Prospectives and Our Own Prospectives

Hi! My name is Courtney Chilton, and I am also a senior musical theatre major. Today we had  scholarship auditions for incoming freshman. The prospective students come to TU and bring their headshots, audition packets, design books, and hopeful dreams and lay them out before the faculty as their knees shake with nerves underneath the table. It was weird to think that we wouldn't be there as they started their college journey next year. Their hopeful yet nervous faces were so like younger versions of our own as we think about the future ahead of us.
We get cards signed for our work hours each semester, and as I got my card signed at the end of the day I wrote something on it in jest. "The beginning of the end." But now I look and realize it isn't the beginning of the end. It's the beginning of the beginning.
As we leave TU, we are the next generation of theater artists. It is to up to us to keep our art form going and still relevant. We need to keep theatre more than just relevant; we need to keep it alive in people's lives and hearts. There are so many different things we can do as we leave. The possibilities are beyond endless. And I am ready to go out and do them all.
This showcase is so important to our futures. Not only is it our first step out in the world, but it is also our first step out together. Who knows what will grow from some of these collaboration? Steppenwolf started with a bunch of graduating classmates bonding together in a (cue melodramatic music) seemingly harsh and hostile world. Look at what they've done. Here's to the start of the next generation of theatre!