Janiyah McAllister's Theatre Journey

welcome welcome oh i'm kristen i'm happy i just figured we'd go like whatever and you are jenaya i'm so excited you're here thank you for coming on thank you i'm so excited i've like ever since i heard about the podcast i've wanted to be on it forever like yes like i'm always watching and i'm just like i wish that was me oh it is well here you go yeah you're way beyond the drama model podcast like yeah we're not really worthy no we are not worthy and this is not you're the celebrity here yeah yeah you are and this is not your this may be

your first time but hopefully it won't be your last time oh no better not be updating with you yeah i would love that we will catch you in new york or something yeah hello you're coming up yes no i'm looking back at your some of your facebook posts that you did 20 um auditions for musical theater programs yes that should be a lot at 20 different schools yes whoo yes it was a lot um i was still i'm still kind of new to musical theater especially more than like my peers who have been in it for since they were like children children um and so

i wasn't really sure what colleges to apply for which ones would be a best fit for me and also there was just this looming fear in the back of my head that like i'm not going to get into any colleges and things like that and so i just applied to as many as i can i said mom i have to have options i have to have multiple backups and so some i applied to in person some i did virtually um i also did like the combined auditions in tampa they were actually at the strides as well nice and so yes i tried to give myself

as many options as i could so 20 i guess is my lucky number this year and i had a pretty good turnout so i ended up getting into 18 out of the 20 that i applied for oh no so i wow i was pleased with that result let me just tell you we had um two individuals that have businesses that help kids kind of go through the process right because it can be very daunting and overwhelming yeah the information that we received for them that it was like a point seven five percent chance not even a one percent that you get accepted to one school you got 18.

so look at that yes that is something hold your head high about so nice yeah thank you what's the loser school that didn't take you who's kicking them i got i got rejected from yale and ccm okay and those those were my two but um ccn is at cincinnati yes okay and i ended up i'm on the wait list for carnegie but i committed to baldwin wallace and yeah so those are my results which i was looking it's at one of the high reach schools like yes is it where is baldwin is in ohio berea ohio it it's very it was a very random place

for my family and they're like ohio interesting yeah it's interesting for me too i've never really been up north besides being in new york so it's definitely going to be a change for me we've been talking about the huge weather shift yeah not going to be like this really anymore in the winters so and ohio is kind of on the edge of maybe like a midwestern but not quite right they kind of ride that line yeah so it'll be different for you it's gonna be interesting but i have a few friends up there i've been meeting people making connections so that when i go up

there i'm not just like i don't know what to do so yeah i have a pretty good community up there already for me so i'm excited is it a big school or is it a small school no it's a small school pretty small campus okay there's only about 2500 kids wow the campus is very small um yeah it's in a small town and it's not too far from uh cleveland so that's where my friends say that they go to have fun every once in a while so yeah going to cleveland and you got the airport right there so you kind of get the best of

both worlds yeah well you're nice you're just gonna shine like crazy oh yeah i saw there's about 21 in your class yes have you met any of them yes well i haven't been able to meet any of them in person some of them i saw at auditions before i knew we were going to the same school but we have actually a group chat with all of us and every now and then we facetime so it'll be like 20 of us on a facetime it's one of the most chaotic things ever but it's fun especially a bunch of theater kids who are like look at me

yes yeah yeah yes and so we're all like always trying to like see what each other is doing um we actually have i think two kids in my class are actually going to the jimmies so we were talking about that experience with them and it's been really fun they all seem like really great people and i'm really excited yeah i'm really excited that's so nice having that little group already going into college yes yeah you know an intimidating thing to do yes and you already have your group and yeah not have anybody that you know yeah so you have a roommate um i don't have

my roommate yeah i'm still getting into like the housing thing because i uh committed late because of like the carnegie waitlist yes and so i'm still getting my like housing situated but all of my like other stuff is like i guess you could say situated as well yeah but i'm still finding my roommate but cool yeah it'll be interesting to see if they put you with other musical theater people or if they like spread you out and you have like a math major right i mean you know most of my classmates they're paired with one another okay so i'm seeing if someone else in my

class it hasn't been paired up with yet yeah but i mean i wouldn't i don't have any preference i mean if you're a mathematician computer science it doesn't matter yeah it might be bad yeah spend quite as much time the other right yeah yeah well maybe you'll luck out and get like a single as a freshman that's like unheard of it is yeah we can only wish yes exactly do you know what your first year like classes will be like yes so i i tried to kind of rack up on dual enrollment classes my senior year so i've taken six i'm taking three this summer

i took three during the school year and so just so i could kind of ease the load for myself as i go into it because again i still don't know what to expect because i'm double majoring i'm doing music theater and journalism okay just to have a backup yes so i've always loved writing and just so that's awesome yeah and so i tried to do multiple classes and so i just have most of my core curriculum classes covered and now i'm going into music theory piano things like that dance have to get leveled in first to see which like dance level classes i'm going into

but most of those are just going to be my art focused intensive classes for the first year excellent wow well i think it's safe to say you have worked your ass off yeah i'm not done i know i still have some work to do yes but it's going to be worth it i it's going to work out in the end so yeah absolutely doing what you love yes so it sounds like you didn't start really musical theater until middle school i didn't yes i my first show was lion king jr and i only did that show because my family loves lion king movie like it

it's a family like i don't we just love it yeah and so they were like oh well we don't really know what this is but if you like it and it seems like fun then do it my family has always been the type of like uh davencourt school of the arts okay yes and they've always been the types to just say if it seems like something that you want to do do it try it out and you know and so i did and i ended up being refiki in my first show it was so fun yes it was the most fun thing ever and the

next year we did um we did mary poppins actually so i was mary poppins in eighth grade and that's when that's when i was like this is pretty cool like i love singing i was in chorus we had majors and many majors in middle school and my major was chorus i love singing i was a student conductor and so singing was just my my forte yeah so acting i was still getting used to but then i was like this is something that i want to do i want to be good at this and then so that's when i applied to harrison okay gotcha and i

applied for course musical theater got into both ended up choosing musical theater because i said i'm gonna try take a different path and it's been a history since yeah that's amazing that's just proof like what your family was like okay go try it but you never know what you're good at until you give yourself a chance to try it right putting your kids in all kinds of different things yes and especially like i have always like withheld this huge sense of like i've always been scared of rejection and i've always been like the honor roll kid gifted kid you know i want to get straight

a's i want to be good i want to be the best i want to be perfect yeah and you know they've just been the types that's like you do the best that you can do and we are satisfied with that and that will get you to where you need to go and i feel like that is the only reason why i'm here today and with all the accomplishments i've gotten so far because if they hadn't pushed me i would have let my career of rejection take over everything and i would have probably not even applied for harrison and i so yeah so that family support

is yes it's very huge every time we interview somebody it goes back to their parents yes yeah support system for them and encourages well it's hard to be successful without that yeah yeah you're working without your mom being willing to drive you to every right right or you know your dad being there to help you know lug around or whatever it is that they're doing you know yeah yeah it's so true it's like an hour drive for you to school yes when i first started at harrison i was living all the way in kissimi so i would wake up at like four o'clock in the

morning bus would come at 4 30 and for rehearsals the bus would come all the way out there yes what yes the bus would come at 4 30 and we had to do like this bus transfer thing so the bus would come to kissimi then we would go to like daniel jenkins in uh hayne city and then another bus would take us to school we would get to school at about 6 30. wow and it was a lot but it ended up being worth it i was a we did newsies my freshman year before covid yes and i was a swing for that show so

