BWW Blog: Paisley Haddad - One Singular Sensation X3

On Sunday afternoon, I had the pleasure of attending my school's Society of the Arts induction ceremony. It honors women who have graduated from our school and gone on to Broadway or have successful jobs in the Arts. I enjoyed hearing stories of past productions at my high school that took place on the stage that I am performing on today. After the ceremony, I had the pleasure of asking three of the honorees, all past theatre students, one question: What would you tell your high school theatre self now after achieving your goals?

The first person I interviewed was Dani Berthiaume Davis (Producer of Broadway's Little Women and The Lonesome West. She also co-produced the national tour of Little Women and was the Executive Producer of Billy Elliot The Musical 's tour.She was Executive Producer for Shrek The Musical and The Wedding Singer. Currently she is the Executive Producer for the pre-Broadway national tour of Flashdance The Musical. ) and her answer to the question was "You have what you need, so hold onto this, keep this feeling close, keep the spirit of discipline close, keep this sense of confidence close, and just remember and remind yourself everyday that you have what you need to do this, don't let the world break you down."

Next, I interviewed Paula Blute Ebben (Reporter for The Royal Wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William and News Anchor for WBZ-TV News in Boston, which she is nominated this year for an Emmy in the categories of Anchor, Health/Science Feature Report, and News Writing.) Her answer to my question was, "The best thing about high school for theatre, very similar to what athletes go through, even the shows where you're just in the chorus, or helping out backstage, is to value every one of those experiences because you are learning about yourself and you're learning about the process. Sometimes it's a lot of pressure in high school to have the lead or be one of the big stars of the show but one time a girl would be the lead and the next year she would be helping out backstage, and those are all valuable learning experiences no matter what part or production you're working on. It might not make sense in the moment, but those are lessons you will take with you throughout your life no matter what you do."

Finally, I interviewed Lucia Giannetta-Friedman (A Bronx Tale:The Musical directed by Robert DeNiro and Jerry Zaks, the Tony Award nominated Leap of Faith, performed for the Pope's recent visit to NYC in the group, Broadway Inspirational Voices, and is currently in Broadway's Les Miserables) and she answered my question by saying, "Trust yourself, love and accept yourself, because you are everything you need to be."

Speaking with these incredible women gave me such hope for my future, that maybe one day I can be as successful as them. It really shows that they do what they love and they love what they do. From listening to their speeches and hearing their stories, they all had passion for what they wanted in life and were not afraid to go for it. They are the definition of girl power!