

When I was a kid, I hated musicals.

I thought they were corny, overzealous and profusely glorified interpretations of life. No one bursts into song and dance on a daily basis, or even on special occasions. No one wears jazz shoes to work or has a shining spotlight following them wherever they go.

I was a pretty cynical ten year old, as I’m sure you can surmise.

However, somewhere in my teenage angst, I realized that no piece of art has to be a real reflection of the dullness that life sometimes embodies - art can be an escape from suburban hell where everyday is the same, and take you on adventures of glittery costumes and cascading confetti and sparkling lights. I also learned that so many musicals do capture the hardships of life, and some of them tell heart wrenching tales that far surpass my own trials in my young life. A lot of them don’t even have tap dancing or kicklines! (Sidenote: I LOVE tap dancing and kicklines now.) To put it simply, I realized in high school my first impression was entirely wrong, fell madly in love with musical theatre, and began my journey of entering that world in any way that I could.

Prior to discovering how much joy theatre brought me, I’d planned to be a writer. I knew from a very young age it was what I was best at, and in middle school I’d decided after reading far more Cosmopolitan articles than a twelve year old should that I wanted to be a journalist. My world shifted when I fell in love with theatre, though. I learned very quickly that singing and dancing were not my strongest talents, but I’ve always been able to write with as much ease as breathing. Sophomore year of high school I joined a regional group of high school theatre critics and realized that these two worlds could merge together - the world I’d always felt I had a place in, and the world I wanted nothing more than to be a part of. Attending local high school shows and writing up reviews at age sixteen set me on a direct path for what I wanted, and I spent the next four years doing everything I could to make my way to New York and see as many shows as I could and learn as many things as I could about theatre, so that hopefully I could report on news in the industry or even write reviews for a theatre publication someday.

Now, I’m twenty years old, and attending Marymount Manhattan College in pursuit of a double major in digital journalism and theatre arts with a concentration in theatre history. I’m making my way into that world that once seemed so far away, so surreal, and so magical, and I won’t stop until I’ve found my place. This blog will serve as a showcase for some of my best articles that I’ve written - mostly theatre related, but a few editorials may pop up - so hopefully, someone might notice me and point me in the right direction. Until then, I’ll keep compulsively buying tickets to shows with my TDF student membership much more frequently than I should be.