um harrison has like the shuttle buses and so i would take the shuttle bus home would get home at about 6 30 7 o'clock and it was a lot for like me being a freshman my first year there it was a lot but i think it built me to like the things that i needed to learn how to do how to maintain myself be organized and things like that but yes it was a lot but i just started driving my senior year to school so that lightened the load a lot that's when we moved up here and so it made it a lot easier for

myself for my mom and things like that yeah they got you yes so with chorus what was your training were you just training in school or did you have a voice coach at that point when you were like middle school i was actually just training at school it's it was very interesting actually coming to harrison was a little bit of a culture shock for me because i wasn't quite used to like private instruction things like that like my first ever i hadn't heard of a vocal coach until i had got to harrison most of my chorus education took place at school i mean i watched

youtube i watch youtube a lot about everything i i love music theory videos yeah but that's where i just learned that's where my experience came from it's just doing it and performing chorus we had like all state fmea those type of things and i got to do those experiences but that's pretty much where it got started my chorus teacher would help me out every now and then i would ask to stay after school she would help me practice some songs for so on ensemble but that's pretty much the extent that like my vocal coaching had started off to and then when i got to harrison

i got jordan jones yeah yeah and so yes you literally and so that's when it like kicked off and yes absolutely and so i've loved it ever since yeah let me know she loves you yes she's the best she's like your biggest supporter you know i mean obviously aside from your parents and your family and stuff but jordan is just yes oh my gosh she's my rock breathes everything that you're doing you know yeah that's good she's a good teacher yeah oh yeah she loves her spirit and life coach right do you do any dancing or acting outside of school or mostly just from what

you've learned in harrison just basically what i learned in harrison i started my first actual like dance class was at harrison with miss runfro all those that i've been taking the past four years i've never been enrolled in school like after school um activities things like that so that's where all of my experience basically came from it's just school itself and yeah it's been interesting time though i mean between your academics yeah and then contract team as well yes i was on the track team i had to i had to put the track team aside this year because of like every ever since the jimmies

happened and things started blowing up i had to set that aside but i didn't completely cut ties i was the social media manager for my school i managed the team and stuff like that so i just i still wanted to keep my involvement and um it was it was nice my coach is very understanding um of where where i wanted to go and like things that i wanted to do so he still allowed me to keep my involvement with the team so i appreciated him for that too so yeah that's really nice yes that's good and i'm sure you're great like he's getting something out

of it too yes your social media and that's a great skill to have moving forward wanting to do journalism yes yes that's been something that i've been into ever since i'd say sophomore year because during the pandemic of course like everyone exploring new interests trying new things and that right and so that's when i got my first internship doing um social media digital design graphic design for a local hair salon in winter haven and that internship lasted me my whole sophomore year and then that's when i went into school junior year back in person and that's where i started really diving into things designing getting

into social media looking at marketing i almost went to school for marketing but i love writing and i wanted to look more into that side of things yeah so that's why that's a big part of marketing though yes yeah knowing what to write how to write it right yeah i use seo and all that yeah yeah got that and there's no reason why you couldn't kind of migrate through that in the future yes you know yeah i would think right kind of tie it together well your love of writing makes sense how you were able to write about mr sengaki and have him yes nominated

for oh i know what's the title is it acting um inspiring teacher award yes what about him inspire you everything like i remember my freshman year he's the type of person where at first you meet him and you're not quite sure what to expect but he's like he's like a teddy bear like he's so he's so sweet he cares about what he's teaching and that really shows to the work that he does with us and how often he's just he's always so open to us you know asking questions you know during his planning period he'll always give us like tips on acting always willing to

give us critiques we have juries every semester he's always like whenever you have time you know you can come in as a group and we can you know go through that review your jury review your performance critiques and he's just always wanting to build us up as performers and as people as well there are always you know life lessons that he ties into his acting lessons and i feel like that's extremely important especially as high schoolers growing up into adults you need to hear those things and just constant reminders that we're we're human beings in addition to being performers before we're performers and he always

reminds us of that that we're we're still children we're still young adults learning and growing and that's important to keep in mind yeah i do i love that theme that they're not just trying to make a better performance they really are trying to make better people yes send you out into the world good people yeah who are very talented yes right and how to focus that and what to do with all that talent yes and how to use it for good and not evil so i don't even know if that's possible but yeah you know what i mean yeah yeah i want to hear about

the jimmies yes i want to hear about lots of things and your scholarships since you've won and some different things but so last year you were nominated for broadway stars of the future yes back two years also nominated quite a bit this year yes and you performed what did you end up performing i performed as esmeralda for a hunchback of notre dame which was that was just a completely interesting experience because that was i did not know what broadway star of the future was until december of that year after hunchback was over and on my instagram i saw jenaya mccallister and other classmates who were

nominated as well and i texted some of my friends i said like what is this yeah i said what what is this and they were like you could go to the jimmy awards i was like what is that i looked it up and i was like this is big and that was my first musical that i ever performed in at harrison because i was home because of covet the previous year so i came back first show hunchback okay this is really cool this is really fun and then broadway star of the future happened i was nominated and miss lambert like guided us through the whole

process she obviously had had experience with it before with ronnie and his success with that and so she guided us through it let us know what we need to do how we need to prepare and it was great it was the best oh well it was a really good first experience it was my first time doing it and it was a huge success and i love broadway star of the future it was great the first year and hunchback was also just a really good show to be a part of like the whole cast oh my gosh yes yes and ashton yes that is definitely yes

that is definitely the most beautiful show i've ever been a part of and being nominated for as morale done in that role was very very i took it very personally because it the role touched me i learned so many things from that experience not only because it was my first show but just because the the story itself teaches a lot of lessons about humanity and things like that and so yeah so once you're nominated you then i think there's maybe like 30 of you or maybe that's too many i think so about two years ago it was a smaller amount yes about then you go

and you have to audition again yes how does that process work yes so they have this thing called review day and i'm always it's droopy it's my necklace here yeah okay sorry it's okay um technically i just happened to look over and call it sorry they have um this thing called they call it review day and everyone and everyone who's nominated for a leading performer role goes to the strass and auditions for the panel because they sent out multiple people it's about a team of 15 to 20 reviewers i'd say i'm not exactly sure but we went out to showcase what the reviewers who didn't

come to the show couldn't see and that's when we sing about a 32 bar cut of our song and that's when they decide the top 10 performers just from those 32 bars yes and from what they saw on the show right those scores and those reviews as well so they kind of combined both to see who are our top 10 finalists going to be okay and and then you go on and did you get like a phone call or like what was that like well email this lamber is one for surprises she loves and so she would take us into class and she would sit

down give us our announcements for the week all the information and then she'd say okay okay so now we have our results for robber star of the future and we would all sit down in a circle oh girl and she'd say um yes she said our winners are and then our top 10 finalists are and when she said okay well that's what we did during class but fun fact i actually found out before everyone else did because one of my friends who was in college followed the facebook page and they posted it on the facebook group and i was in class and he texted me

and said oh my gosh jenaya i was like what happened you could go to the jimmies i was like what and then so i found out and i was just i i was like ma'am can i please go to the bathroom i just like walked the hallway and i called my mom i was like mom i don't know what this is but like this seems pretty big and i just got nominated for this and i'm talking finally she's like she wasn't familiar with it either and so it was really cool hearing about it and then in my music class with miss lambert she told us

