Meet the Students of Next on Stage: For Cheslee Duke, Musical Theatre Means the Entire World

We're down to our top 10 contestants in our Next on Stage competition.

Contestant Cheslee Duke shares more about her charity, what musical theatre means to her, and a chill-inducing moment from a production of Newsies!

Check out Cheslee's latest performance HERE.

What charity did you pick and why?

I picked the Alzheimer's Research Foundation because it's a cause very near and dear to my heart. my mom has early onset Alzheimer's, and it's really important to me to donate to maybe help find a cure or just learn more about this disease.

What does musical theatre mean to you?

It means the ENTIRE world. I could not imagine myself doing anything else. I don't even know how to explain it, it's just nice to be able to slip into different realities for a while and musical theatre let's me do exactly that.

Share a memory from seeing a production!

I vividly remember watching Red Mountain Theatre Company's production of Newsies in 2017 and getting the same chills from when I saw it on Broadway in 2014. The final chorus of "Once And For All" where the entire cast just parks and barks towards the audience is always such a magical moment! Anytime a full cast breaks the fourth wall and just SINGS! Instant chills every time. And getting that much of a feeling from a theatre that's considered local to me was even more powerful, it gave me a real "I can do that too!" feeling.

After two successful seasons of our virtual singing competition, we're back again by popular demand with the third season of our online musical theatre singing competition for student performers sponsored by The International College of Musical Theatre.

Check out all of the contestants HERE!