How My Passion For Live Performance "Changed Me For the Better"

Have you ever done something, whether that’s play a sport or write a story, and you thought to yourself, “this is exactly what I’m meant to be doing?” Right in that moment, what you’re doing makes you feel at home. For me, that’s live performance. Whether I’m the one performing or I’m watching someone else, I always know that that’s where I’m supposed to be right in that moment.

Performing piqued my interest at a young age when I saw Wicked for the first time. I must have been no older than six or seven years old, but I’ll never forget that feeling of when I saw Elphaba levitate as she belted the final notes of “Defying Gravity.” I felt like that was exactly where I was supposed to be.

In that theater, I was home.

From there, I went on to perform in countless shows — Including Annie, The Little Mermaid, Les Miserables, Spring Awakening, and Little Shop of Horrors — take years of singing lessons (and recitals), sing in coffeehouses and karaoke nights. It doesn't matter that I wasn't in the Gershwin Theater watching Wicked. Every single time, every single place, I was home.

Me performing as Ilse in Spring Awakening at Yorktown Stage Oct. 2020. | Courtesy of: Emma Rubenstein

I could go on and on about live performance for hours, but what better way to share my passion than through journalism? After all, performing is the main reason I developed a passion for journalism: Through playing different characters, I’ve developed an understanding for multiple perspectives, which in turn has helped me become a transparent, unbiased journalist.

My plan is to cover stories on any form of live performance: Concerts, plays, musicals, dance, and more. In fact, I started covering stories on live performance my freshman year, when I was a Digital Correspondent for Ithaca College's TV Station (ICTV). For both the fall and spring, I highlighted different shows and how they were being performed during times when COVID-19 was at its peak.

My goal is to be as transparent and open as possible, and I believe that covering live performance is the best way for me to accomplish this.

As an anchor on ICTV's morning show, Good Day Ithaca, I use the storytelling skills I learned from performing and apply it to the world of broadcast journalism. | Courtesy of: Grant Johnson

As a journalist, I want to be able to carry forth my passion and (hopefully) spark interest for live performance in my readers. As Glinda sings it, live performance has, "changed me for the better." If I can make just one of my readers feel the way I do about live performance through my journalism, then I have done my job.

Do you have a passion that makes you feel at home, or do you have any particular performances you’d like for me to cover? Feel free to share them in the comments or to email me brookelauryn918@gmail.com