all the news and ashley and i started crying and we were hugging each other and everyone was just so supportive it was so it was a surreal experience finding out and it was great how was it performing at the in the strads was that like completely nerve-wracking or you just like turn it on and do what you need to do it was a little bit of both i'm the type of person where i get nervous beforehand but during the performance i'm like completely fine like as soon as i step on the stage and i see the audience i'm like i'm at home yes it's that

comfort and the environment was very professional you know it's adults the strass staff and broadway star of the future staff and so of course you know miss lambert mr sengaki miss runford always train us to maintain that professional um you know stature and how to behave in environments like that which we were all already pretty familiar with and so it was a really fun experience meeting other people from other schools who have been nominated we had tech that week we have to put the showcase together in one week and performing i think was at an absolutely incredible experience especially in the the i don't know

if you guys have seen the ferguson hall but the ferguson hall is a really really large theater that like it's like mezzanine we were in the box yes cheering on it and everywhere it's a lot larger audience of course than we're used to at harrison and so it could it can be overwhelming but it was comforting having ash in there with me personally yeah and you know having my school in the audience they were all extremely supportive they were all there everyone from harrison was there and it was great it it was a little nerve-wracking just not knowing like am i going to the jimmy's

or not but it was great and lining up holding hands and like waiting for the name yes it was one of the that was probably the most nerve-wracking ever is it five girls and five boys right yes and that was probably the most i like i was probably like shaking i get this thing when i'm nervous like my teeth start shattering like in cold water so i was like but it was it was great but it was great i loved it and even this year like i still got the same nerves i was like why am i nervous i've already experienced this before but it's

just the mystery of it the suspense it just yeah you're surrounded by so much talent right there on that stage yeah when you got to host this year yes that was so fun my favorite part actually of the showcase this year was just reading off the names and just like reading i i loved it so much i felt like i was at the tony's and i could use my like announcer voice that i always like practice at home and it was so fun because like tying into journalism i've always wanted to be like a newscaster like i've always wanted to be like fuck on fox

13 so like i got to like do that i brought a star of the future on the god mic and like announce and things like that i kind of was living the best of both worlds there so yeah yeah okay so really exciting i want the audience to realize that the first time you went to the jimmies or not well yes to the jimmies but to broadly start the future you've been twice you were a junior so how were there a lot of other people there that were juniors or like is that a pretty rare thing to get nominated as a young i'd say it's

somewhat rare yeah but i mean like i've seen the talent is getting like younger and younger like we had a sophomore nominated this year and so last year i believe i was one of two juniors yeah and it was really it made me want to like step up my game i was like okay i'm a junior a bunch of seniors i have to be good i have to be good and it drove me to just like do the best that i can do legitimately and there wasn't really a competitive sense everyone was very welcoming we knew like okay yes one of us is going to

the jimmies but it more felt like we were building a show together rather than you know competing um in the show with one another yeah and i think being a junior and ashton being a senior i got to learn a lot from him in the experience seeing how he went through the rehearsal process how he handled everything and it was a very educational experience for me i learned a lot as a junior and then coming back to school the next year and coming back to just like colt county in general the next year yeah it was just like it was so crazy like a jenaya

mccallister day here's the key to the city it was so crazy because i did like again i wasn't familiar i didn't know how big this stuff got and it was pretty big and so coming back home was crazy it was wild in the best way possible yes yeah yeah well tell us about the jimmies yeah so you you got there yes yeah i know we experienced just going to new york and coming back to pole county like oh wow we didn't even do anything right i can imagine from your point of view i mean we tried kathy tried okay listen you know this office famous

when we went to the cat's belly people don't know they've got all the pictures of the famous people on the wall and kathy was like she grabbed the waiter and she's like yeah so you probably don't know us but we're the drama model you know yeah i just wanted to see if we could meet the owner and get a picture with him you could put it on the wall if you want oh my god joking you know it was lots of fun we did get to meet the owner by the way and yeah we did and we did get our picture yeah they're not on

the wall though it is not on the wall i assume it's okay yeah i'm sure who knows who knows maybe one day they'll be like let's just put it up there yeah yeah maybe it's all good but it was fun yeah so were you there for about a week is that how long you go yes i was there for 10 days we got in i can't remember what day of the week but we were there for yes about 10 days we stayed on uh juilliard's campus in the housing at juilliard i i love juilliard i love the atmosphere the city around it not to mention

the dining hall food oh wow absolutely amazing did you apply there no i didn't apply to juilliard um why not but they i don't know i don't know if it was like the way i was looking at it but it didn't look like they had a musical theater program maybe they don't yes i think they just have like vocal performance and then like they have their instrumentalists and things like that okay um and so it wasn't really somewhere where i could see myself studying for four years new york does seem like a great place but i also wanted to explore other environments and other areas

before i really like leaped into like new york city yeah but i love staying there for the jimmies and having like roommates staying in the dorms being in the city was really fun and it was a lot of we had rehearsals all day from about i'd say eight o'clock in the morning to eight o'clock at night sometimes nine we would have our breaks in between and they treated it like we were equity actors they guided rehearsals um to the actors equity policies and so we had our breaks in that order and things like that and it was it was really fun it didn't even feel

like a competition like it didn't feel like a competition it didn't feel like the super intensive like showcase rehearsal thing it just felt like we were just teenagers doing what we love to do for fun felt like summer camp almost to a certain extent and it was great the creative team of course like broadway professionals broadway veterans we would have actors come in every day we had lashon's last year and we had one of the previous winners who was he was in dear evan hansen now he's in uh another movie with jennifer lawrence i cannot remember his name right now but um it was really

fun and it was i got to meet a lot of influential people and just connections yes and just being able to like meet those people and have those conversations was really like life-changing and has opened a lot of doors and i think i would of course like do it again but it was it was a really fun experience i yeah yeah i think jordan talked a lot about how you came back changed like and how could you not have that experience and come back forever altered yes yeah and have all that right confidence you know and some validation about everything you're doing because it's one

thing to be like a little superstar and you know lake in florida but it's another thing to be put on this comparison of all of these the best in the nation yes yes and this is where you were top eight you were eight yes top eight actresses and that like again like you said validating i was talking to my auntie the other day about how previously because again like i was still kind of new to things because i hadn't been in class in person for a while so it's my first year back and i had a hard time determining you know what i'm good at

what i'm not good at i would base my talent off of of course like my peers and i didn't really have an like accurate perception of who i was as an artist and if what i was doing was adequate and i would base that off of things that were not accurate at all yeah and going to the jammies was a very validating experience for me because it showed me that it's not other people who determine whether you are doing a good job as a performer necessarily like you yourself as an artist have to be satisfied with the work that you're putting out you're the performer

you're entertaining and you have to know that you are doing your job with that and that was just one of the biggest takeaways i have from the jimmies i had my performance coach was janet to call from the original broadway cast of in the heights um now she's in new york new york on broadway and she really just taught me the importance of because performing is very like mental like it's a lot going on up here and with that she showed me that you have to know as the actress what you're doing who you are but also as the entertainer what you're showcasing and who

you are is that and what to take away from every performance that you do and that i think was one of the most valuable lessons for sure from the jimmies yeah i just want to go back to what you said because i love that it's you're the performer no matter what environment you are and other people may see you in different ways and to have other people validate you right i'm not accurately explaining what i'm i just love what you said that's really important yeah yeah yeah you have to believe it right because sometimes you are with a director or something that doesn't necessarily see

