Video: A Declassified Understudy Survival Guide with Kayla Pecchioni

How do Broadway understudies survive? The gig isn't easy! Understudies and swings are some of the hardest working performers on Broadway (and beyond), having to be ready to go on at a moment's notice, often for multiple tracks. Think you could swing it?

In this video, The Great Gatsby understudy extraordinaire Kayla Pecchioni, who is usually onstage eight times a week as Mrs. McKee, breaks down how she manages doing understudy duty as Daisy.

"If you're the understudy,  there's constant preparation that needs to be done behind the scenes to make sure that you stay fresh with your material so that it doesn't feel brand new when you go on," she explained. "But also, when you're in the ensemble every single night, you need to be conscious of not exhausting yourself so that you can be that backup and you can be on standby." Follow Kayla's Declassified Understudy Survival Guide in this video.

Pecchioni's other Broadway credits include: Some Like It Hot, Paradise Square. Tour: The Book of Mormon (Nabulungi), SUMMER (Duckling Donna), Dreamgirls (South Korea). NYC: Radio City. Musical Theatre BFA from NKU.