Elizabeth Rachael Gleeson

I am currently going to be a senior in high school, and look to further my career in musical theater. I have been a member of my school's choral program since the 7th grade, and first performed in my school's musicals in 9th grade. My first year of our Encore program, I played a narrator, and narrated parts of the story, and did some small ensemble work in Once on This Island. 10th grade, we put on Seussical the Musical, where I portrayed The Grinch, himself. This past year in the 11th grade, I was selected to play the role of The Wicked Stepmother in Rodger's and Hammerstein's version of Cinderella, landing my own solo and a quartet with my daughters and Cinderella... Bernadette Peters had nothin' on me, haha.

In my years of Encore, I have also played a major part in the set design, assisting the choral director in ideas and sketch dumps of all the possibilites we could have used in our shows. I was there for every work day, to assist everyone with making the props and securing set structure. Even the parents who volunteered were asking me for advice, haha.

When it came to finding costumes and doing makeup, I did all of my make up on my own, and even helped some of the village girls with theirs. The same went for seussical in the year before, helping the animals in the Circus McGurkus get their whiskers, stripes and spots on.

I have always been building my acting skills by making voice overs on my computers at home, and watching some of my favorite Anime voice actors and their techniques. I seem to have a knack for playing villianous or outgoing characters, as I myself am rather outgoing and headstrong.

I have seen two broadway shows so far. In 9th grade I went on a field trip to see Phantom of The Opera, which took my breath away and made my heart flutter with the elegance and beauty, as well as the air of mystery that surrounds the show itself. I whispered the lyrics to the numbers under my breath and lived in the moments between characters, completely awestruck by it all.

It was this last year, however, that truly inspired me to take my career further.

In April of this year, we took a trip to see Wicked. In all honestly, I didn't think that I was going to like it at all, despite the Choral Director's insisting that it was one of the best shows she had ever seen. Of course, I should have known then that it would be fantastic, considering her taste in shows never lets me down. But I was never that big on the Wizard of Oz, and we had been singing the medley for the show every single day since we had received the piece for Chorus. At that point, Wicked seemed 'Wickedly' boring. Some of my friends even chose to stay in school that day, because they had the same views that I did.

Then when we got into the theater, and the show began, my heart suddenly swelled. The acrobatics that were put into action by the men playing the flying monkeys had my mother and I leaning on the edge of our seats, the dramatic music and the jovial singing of the Munchkins held us in contempt, waiting for an explanation as to why they were rejoicing in such a way. The music, the dancing, the special effects, the actors and actresses themselves, and the whole story blew me out of the water. And when the first act came to an end to allow intermission, I felt silly for nearly crying, because it was the most beautiful experience I had ever had.

On the verge of tears and trying to calm myself down, I turned to my best friend (who was also our Price Christopher in Cinderella), and nearly died (With both laughter and relief), seeing the tears rolling down his cheeks and muttering how great it was.

It was in those moments of watching Jackie Burns and Kate Fahrner strut about the stage in all of their beauty and talent, that I realized how desperately I wanted to be on that stage, to be as great as they had been the day I saw them.

I can only hope that someday soon I will be recognized and have a chance to inspire others in the same way that I was, no matter how big or small the role, or job behind the scenes. Musical Theater is truly my heart and soul.