you for what you are right you can't base your worth or your talent on that exactly because yeah because the next person might be the best thing since sliced bread right and like building confidence is so hard in this industry especially being young being a young adult because there's so many people to compare yourself to and you know if you don't get cast in this role it's like oh i wasn't enough or if you don't book this gig it's like what did i do wrong but like one thing i've learned is just that you have to be satisfied like i said with what you put

out what you did and that's why i think that comes from every time i have an audition or a performance somewhere every time i got in the car my mom was like so what did you think she always asked me what i thought not we do the same thing yes i want to meet your mom yes like not what did the audience think of you or like what did the judges faces do because right then that puts you in the mindset of every audition you go into watch them and then that takes you out of it again as a performer and you're not focused as

to where you need to be mentally and so just having that perception of who you are of self and self-confidence i think really helps you move further along and i think it's the reason why i've been so ambitious in the things that i do like auditioning for things at the strass and auditioning for you know off-broadway shows and things like that definitely comes from learning that yeah and just put yourself out there you got to be in it to win it right right yeah and so forming at the jimmy's we were watching it in north carolina we were on vacation oh my gosh screaming jumping

up and down was so much fun to watch i can't imagine what was it like to be in a broadway theater performing it oh it was like it was it was crazy like i'm literally getting chills thinking about it because for me it was like a full circle moment because my first show i had did was lion king jr and the theater we performed at was the men's golf theater where lion king and so i actually have a picture of me standing next to the rafiki poster backstage and i was just living my dream in new york that day and some of the performers were

there because it was their off day and they were giving us pep talks backstage you know talking with us about their experiences on broadway what it's like being in that show and being a performer and it was just so so awesome it was so awesome i was living in a dream literally and just being on the stage and just looking out and seeing all the seats huge audience was yes yeah and the energy was like a gut check isn't it yes yes it was so exciting my adrenaline was like rushing like crazy and just seeing the audience seeing how many people were there to see

young artists perform and do what they love to do just showed me that like musical theater is important it's worth going after it's worth going to college for it's worth pursuing and that what you're doing actually matters and so it was just so substantial and it was also just such a confidence booster because like i've made it here because i didn't give up on myself i didn't let what others think of me you know beat me down to the point where i told myself i wasn't good enough and things like that and it's hard when you know we've heard from multiple guests like you get

a lot of no's before you get a yes yes and so having a good self image yes and appreciation for you and what you bring to the table yes it's important to get through all those no's yes it is take you far yeah and you might get less no's because of it you know like when you come in there and you're and you have that aura presence yes when we went to the broadway stars last week was it just last week i know yes it was last week it was the same the day after graduation oh my gosh yeah it was last week yeah you

have such a stage presence i mean not only can you sing beautifully but you're you're you just draw people yes you absorb it thank you just absorb it and you can't help but focus on you you know there'll be like 10 people and i'm like oh oh well there's it's not like there's jania we got her yeah she's talking to me she's singing to me clearly you're not but you get that feeling you know yes that's definitely something i don't think you can teach that i was and i was just about to say i don't know if that's something that has always been there i've

i grew up singing my granddad got me into singing in church and things like that and i'm not sure if that's always been there but it's definitely something that i've learned to grow into and having again like going back to confidence in who you are what you present to the audience and just taking control of the stage commanding the audience's attention i'm not sure where that came from but i bet your mom could tell us yeah but yes i i love i don't know i just love connecting with people i love telling source audiences i love like looking at people when i'm singing and things

like that yeah it's one of my favorite parts of performing was it weird i mean you have said it was weird but just were people treating you differently when you got back yes how was that it was it was mostly it started off on like the internet my instagram facebook things like that and i was like okay that's pretty normal i guess because more people would know on the internet because you know they follow and stuff like that but then in person i would start getting approached in public in stores and then at school it was like wild yes yeah and because like my friends

and other departments they aren't really familiar with it so they didn't know like the specifics of things so all they like knew me as at that point was the girl who performed on broadway this summer which i guess like yes but it was also like it was so crazy and but everyone it was they were so like raving about it it was crazy i loved it but i'm also like i'm not the biggest attention person like my mom would tell you like even for prom i wasn't really big on like fancy dresses or things like like that she's like she's the one that has to

get me into like the big extravagant fun stuff and so i was a little like oh i don't know how to react to this i don't know how to handle it and um yeah it was really weird but it was fun i loved like playing with my friends and like joking about it and stuff and we have like nicknames and stuff and we have so many inside jokes but it was great it was fun i think it's probably just a little taste of what your family is going to be yes it was so shocking to see the people who noticed like i um got to

do i got invited to do multiple events like multiple places and it's gotten to the point where i don't as often have to reach out to people looking for opportunities that they want me to perform at their events and that they're looking at me for my schedule my availability to see if i could like you know cater to them and it's like wow like okay and just like you know not even technically being a complete adult yet it's kind of like you know age kind of doesn't matter here it's just like what you bring and what you show people and they will see that and

take away from that and say okay i want her and things like that and it's been super great i got to work with the mayor of lakeland i got to work with um so many so many cool people and have you thought about needing to get like a manager or an agent yet is that something you're thinking about yes it's also kind of like a looming joke in the family oh my gosh when the family's my manager manager clearly yes and so but the funny thing is i like to take control over like my stuff and like the things i schedule also just because like

i try to take the load off of my mom a lot and so even though she's like i don't like do this i'll do whatever you need to do but it's like but you know you also have to try to get into the pattern of managing things yourself especially with me about to go off to college so i try to like keep my own schedule like i take i brought my i bring my ipad to me everywhere it has like everything on it and that's been an interesting part of it is while i'm still learning i still don't wake up on time sometimes i still

like i still snooze but like i'm still getting used to you know becoming responsible for myself as an artist and getting into that but i don't have any management as of now or any agents but it's been something i've been looking into yeah but so we just um hannah kievit did i say that right so she went to call she just graduated from elon and now she is going to back to the future she's probably there now yeah yeah i actually saw a picture with her graduation and like the next day almost yeah yeah and so she didn't have a manager or anything like that

and she was going to new york and doing auditions and all this stuff but for her school and i'm sure hopefully your school will do the same and you may already be able to answer this question but their senior year they had like a well actually didn't she kind of make it seem like perhaps through the time there that they were well i think had like a shadower or somebody there that was helping her i think that the teachers helped a lot with that but i think she was saying too like they have like an event at the end yeah um of their senior year

in college and the they bring in people yeah managers and agents and things yeah and you can perform and they're there in the audience yeah yeah and then they recruit you maybe yeah it was great timing for her because she was already going through this long um audition process for back to the future so hopefully for you you know you'll have that same thing and you'll be able to be like okay now i can help because i mean i don't think you definitely need one because we've had guests on the show that like oh i don't really need one but it can be helpful it

may not we had someone say it's not going to get you the part but it might get you in the door right absolutely so yes uh baldwin that's one of the things that drew me to baldwin is how personal the faculty was with me they showcased the opportunities that they would have for me and one of those was the showcase that multiple agents it's in new york that they have theirs that multiple agents um managers come to to see you know who are they gonna put in their next show who are they gonna start getting jobs for and so that's one of the things that

really drew me in showed me like there are opportunities out there yeah there are and was there ever a point you know as you were thinking about what are you going to do with your future was there ever a point where you were like i'm not doing college i'm gonna go straight to broadways ever like even a little part of you want to do that there was definitely a little bit it was it came in during my late junior year early senior year like after the jimmies yes and because that would be natural and i was like now this is like right and i was

