“Theater was my first love. I can’t take the theater out of me and I wouldn’t want to. To me, it’s home. ”
I was that little girl that always knew I wanted to be on Broadway.
From the time I saw Beauty and the Beast at the age of 6, I was hooked. I spent my after school hours dancing, taking voice lessons and performing in as many shows as I could. By the time I was ready to go to college there was no question, BFA or bust! During my college graduation my phone started ringing. It was my first professional performing job! Surely, it was always going to be this easy. WRONG. Very very wrong.
I fell out of love with performing.
I didn't have the heart. I wasn't helping people going to audition after audition singing my best eight bars. Even the shows I performed in were great for the few weeks… and then what? I wanted to do something bigger than myself. That is when I found out that teaching theater was an actual job!
I gave up performing cold turkey and jumped in to being a teaching artist. I worked as a choreographer, a director, a dance teacher, a college audition coach, a monologue coach, a costume mistress, a stage manager, a stage management mentor... I did every job I could that involved kids and theater. I made no money. I ran around like a mad woman from job to job, theater to school. I was my own business, secretary, accountant and hired hand. I was a one woman show of mania and I loved every single minute of it.
That lifestyle can only maintain itself for so long. With very little social life and very little money, I was burning the candle at both ends... in my mid 20's. That is when I decided I needed to do the next logical thing. Maintain ALL these jobs AND go back to graduate school. I was itching to understand the world of theater education outside, 'Here Lexie... put on a show'. I wanted to learn more and dig deeper than my musical theater roots.
When I gave up performing eight years ago, I was pretty sure I gave up on the only dream I ever had. Even though it didn't make me happy, it was all I had ever known I wanted. It took until curtain call of the first children's show I ever choreographed to realize that I had found a whole new set of dreams. To this day, with a masters degree, a full time theater teaching job and multiple other side gigs (because I still love the hustle of it all), I have found happiness and joy in giving to others what I had growing up. Passion. Excitement and the Magic of Theater.
Thank you to the students and families who have touched my life. YOU helped me find MY light.