WRITTEN BY EMERI FETZER

To triumph on stage and screen, theatre professionals strive to master these qualities. Each new scene requires performers to drop their expectations and surrender to the moment.

But it’s not just the material that challenges them. The lifestyle of a performer — from seizing sudden opportunities, planning for times of feast and famine, and a schedule that is anything but 9-to-5 is not for the faint of heart. The crowning example of all this: tour life.

Three recent graduates of the University of Utah Department of Theatre’s Musical Theatre Program (MTP) are riding the waves of this unpredictable equation. They are traveling to all corners of the globe as professional performers, and they are having a blast.

Zoe Killian in A Chorus Line. Photo: Nick Nazzaro

Zoe Killian had two weeks after graduation to get to NYC for rehearsals. She had just been cast in the Tokyo tour of “A Chorus Line” with Baayork Lee directing. She could hardly believe the pace of change.

While rehearsing, Lee, who was staging another production of “A Chorus Line” at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera where one of the actors had dropped out, pulled Killian aside and offered her the role.

After the Pittsburgh contract, she headed to Japan where she performed 10 shows a week.

“I was grateful to be in a new country and experience a new culture. I really enjoy the bonds and relationships with people that I work with,” she said.

Back in NYC and freelancing with Hell’s Kitchen Agency, it wasn’t long before a new opportunity knocked. Just after signing a lease on a new apartment, she booked another tour –– this time with the German and Italian owned AIDA cruise line, where she is now performing in five different shows.

“The U set me up with the tools I needed to do creative processes,” she said. “So much of my journey post-graduation has been about navigating just being a human being, and having to recalibrate what I need when my environment changes so much!” ■ 

Sydney Stephan. Photo: Patrick Crean

Performing six nights a week on the Holland America cruise line, Sydney Stephan has traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Panama Canal, Bora Bora, and French Polynesia.

Right after graduating, Stephan spent a summer with the Virginia City Players in Montana. Thoroughly enjoying this contract, she started to look for the next gig as the season closed.

“I was on Backstage.com and saw a job for a singing pianist on the Holland America line,” she explained. “I grew up playing the piano. I put a reel together and submitted. The next day, someone called me to ask when I could start.”

Having the foresight to pursue new opportunities while finishing up a current run allowed Stephan to avoid a lapse in paid work. It’s a savvy move demonstrating an understanding of the variable nature of her path.

“I went home to my mom’s house in Idaho, unpacked Montana, and repacked cruise suitcase,” she laughed.

U Theatre, she said, prepared her well. “There’s not a day I don’t use the skills I learned in the MTP,” noting things from vocal health to improv. She draws on a solid foundation.

Between ships, Stephan also recently performed a solo concert at Green Room 42 in NYC, where fellow U alums Mary Nikols and Patrick Ryan Castle joined her in backup vocals.

“There’s no through line for the perfect career,” she said. “A lot of young musical theatre performers have an impression that your career is linear –– graduate from school, non-union, equity, equity tour, Broadway. But there are so many pockets of the industry, so many ways to be a performer that might not look exactly like that.”

For now, Holland America is serving her well, and she’s open to whatever comes next.

“It’s so freeing knowing you can find work and be creative and still support yourself... If I can find a way to perform, be creative, continue to grow and support myself, that’s enough for me.” ■

Aathaven Tharmrajah in “Legally Blonde: the Musical”
Photo: Drager Creative

Starring as Emmett in the national tour of “Legally Blonde” was certainly not a possibility on Aathaven Tharmarajah’s radar when he received his diploma.

The day he graduated, he and five of his U Theatre classmates headed straight to tech rehearsal for Pioneer Theatre Company’s “Hello Dolly” in their caps and gowns. With work lined up with Salt Lake Acting Company as well, he was considering staying local for a while.

But he remembered an agent who had reached out following his MTP Senior Showcase. He followed up and was thrilled to be offered representation immediately. Within a day of signing, he had an audition in NYC for the “Legally Blonde” tour. He went to the callback and on his flight home was offered a principal role.

Five months on the road with only two significant breaks proved to be a grueling undertaking.

“We were only two nights in a city. We would finish a show, sleep in a hotel, and then get on a bus, and drive to the next venue. Traveling was a lot on my body. I learned to prioritize my health. I needed a change of habits to adapt to the tour lifestyle,” he said.

Tharmarajah’s relationships formed on the road made the experience. “My cast members and the people we traveled with made it all worth it.”

Having concluded the tour, he is looking forward to a newly booked contract with an off-Broadway show in NYC. Even though the life of a performer is unpredictable, he is full of hope and excitement.

“I just want to be a working professional. I just want to make theatre that touches people’s hearts.” ■