like this is kind of crazy like there are so many things to do out here and so many places to go but then there's also that part of me that always needs a backup plan okay and i just have i never want to like do anything without having something to fall back on or you know hence why i applied for like 20 colleges and um and double majoring and so i i did for a little bit was like what if i just like leave and start auditioning now but then that was in the back of my head was like tonight are you sure this is

safe and then i was like i don't make a rash decision don't make an emotional decision yes it's a huge risk are there not like colleges that go to the jimmies and then sort of recruit the people who are there who made it that far and then say hey you're at jimmies i want you to come consider my college they do yes yes and did you have that experience yes okay yes the jimmies open like opportunities for a lot of things like we i got asked to audition for high school musical the musical the series oh my god the season yeah so did we do

that did we just casually drop that yeah and then not a big deal we did um i did do that and then i found out that i got mary poffins at my high school and then it was because if i accepted the opportunity to be a part of the show i would have had to go to i i don't know albuquerque for film yes for i believe it was about four months okay oh and then i would be my like right yeah and then i would be like the like half of my senior year and so talking about that my family and things like that

i was like that's a tough decision did they offer you did you get offered to go on that yeah it was the jimmy nominees we it was i think i'm not i believe it was sent out to all of us yeah but a lot of people um because the jimmies are connected with the broadway league and so a lot of those people are connected to disney abc those companies and so they look at the jimmy nominees as like a pool of talent that they can like absolutely you know pull from every now and then so they send out opportunities like high school musical the musical

series they sent out to my the my fellow nominees and i we got to audition and things like that um we got to audition for new york new york that's now happening on broadway okay and just like a bunch of opportunities open for us and of course there were no's in that as well and you know i had to take it easy on myself because it's like this is a like pool of extremely talented people it's the best of the best right yeah and so they're going to be no's and i was okay with that because it was something that i was learning to accept

and grow from yeah and then i went to experience yes to go through the process yes and to even have those people like hear your voice yeah like they know who you are now and so who knows the next project they might need you well and we've learned that right from the people that we've already talked to is that you know they may have gotten 40 no's or whatever it is but then they call you up and they're like hey remember i saw you and you're thinking oh my god you remember who i am yeah but i want you for a different project you know

and so it's so important because you're getting yourself out there kind of the crazy thing awesome the more we talk to people the more you realize like everybody knows everybody is because it like the industry feels big but it's not big and then you know making those connections matters you know 10 years down the road or 15 years down the road yeah something you made that connection on at the jimmy's right they're gonna be like oh we remember you you're your way in yes there are a lot of oh that's so exciting for you yes and they still like sent out opportunities to audition for

different things in development and yeah it's pretty cool it feels like vip almost it's like oh my gosh you guys are asking us to audition right so most people are out pounding the pavement just trying to get in the door yeah that's really neat yes and it's one like really you know well-known casting companies like um bernie tellsley his casting agencies and you know pretty cool people yeah okay yeah and it seems like just saying yes to all those things just to get your face out there knowing that it's probably getting a lot of no's but yes right and it may not even be something

that you're 100 interested in yes you had talked about having to go to albuquerque but it's still good to go through the process yes you know is broadway your end goal no i i've always been one that i like to see new things i like to travel and so broadway is fun and i've but i've talked to people about the lifestyle and they say it's very like it's very there it's very new york and you have to be there you have to know how to manage like your health especially and your lifestyle because you're in new york you're performing like two show days eight times

a week and it can be a lot on the person and the performer mental health yes and so my end goal is to travel i want to even i want to tour like on regional um touring companies and maybe even internationally do a show like outside of the country like you know they have hamilton like in puerto rico uk things like that i would love to do a show outside of the country and that's really what i want to do i want to travel i want to see new things yeah take advantage of it oh yes well right now you're in pippin at the straz

yes oh so tell us about that yes that was also um a really interesting experience that was another one of those like invitation things so um everyone or most people who were nominated for a leading performer got the opportunity to and the invitation to audition for pippin and so pippin has always been one of those shows that like i really wanted to be in and leading player has always been a dream role of mine and i wasn't sure if i should um audition because i know the casting uh the casting table for pippin was pretty closely related to broadway started features judging panel so i

didn't know like oh if i just for this can i not go to the jimmy's and stuff like that but i said oh yeah well i've already had the jimmy's experience and so i was content with not going to the jimmy's with you this year and being able to do a show this summer before i go off to college was something that i wanted to do and so i auditioned didn't know what to expect i almost didn't audition the afternoon of i said i don't know if i can i if i can audition because i want to work this summer okay but my manager texted

me she said you know we can work it out because i had to this i i joke around my family i tell them i i had to quit my day job to perform on broadway i um i quit my job because you know i had to leave for like two weeks and then i had to go to new york for the jimmy's and so that happened but my manager is super understanding they're always you know open arms they tell me anytime you have time you know we're willing to have you back you're probably a fabulous employee yeah probably why i love my job my i

love my managers and so they're really understanding and same thing with pippin they said if this is what you want to do they know that i'm really serious about it i'm not just like playing around and they said just come back to us when you're ready and so i emailed her immediately the same day i said okay my manager said it's fine i'll be there and i auditioned broadway star of the future happened so i was just in a full week of suspense didn't know about the jimmies didn't know about pippin so i just said i'm just gonna do have fun and just do what

i need to do and then the day after broadway started feature i got the call said we'd like to invite you to pippin as the leading player and i screamed because the leading player i've always wanted to play that role seeing uh patina miller and ben vereen in the previous broadway cast was just so cool seeing the original pippin and we're gonna have to come see her oh yeah oh yeah it's an emo weekend so there's only one night we can see it the first okay well we'll just get tickets yeah we're coming we'll be there yeah we're coming yes absolutely so it's another girls

are gonna be so excited oh yeah oh yes that's gonna be fun yeah yeah but it's cool to work in another environment and like i was talking to you about early we only have two and a half weeks to put the show together wow crazy yes we start wow yes so this week i got my script earlier last week and so this week i'm memorizing getting in the mindset getting in character learning doing my research dramaturgy thing and things like that and then next week it's time to roll into the rehearsal process we have full days like they at least have that for you yeah

weeks but we have pretty full days nine to four and so yeah we're getting ready to put the show together i'm really excited is it through patel conservatory or is it yes okay gotcha and so yes working with new people i haven't worked with like i mean i did shows at theater winter haven but this is my first time working in a completely new environment with no familiar faces no one from harrison no one from theater winter haven so that's going to be really fun too and just you know establishing those connections as well yeah gotcha is it a paid gig or they were like

you know you're volunteering your time at community theater kind of that well it's kind of like it's a little bit of both the yes because they sent me on full scholarship and so i have that opportunity as well but yes it's nice yeah that's pretty cool that's awesome and what a great thing for your resume because are they considered a regional is it a regional theater or no because it's patel i'm not sure i'm not exactly sure how i will put it on my resume um and you can do that quite sure yeah oh yeah yeah because that's great yeah wow and you in the

process of all this you've won a few scholarships yes the scholarships have been so crazy recently i've just been so so blessed because a lot of these things i applied for in sember january february and i'm just now hearing about and so i had lost hope i was like oh okay well i didn't get that one yeah i'm working again this weekend yes like i never never stopped applying and so hearing back from those scholarships has been really really cool and a great help of course so like my college is practically paid for but i um still yes so we have a full ride without

