Then, at age eight, I went with my Mother to see "The Phantom of the Opera" at the San Diego Civic Theatre. I was originally interested in seeing the show because I saw an episode of "Wishbone" in which the dog was the phantom and he acted out the whole story and then, my Grandmother told me that it was a broadway musical and so I went to see it with great excitment. It surpassed Wishbone by far. My mother tells me that the chandelier was my favorite part and that I gasped every time it fell or lit up. That was when I started to think of theatre as a way of life. That, as my job, I could be in one of these great shows, not the (cute, but) horrible shows I had been in at the JCC summer camp. Yes, The Phantom started it all for me, the crazy world that is theatre.
Then, in 1999, I heard that the JCC had real shows during the year that one had to audition for. I saw this as a great opportunity to learn about the true theatre process, so I autidioned. The show was "Peter Pan" and I was cast as a Pirate. I think I was the most excited pirate of them all, since I actually wanted to be there. I did more and more shows there (I even continued with the summer camps so I wouldn't be missed by all my fellow campers) and got bigger and bigger parts. Then High School came along and I met my favorite person in the whole wide world, my drama teacher, Marinee. She has taught me so much about theatre and "art," and continues to teach me more every time I see her. This year I started taking voice lessons with my other favorite person, Lorea Herald. She really improved my voice and taught me things about myself that I didn't even know. She taught me voice warm-ups and excercises, and now, I can't sing without them (unless I want to loose my voice for the rest of the afternoon.) All of that voice training landed me the role of Mr. Mayor in "Seussical" at the J*Company. I grew to know the director there, Becky Cherlin a lot better during the run of that show. Now she kind of acts as an agent for me, she finds all of these audition notices (mostly for twelve year old boys, but, whatever pays works for me) and emails me about them and I go. I have made every single one of them, I even got my first paycheck from one of them. So, now I am a professional actor, and what makes me a professinoal? I get paid for it. I hope this does turn out to be my career as I get older and I thank everyone who has gotten me as far as I am. I hope to direct eventually and have that be my job, but I wouldn't mind acting either. We'll just have to see what lies ahead.