For sophomore musical theatre major Gabriella “Gabby” Gonzalez, her career started with the song “Happy Birthday.”
Today, Gonzalez said she would describe herself as a “theatre nerd,” but she wasn’t always so passionate about the subject. Her interest in theatre came from her siblings, she said, who encouraged her to audition for her first show when she was in sixth grade.
“I went up and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and I was cast in the boys ensemble of Guys and Dolls,” she said, laughing.
After that, her devotion to theatre grew. She attended a performing arts high school in Charlotte, North Carolina, “not even knowing you could go to college for theatre,” she said. She now continues studying musical theatre at Winthrop, but said she has also been “starting to branch out more” as an artist.
One of the ways that Gonzalez has seen recent success is through the app, TikTok. She has amassed 35.9 thousand followers on her account @gabriellam.gonzalez thus far and said she has been able to meet several of her musical idols through the platform.
Another opportunity she recently earned through the app was the chance to play the female lead role of Veronica Sawyer in a fully digital production of “Heathers: The Musical,” put on by Russo Richardson Productions.
“Heathers: The Musical is based on the movie [of the same name],” Gonzalez said. “It’s about this high school and there’s some classic mean girls…but there’s a little bit of a twist because there’s some death and some murder.”
Gonzalez said she started the audition process by submitting a video to their casting call through TikTok. Since then, she and the cast have been rehearsing through Zoom and individually recording each part of the show at home.
Before the show’s opening night on Oct. 30, Gonzalez said, “We aren’t really going to know what any of the songs are sounding like until the premiere because we have never gotten to sing any of them together.”
This is just one of the many challenges that she said the show’s team faced during this process. Gonzalez said one of the hardest parts of being in a virtual production like this is the fact that not everyone can be in the same room together.
“We have to kind of relearn everything,” she said, “we’re out of our comfort zones.”
Beyond the trouble this makes in rehearsing the content of the show, she also said, “In theatre, one of the most fun things about being in a show is creating cast bonds,” but with cast members spread throughout several states and Canada, this has been somewhat of a challenge.
Fortunately, Gonzalez said social media, specifically TikTok, has made it possible for the cast to connect with each other and share in this experience of keeping theatre alive while traditional stages remain closed.
“I think the coolest part [of virtual theatre] is being able to be in a show with people from all around,” Gonzalez said. “It’s really cool just to be able to do theatre with people from everywhere. Everyone kind of does theatre differently, so hearing people’s stories…is just so fulfilling because you’re like ‘Yeah…theatre is everywhere, entertainment is everywhere.’”
And theatre does continue to persevere through the COVID-19 pandemic as companies and performers like Gonzalez learn new skills, find new ways to perform and continue to grow with the changing industry.
“I’m holding onto the hope that theatre is going to come out stronger than it was before,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve just grown so much as a person with theatre and I don’t think that I would be where I am in life if I didn’t say, ‘Hey, let me be an apple seller,’ in sixth grade.”
Photo by Kaily Paddie