a full ride which is great um and so i'm still applying though to just have you know like i said backup you never know and things like that so well because it's the cost of books the cost of supplies the cost of living yes you gotta cover that too you need to like have a camp for this is how you do life because they won't listen to us you're so grounded and yeah and so mature and so articulate and like focused and you are not the typical no you're not high school graduate no it's it's you know we've been fortunate to have some guests on

that are just like you but honestly i the percentage has got to be like less than one percent of the people out there that are going for this stuff i mean we're going through school even like yeah you know i love my children but they are not this prepared yeah i'm hoping that there's a shift we still got time right it's gonna happen but yeah like how organized you are how focused you are it's so funny that you guys say that because it's i mean it's my maturity and responsibility is still something that i'm working on same that's the whole point yeah the fact that

you even know that about where yes like i have moments like i pack for vacations and i like forget my toothbrush and like i like just like stuff like that yeah um but yes it's definitely a learning process and i'm still growing into how i present myself in different environments like i am like this but like at school of course like when i'm around my friends i'm i'm kind of crazy like even my teachers will tell you like janai is a klutz like she's always i'm always joking around i'm always like doing like silly stuff like i'm like i pretty stupidly when i'm like around

my friends and stuff like that but of course i like i know how to separate it i know when to present myself differently i know when to you know bring back that maturity and you know not be just like 17 year old teenager not teenager denial but like professional 17 year teenager so yeah yeah that's huge so yeah half the battle you know oh yeah so you said it's a great stuff you've mentioned a couple of your dream roles what's something else you hope to play in the future um well i really want to be in lion king again um i would love to play

nala in lion king oh yeah um i like i said i'm still working on i haven't had any real like dance dance experiences outside of harrison so i would love to grow in that area and hopefully grow into dancing roles i would love to be in a production of chorus line of course line is my favorite show ever and i would love to be in a chorus line and yeah those are the first ones oh and team moon and once on this island i i did once on this island at theater runner haven my junior year i was erzuli one of the um goddesses but

um i would love to play team moon one day and yeah those are just a couple of my dream roles i see you doing like some hadestown oh my gosh i don't know why i did not even think of that hadestown is one of my favorite musicals yeah yeah it's so good i've always played any of that train yeah oh yes just to be on that stage yes music did you get to see a show when you were at the jimmy's yes we saw moulin bruce oh yeah was that not fabulous it was absolutely amazing and we got to talk with the cast afterwards oh

about yeah yeah it was so cool and hearing again like about their experiences performing on broadway and most of them are young adults as well like in their 20s 30s and it was really cool i like i said i learned so much from the jimmy's and it was such a personal experience too but everyone that they allowed you to talk to and ask questions they were very open to allowing us to get that knowledge ourselves and things like that that's great i love to hear that especially in um different professions where people that have been doing it for a while are supportive of newcomers because

it's very common where you know you end up eating your young right yeah it happens you know and it's just so nice to hear that you had a good positive experience and it's so open and welcoming and yes you know and it all ties back to i think because we are performers to a certain extent but they also kept in mind that like we're children like for me it was like my first time in new york my first time on a flight it was like a bunch of first oh wow the jimmies yes yeah so i'm like this little like baby in new york about

to perform on broadway and they were just so nurturing and so sweet and especially like covid was still a huge factor of the process at that time so they were always making sure we were safe we felt protected and things like that and yeah it was a really great environment to be in as a performer i think yay oh i love that your parents must be so proud oh yeah we're proud we feel yeah we are absolutely what advice would you give kids working towards just being better at musical theater i would just say to never forget that you're growing as a person and that

it's important to allow your mind to grow in that as well and to learn never stop wanting to learn and better yourself better your craft because you know the heights are you know never ending like there are just so many opportunities out there so many different paths to go and once you stop yourself and saying that i can't do this anymore i can't get good at this then you you create that boundary where you can't move past and grow you can't go anywhere past that and that's why i feel like it's so important to always and even i don't know like me taking so many

dual enrollment classes like i'm just interested in so many things and so i like learning and yeah i think just learning is a key to everything being willing to grow yeah and put the time into it yes it's true it takes people that are successful they're they're taking a lot of time outside of classes or school those type of things yes you have to give yourself some grace because even sometimes i'm still very like hard on myself about like you know not booking things or not getting this great on this and things like that but it's over it's done with i learn from it and

i move on and you're moving on and there might be something bigger and better out there you know yeah oh jenaya i feel like regardless of whichever path you choose whatever you're going to be successful yeah you just have your head on straight and you're you're going to tackle this world and we are lucky enough because we're going to get to yeah we get to walk on that journey with you yeah thank you yeah i feel like we've already been journeying with you this year we've been kind of you know stalking you still remembers you guys from the showcase we did at theater when i

hear from the introduction she was like oh my gosh those are the sweet ladies who gave you the introduction i'm like yes mom those are the drama mamas oh you're just so sweet i'm like that's hilarious yeah yeah that's right yeah i forgot about that that was a great showcase we had so much fun yeah we had something going on yeah yeah yeah yeah yes you guys hold a special place in my family's heart yeah i mean you're right there with us so yeah absolutely you know well yeah i bet your mom would have so much good advice yeah i oh my gosh i've learned

so i would not be anything without her and my grandmother are like the biggest two like figures in my life who have really strong women yes who have really led me to where i need to be and who have kept my head on straight for me because i have definitely not always been like this like they have been the ones who have all like they're always getting me back up when i fall in things like that and i don't know if there was something that like because you know we have a i think we have a pretty diverse audience we have kids that listen but

we also have parents that listen yeah um and then not parents as well but like if you were trying i i think our our audience intended don't stop listening if you don't fall in this category it's like to try and just pass along anything that we could learn and any advice that we could get to those parents who are like us just fumbling our way through because we weren't in the theater when we were kids like we don't know this we're learning it in real time with our children yeah so like if there's something that that your parents did or or maybe you've seen other

parents do like what would you what would be the big advice that you would say to us your parents yeah yeah question i would say because sometimes as adults or like whenever you are older and i see myself doing this in environments sometimes where i'm the oldest one i feel that i don't really need to listen to people who are younger than me because i've already had this experience or i already know i already know what you like think you're about to tell me but one thing my mom has showcased me is the opportunity to listen to me she's always asking me questions about my

experiences and always willing to have an open ear to how i feel about certain environments what i want to do she's never ever shut down any of my goals or at first it was like oh are you sure like musical theater is safe like are you sure this is a safe route but after i showed how strongly passionate i was about what i wanted to do she went along with it and it's just having that trust in your children being willing to listen have an open ear learning learning never stops yeah and i think that's a universal truth that applies to anyone of any age

and that's something that my mom has demonstrated that i feel has allowed us both to grow in our relationship as mother and daughters i've grown into an adult and as a performer and her being a mother in theater which she was new to as well yeah and now she took me to new york to watch mj and now she's showing me videos of wow look at this look at this production of this and i'm like look at you you know yes it's been really really cool seeing her grow into it and grow a liking for theater yeah yeah okay that's awesome advice yeah you know

it really is awesome because a lot of the people we've had um you know they've been kind of independent and they've kind of been on this track and not that they haven't had parental support because i think everybody we've talked to has had that it's been a key thing but the parents have just kind of let them kind of drive the boat you know and like whatever full steam ahead or maybe they want to take a step back you know however that was going and i think that's a big yes a big advantage right it's to always kind of be there for them but let

them kind of decide how quickly they want to do it or right well it's a balance though i feel like you know there's plenty of stuff that we kind of we talk through any hesitations in our house yes that's kind of the hard thing because like it's like okay well so you don't want to do it let's talk about why you don't want to do that right like is it is it like a self-image problem do you think you're not worthy of that or are you afraid of something like why do you not want to do it yeah and a lot of times we'll talk

