Chad/> Kimball grew up in Seattle/>, Washington/> (in the Pacific Northwest/>) which he says was a great theater town. When asked how he got his start performing, Chad/>/> laughed and replied, "I was talking to somebody the other day, it was Seth Rudetsky… He said 'when did you learn to sing? He said please don't say in Church. That's where I learned to sing.Well actually, I didn't learn how to sing in Church, I just sang in Church with my family. My family was quite musical. I grew up listening to people like Barbara Mandrel and whoever else my dad listened to, Roger Miller. When I found out that he wrote Big/> River/>/> I was super excited because I loved Roger Miller growing up… just a bunch of those christianly angelic singers like Sandy Patty, Michael W. Smith, you know all those people. That's where I got my influence."
Chad/>/> then moved to performing because to get over shyness as a kid. "They were filming this TV pilot called Adventures of St. Clair Island in Seattle/>/>. It was really kind of low budget. It wasn't like Hollywood/>; they were filming in Seattle/>/> and trying to shop around. My brother was into summer stock Seattle/>/>'s children theatre and I was about seven, I think, and they were having auditions. Our elementary school had gotten the 'word' and my brother was going to go. I asked if I could go too and my mom said sure. I went - and ended up getting it over him and two thousand kids, it was ridiculous! That was my first thing and then when I was about twelve I was in Our Town. I was Joe the paperboy and I was fantastic. I was amazing. I brought the house down with three lines. There are no small roles, only small actors. (he laughs) So that's how I started, and from there on I knew that was what I wanted to do. There was really no question for me"
Chad/>/>'s vocal training began in High School. "We had a great drama department and a great on site voice teacher actually. I started taking lessons with her and doing some community theatre. Then when I was seventeen, I did some professional theatre gigs locally and had already made up my mind that that's what I really wanted to do and my parents really never questioned it."
Chad/>/> applied and was accepted to the Boston Conservatory – a college with no true "acting program" but instead a musical theater program. "There is music, dance, and musical theatre. The acting program is pretty intense for musical theatre students because there is kind of this riff between musical theatre and acting and it's great… it's really healthy. Some people end up leaving because they realize that they don't want to do musical theatre, they just want to act. But, for those that stay, they get a pretty great education in just straight acting." Chad/>/> primarily performed in dramatic plays while in college including roles in Equus, Beowulf, and others by Shakespeare, and Chekhov. "I had a great time in college, and I did some really fantastic stuff. After that, I did Sweeny Todd and I played Tobias. Love that role! We also did the first off Broadway or outside of New York/>/> premiere of Side Show (after it had closed on Broadway) and I played Buddy."
