Post Gazette: "Logan Rowland, a freckle-faced kid who feels right at home navigating a century-old Broadway theater, bounds up the winding staircase that leads to his dressing room.
He leads the way up and up through the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on West 46th Street, just off Broadway. We pass a rack of clothing that occupies the nook outside Nathan Lane's dressing room door and a paper thermometer that indicates the tens of thousands of dollars raised by the cast of 'The Addams Family' for Broadway Cares charities."
4 comments:
Stories of child actors on Broadway always amaze me. This one about Logan Rowland is no different. He is happy and mature and talented and he seems very driven about his career. I used to feel a little sad for these children who give up their childhoods to have a career. However, in reading more and more about them I realize that to them though it is so much work it is so much fun. The fact that they work all day on the show then do all the other studying that they have to do shows great commitment. I even looked up the song that 'What if' that he sings in this interview and its adorable, (in a really creepy way). Hopefully regardless if they stay in theatre for their whole career they will look back on that time with fondness.
Kids who work professionally on Broadway and on tour are pretty amazing, to say the least. I've been doing a lot of interviews with theatre professionals lately for my thesis, and nearly all of them have only good things to say about working with children. In many ways, kids have to work harder than adult actors on a show, because in addition to rehearsals and performances, they also have schooling and homework, and often other lessons as well. To be that busy and under that amount of stress at such a young age requires a tremendous amount of focus, stamina, and determination. Not to mention parents who are supportive and are willing to help you achieve your dreams!
Kids who work on Broadway are pretty amazing, but they aren't as childhood-deprived as we may think. One of my best friends little sister was a part of a recent Broadway production, and her story is all too similar to Logan's. When offered the role on Broadway her family began renting an apartment in New York as well as maintaining their original home. My best friends mother traveled and lived in New York with my best friends little sister, while the rest of the family stayed home. They would travel back home every few weeks.
However, while she was working on the show, her childhood was pretty much intact. Save for the two or three months of rehearsal, she went to school each day, and many of her friends who were also Broadway child actors lived pretty normal lives. They still went out each day and had sleepovers and other things that normal kids do. The main difference between a working theatre child and a normal kid is that those on Broadway have to be very organized and get necessary work done before the show each night. Though it is a career activity, it's not all that different than a normal kid who's on a soccer team in the evenings. Essentially it's a commitment, and most children have those in some form or another.
You do have to admire these kids. I always made the assumption that they had no childhood as well, but when you think about it, their rehearsal hours are completely different from these psychologically scarred childhood film actors we always hear about. I don't really know enough about professional theatre to say that it's something you can continue to do more than film, when considering that a stage actor would probably be less famous and in some ways more versatile because of that (less of a chance of being cast in one movie and never anything else).
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