through that and it helps us be okay with it that decision or it helps her like pinky especially we do this with for the shows because it was like she didn't want to audition initially for demo over the summer and i was like why do you not want to do that she's like well i really want to have a summer before harrison and yeah you know kind of have that time to prepare because harrison's gonna be so intense yes you know that kind of thing and i was like okay but you're still gonna get you know two months of that do you not want to

have one last show with your friends because good chance it's gonna be a while before you have time to do it right you know and then it was this back and forth and talking about it she was like yeah i think you're right i think i'll audition and then you know i'll be good with if i get it or don't get it yes just having conversations yes and being willing to like listen to one another and even myself sometimes i tend to like shut out my mom and i'm like i don't want to like necessarily hear what she's saying because it doesn't exactly align with

what i vision and so it's like mom you don't understand you don't get it but like she does because in the end like she's my mother you know she is the adult and she understands and again like we have conversations and most of the time it revolves around me saying no to certain things because you know opportunities are always coming in offers are always coming in and you know one thing she always expresses to me is that you don't always have to say yes and me being the people pleaser that i am yeah i don't want to say no to people like if they want

me to come perform i want to go perform for them you know yeah and so those are what a lot of our conversations based around this jenny you have to be okay with saying no for this reason and that's a huge thing in life there's a lot of adults that can't do that yes and now not yes and like not even to like performances or like anything theater really just like in life just being able to decline yeah move on yeah and have some boundaries right it's huge you know good and and just know that your mom's been through it all may not have been

musical theater but she's been through it absolutely she gets it you know yeah she's gonna miss you when are you leaving she is i'm leaving in august so we're enjoying these two months this summer my birthday is next month my birthday is actually i have a show uh pippin a show of pippin on my birthday but we're celebrating that weekend do you have any siblings no i'm an only child thank god um i love being an only child i talk about it i talk about it so much with my friends because i just feel like i don't know that's why i like i commend all

the moms who have multiple children in theater so much because it's so much like i always tell my mom i i cannot imagine if i had a twin or if i had another sibling that was like mom i want to do theater good luck because like it's a lot it's a lot harder when they're not doing the same thing though that's true there's a lot of divide and conquer in our house yes you know i know and it's hard but i keep reminding myself as i'm making the fifth trip to the theater and back for the day like yeah i only get to do this

for a few more years yep like it may stink in the moment but enjoy those rides in the car because then you're gonna go off to college and i know yeah you're sitting around going what do i do with myself yeah exactly exactly that's when you start doing the theater get two more with stella yeah yeah yeah you still got some time there same yeah it comes really fast yes it like i i still have moments where i'm thinking i'm like moving out of the state in like um two months and i was talking to my mom yesterday because i'm always singing around the house

i don't like to admit it but i sing all the time around the house i'm so loud we have kids like that yeah we do and my mom all the time yeah yeah and i'll hear my mom from the kids she's like chenaya please and i'm like you're gonna miss me when i'm gone you're gonna miss a quiet house and she's like oh no i'm not and then i see her and she's like yes i am but she is she is dying yes yeah a second later she's always like okay fine you can keep singing i'm like i know thank you you're gonna catch her

recording you yeah exactly one of those moments last night we were listening to like 90s pop songs or whatever and um where have all the cowboys gone i don't know if you remember that song probably don't know yeah yeah yeah yeah but anyway it was playing i guess pretty close to when we got home so that is now the ear earwig or whatever and uh so parvati's like dancing around the house it's like 10 30 at night 11 o'clock at night she's like where have all the cowboys gone she's so dramatic sing sing sing and i'm like oh my god stop i want to go

to bed yeah exactly yes that is exactly what my mom was like yeah yep yeah we always know when gabby's in the shower not oh yeah your water but because you're like where ah that's right i did ask her to get in the shower about 15 minutes ago Kate's favorite it's the best the best concert space yeah in the shower in front of the mirror i'll stand outside the door and i'll be like i'm just recording it you know i keep those things we do that when pinky has uh zoom voice lessons with jordan we'll stand outside oh she never sings in front of us

ah like not like full-on singing yeah little like last night but that's not saying so we'll see we'll stand with the voice memo app you know open at the door yeah can we sing her yeah you know yeah she didn't catch it or jordan she sneaky records stuff and send it to us yeah she's our inside hookup yeah all right how are we looking on time we we're like a little over an hour okay that's perfect can i do just a couple quick shout outs before we yeah yeah do it do it do it so i think have you worked with tommy i feel like

you have tommy walford yes yes yeah yeah he and um cory so two of our former guests were on the kelly clarkson show oh i know kelly clarkson oh my gosh yes i saw that yeah that is so cool he is a talented hustler yeah that man i'm not gonna call my boy no they grow up eventually yes he is so focused yeah he goes after uh-huh yeah yeah well they got a chance to talk about uh the theater gap initiative that cory has which is super cool so that was really neat yeah um and i i heard that he has sold the rights to

malcolm x i haven't confirmed it but jj told me who was just in malcolm x at um the strass mm-hmm so so they sold the rights is it like going somewhere yes i don't know the details okay i tried to google it i heard that it's going somewhere yeah right exactly where well no but i don't know exactly where tommy needs to like yeah tell us data yes yeah send us a message that is just the start of many many great things for him yeah yes jj from episode six he graduated high school congratulations he's off the great things as well yes and then hannah

who just recently uh interviewed in episode 25 she is starting she had a birthday she graduated from elon oh my gosh and she moved to new york and is starting uh back to the future i saw there were some cast photos on something i saw last night and there she was in the front all sweat that's so nice that's cool nice yeah she's a great person oh my god yeah oh man she's wonderful yeah great and then just you know as juniors it's this is that time of year where you're getting ready to start your what you just have been through the audition for musical

theater so just a reminder that um episode 17 we had stephen weston from college audition coach you know some great advice from there episode six was college audition pros with drew they both yeah yeah specialize in them they can really help and then also just cat in episode five with as a parent going through the process yeah all the stuff with autumn i don't she didn't do 20 schools but they were pretty close to that yes i think she did a pretty yeah and she's headed up to new york yeah yeah yeah good resources as you're preparing to yeah step into that pool um probably

worth mentioning that that uh i don't know if we're going to get another recording before everybody goes on vacation for the summer something just flew in my ear um so i guess we have a season and this might be the last episode of the season so catch us uh as we start in august with uh season two of the drama mama's podcast yeah uh i think we're going to kick it off we've got a couple other guests i've got a whole little list on my desk to start getting the calendar ready to roll with those guests but yeah we're going to kick out a busy

season yeah yeah it's going to be fun yeah and there's a bunch of fun fun things to do in the area so we got margaritaville that's coming on yeah in june right yeah yeah yeah we got theater winter haven is doing um hairspray so that's good go see autumn in that yep she's tracy so that's and we got pippin at the strass um and the strass has an amazing line oh my gosh oh yes it's amazing and so does um orlando they kind of almost mirror each other so great great opportunities for musical theater oh yeah you're in central florida summer camps and yeah yeah

it's gonna be busy summer yeah absolutely thank you so much thank you so much of course i'm so excited for you we can't wait to just follow all the fun that you're gonna have up there and all the things you're gonna learn we will continue to stalk you yes yes yes absolutely i'm okay with it and if you ever need anything feel free to reach out yeah we are here for you we are you know if you're like oh my god please send me something i need a care package i need something kathy's really good with the care package i am i will be right

