Common App: Singing/Musical Theatre
The best place to let loose and sing would always be in the echoing reverberations of my white bathroom tile walls. There is nothing more refreshing than letting my voice permeate the room with the steady cascade of water gently falling on my shoulders. My prolonged karaoke shower sessions quickly developed into a fatal habit. This 'habit' of has been chronically exercised in hourly vocal lessons that I take with my brother’s drama teacher twice a week.
She has helped me immensely in honing my vocal techniques into a profound interest, giving rise to the escalation of requests to preform at school assemblies in addition to centennial and international fairs. Hence my participation in preforming at events subsequently led to an invitation to join the High-school Acapella team “Noteworthy” by my former eighth grade self. As a Middle school student, I was elated to be joining the high school choir team. In "Noteworthy" we explored a divergent array of musical styles from acoustic pop music to classical Bel Canto to African tribal songs. In my own time, I would create covers of soulful artists such as Sam Smith, Bruno Mars, in addition to my mom's favorite Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. I also love creating renditions of my childhood Disney musicals in which gave rise to my lead roles in the "High School Musical Broadway Junior" production and "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change".
In the past two years, I have starred the lead role in a major musical production, and a student-directed series of romantic comedies (both were Broadway scripted performances). When I first auditioned for the "High School Musical Broadway Junior" Production I genuinely wasn’t expecting any major role being one of the youngest actors among the thespians. However, I was stoked to play Ryan, the secondary antagonist and one of 6 main characters in a student body of 42 auditioning people! The musical demanded a minimum of 2 hours of rehearsal everyday after school, weaving in lively choreography and Broadway/salsa for my particular character. It was both challenging and fun trying to embody Ryan’s masculinity. The High School Musical production was a colossal success -- with the most viewers ever in the history of SAS theatre!
My theatrical career continued into a student-directed production named "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change", which is the second-longest running Off Broadway musical with 18 total scenes. In this musical, I was the character Diane, one of the five main roles in the production. Diane resembled much of my own personality; a romantic at heart, caring, and very gentle so her personality flowed naturally to me. I performed one of the two solos in the entire play and sang “I Will Be Loved Tonight”. This solo had an emotionally infused charge where Diane rises to imbue her love with authentic dramatic feelings. It is sweet, shy, and tender; saturated with the 80‘s love-sick sentiment. Although “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” was not nearly as demanding as the “High School Musical” production, it still required the me to stay after school and augment my vocal techniques.