AJ stands for Andrew Jackson, our 7th president. His reputation for toughness earned him the nickname "Old Hickory." A hero of the War of 1812, Jackson has appeared on the $20 bill since 1928.

It all started when I was fourThe Littlest Angel

I was the littlest angel in St. Norbert's College Christmas Pagent.

Even before that, as a toddler, I loved watching my older sister sing and dance on stage. This made me want to do it too.

When she had a tryout for The Christmas Pageant at St. Norbert's College in Green Bay, I went along to watch. When she went up to the stage to tryout, the people casting the roles asked my mom if I wanted to tryout for the part of the littlest angel.

I didn't really know what was going on at the time because I was so young, but when mom asked me if I wanted to do it, I said "sure". I had to sing Happy Birthday by myself in front of everybody.

Apparently I did just fine, because I got the part. I even had one speaking line. It was really fun!

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In the spring of 7th grade, I heard about the school musical, Schoolhouse Rock Live, Jr. I thought it would be fun to audition (tryout) because I love to sing, dance, and act.

I've performed before and knew it would be a good opportunity to work on overcoming my fear of performing in front of big crowds.

I've Performed Before
I've had many different kinds of parts!Close

From kindergarten through 7th grade I had many solos, duets and trios in school concerts:

• Princess Rainbow in Watership Down in the 4th grade;
• A famous glamour girl in a big musical about things on Broadway in 5th grade;
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a marionette/puppet show in 6th grade;
• Choir solo from the musical Rent more recently.

 

Fear of Performing

When I played Princess Rainbow in Watership Down, it was the biggest part I'd had so far, and the first time I felt the fear of performing.

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When I'm nervous, my stomach starts to hurt. Then my legs get numb, even to the point of falling asleep sometimes!

So before a performance, I laugh a lot to get out the anxiety and try to forget about all the people in the audience. Once the performance starts, I relax some, until it's time to do my song solos.

Speaking lines don't bother me, but just before I sing, I get a little nervous again until I'm part way into the song.

When I showed up for tryouts, I found out that a few of my friends were also trying out. That made me feel more comfortable and helped calm my nerves a little.

Before we started the tryouts, we were all making jokes just to get a little more relaxed. After a while, I wasn't nearly as nervous as I was when I first got there.

In order to decide who was going to get the six leading parts, the director and choir teacher had us sing a small verse from a song by ourselves. Next we had to act out a scene from the musical with five other people.

I felt that I did well, but you never really know what they're looking for...

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