on there oh yeah oh my god so whatever yeah we are here to help support you so thank you i appreciate you guys so much i i've always like wanted to come on the show like ever since you guys started this i was like oh my god i don't want to be on that so much so like it's like another dream come true you guys are just making my summer the best it could be before i go off to college so yeah another one off the bucket list well we're gonna have you back because we you got good things in near future we're gonna tell

us about it before you do your next show yeah yes speaking of do you know what they're doing next year at um at baldwin they are actually doing pippin oh my gosh yes hilarious well that would be cool yeah yes reprise your role maybe um but i'm also looking to get some more ensemble experience yeah um on my under my belt which i guess is a blessing to say i haven't really had many opportunities being in the ensemble yeah so i'm looking forward to that going into college so but yeah i'm super excited yeah and pack lots of warm things oh yeah oh well and

my brother went to kent state and he said the hardest thing for him being a florida person was it's gray for like four months like there's no sun so that's so crazy yeah just find a way to keep yourself you know mentally take some vitamin d supplement yeah yes that's what insane beach things on your desktop or something he's really struggled with that i said people get depressed that's that seasonal depression is a real thing because you know it's just great it is yeah yeah i was kind of like that but that's okay we have family up in ohio and a lot of friends in

ohio that i used to work with out at sea world yeah they they love it up there yeah as soon as they could be done here they went back they have that huge what's the the big amusement park up there um oh i know what you're talking about i asked some roller coaster that stella wants to do yeah i'm like we're not going to ohio so you can i'm googling it because that's just what we need in our life right now you know random squirrel we haven't squirreled the whole episode so you know we've been doing good stayed on topic we had a we had

a little drama mama get together and jordan and laura and um and tyler campbell all came and hang out with us oh and cedar point we had squirrel after squirrel after squirrel in that cedar park point point point to your point okay and i don't know where that is in relation to outside cleveland not that you're gonna have time for amusement parks yeah it's a large state yeah i think that when i first like i was looking to but closer maybe to cincinnati i don't know are you taking your car up no we're my um family's driving me up and then we did that my

first year i didn't have a car i don't think i could have a car my first year i don't think they allowed us they of course that was like really yeah that was like 30 years ago so some of my classmates are bringing their cars i really want to bike yeah i want to bike i would want to be an e-bike yes so you can be lazy if you want right mikaela rides like a motorcycle she's decided she wants a motorcycle now and i'm like uh hell no hell to the no although i didn't see something funny yesterday it was a great in her little years a grandy on this big huge three-wheeled motorcycle yeah with her dog strapped in the back like a little tiny but did he have dog she was like 90.

did you say doggles yeah they make doggles they're called doggles dog goggles doggles yeah they're called doggles oh my god that's a ghost yeah i wouldn't have thought that's what they would be called either yeah no they do we got them for um our first dog when we got got married she's passed away now but um but yeah she had a pair of doggles pj insisted on putting those things on her she hated them but she was such a good dog she would just wear them and it was hysterical were you like going to high speed somewhere you just wanted the dog to wear goggles

um i think peter's like the idea of it you know put the goggles on and put them in the car yeah pull the window down she'd stick her head out the window and you know it wouldn't like dry out their eyes or like it protects their eyes you know that's hilarious i don't know yeah you know we don't we can't put the windows down in our car would they jump out yeah i think myla would leave us i think he would jump out and go for the ducks the birds whatever is out there he is bird fanatic oh my gosh you just say bird and

he's like at the window like where where is it one time we used to take the dogs here's another squirrel episode no i like it okay so we used to take the dogs the oh and in case i decide to cut this off bye bye um yeah but next time so we would take the dogs there was a lake of an empty field next to our housing our house development and um so we would take milo over there and like throw the ball and he would run after it and he would always come back with the ball but one day there was i think there

must have been a thousand cattle egress out there like the little white birds yeah and i was like you know what he really just wants to go see him like he there's lots of area to run it won't be a problem to get him back because he comes back on a recall usually so we let him go and he's like living his best life he really is he's running for miles just running back and forth through this giant flock of cattle egrets and he'd run through them trying to get them and they'd just fly up and fly down and he's running through so you could

always tell where he was because the birds were up yeah and we it i think he ran until he just literally couldn't move anymore and he just collapsed in the field and we had to go out there way the out there put the leash on him and try to coax him back home chris had to carry him out of the field oh my god he was like he still dreams about that whenever he's doing this in his dreams no doubt but every time he sees those birds especially the white birds yeah like he loses his oh my god yeah i know i know and then

he was gone for like a couple days no that was being oh that was being that's right that's right yeah that was we have two border collies yeah bean got loose poor bino yeah poor beanie yeah beanie weenie still not quite sure what he encountered during his journey he was gone for like two days when he ran off oh yeah it was really really rough but we found him in the next neighborhood over where the field used to be yeah yeah it was right before we moved before we sold the house and moved to merriton yeah oh my goodness we got him back he's changed

dog though but we won't put the windows down in the car because of milo all right bean with me because milo's still yeah he doesn't like to go in the car and wait it's kind of post traumatic yeah it's like every time we go in the car he barfs oh poor guy yeah look car sickness is a thing it's a real thing it is i know i think i've never been one to experience like it's very odd but like cars i was just like i don't know i had a tendency to always fall asleep in my mom's car again being like the only child i

have she has this huge suv yes yeah so she has like a three row car and i just like it's like my room from the passenger seat back like i'm always yes that's nice yes road trips are a blast yeah that's so nice bring your pillow and you're right are you taking any trips this summer just working and performing and all probably yes probably just staying here home for the most part to yeah collect my stuff yeah before i go off but yeah so it's my college i would go back to college in a heartbeat yeah i work at kiki's breakfast yeah so i'm a

hostess there and i love it and also like of course like the employees we get to like eat our after our shift and so that's nice that's very nice so good it's a great good food yes yeah it is so good like i think i'll take some pancakes right that's good yeah that's nice and i love it there so and from what you're saying it sounds like they'll let you come back on break and pick up shifts and yes you know yeah that's very nice yeah yeah i love it there good job you like yeah there's another life lesson yeah yeah life is too short

to do things you hate right and like some of my friends have jobs they're like oh my gosh i hate it here but i'm only doing it for the money and i'm just like so grateful that like kiki's is like i go there i enjoy my time there yeah and i can save up for college in the the middle yeah exactly i love that your college is paid for that's amazing i know that yeah i was looking trying to find the price of the different colleges because i know some especially being a private 80 000 a year yes yeah that's really exciting does not have

that burden did that have a big influence as to where you wanted to go like where your package yeah somewhat i had to decline pace because of i didn't get receive enough financial aid from there yeah um but at my other schools my top three choices were um carnegie howard and baldwin okay and carnegie was actually cheaper than exponentially cheaper than um baldwin but then i got yes surprisingly because of the academic scholarships i had gotten there because they were very academic school um and so i ended up getting um waitlisted and so i went to baldwin where the academic scholarships still helped me out

too they had like a president scholarship and then the music grants and then they were going to make it happen yeah yeah wow which is that's amazing yeah they waited on me too which i like really appreciated because i was way like almost a month past i know you posted at one point you're going to announce i'm like checking everyone she hasn't announced yet yeah it was a long time past the um deadline but they were waiting they said whenever you're ready we are here waiting for you and i said great yeah that's how you know it's your place right