BWW Blog: Emma Mueller - I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here

The musical Annie and I have a long, and special history. At the age of seven, it was the first musical that I was in. It was produced by my summer camp, where roles were distributed by seniority; all the older kids got bigger roles. I was one of the youngest, so I was given the part of an ensemble orphan. I won't pretend like I wasn't upset - I wanted to be Annie. But I stuck it out for five weeks, and picked up my little broom from the back of the stage during Hard Knock Life and perfected my sweeping. That was my only part during the entire abridged version.

During tech week, the director's daughter (who played the part of Molly), threw a fit of some sort. Her mother, as a punishment, took away one of her lines in the Hard Knock Life Reprise. That line somehow ended up in my lap. We changed my choreography so I could get to the front of the stage, and organized it so that other orphans passed the microphone down to me in time for my line. However during the show, they forgot to pick up that microphone. So I stood in front of the entire camp, mouth open wide, microphone-less. So I trusted the power of my lungs and screamed the line loud enough so that the entire camp could hear me. That was the moment that I fell in love with acting: just a moment where even though things didn't go as planned, they didn't fall apart. It seems inconsequential, but this moment was special, and made me love live theater.

Then we did Annie again in middle school, I was again that same unnamed ensemble orphan. It was the first real school show that I was in. It taught me that there are no small parts, only small actors. It was the first tight-knit cast that I was in, and I met some of my best friends.

The last time I did Annie, I was a junior in high school. My science-oriented high school didn't put on musicals prior to Annie, so we had our work cut out for us. I was the Costume Designer, Duffy, and a Boylan Sister. It was a task that we undertook and successfully accomplished. It gave me another connection with that musical. After doing Annie the third time, I knew that three times was more than enough.

While I never want to be in Annie again, I've never connected to it as much as I do right now. A short 5 days ago, I moved to New York City to start the adventure of a lifetime. Much like Annie as she's presented with Warbucks' mansion for the first time, she's overwhelmed and excited. She's the epitome of a kid in a candy store. As I begin school at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, I feel like a kid in a candy store, or an orphan in a luxurious mansion.
My increasing knowledge of Tisch and the work that I'm slated to begin next week is leaving me itching to start. It's a path that I didn't think would ever present itself to me. Now, I'm excited to start this new journey. And just like Annie, I think I'm gonna like it here.