Junior Kaitlyn Kenney belted her lines, cautiously remembering the steps to the performance she had been practicing for months, she looked around at her castmates performing alongside her and then turned toward the crowd of over 3000 in front of her.
Kenney has been performing since the third grade, her first performance she dressed up and read from a script as a part of a summer camp’s production for the camper’s parents.
“I like to entertain people and be able to have different experiences that I wouldn’t usually have, but my character would,” Kenney said. “It’s really exhilarating. It’s cool to know that people are interested in what you’re doing and watching that.”
Recently Kenny performed in Zilker Hillside Theater’s 65th annual musical, as Pilar in Legally Blonde. Kenney remarks the performance as her biggest achievement.
“[It’s my biggest achievement] because it’s a community/professional theater in Austin,” Kenney said. “It was just really cool to be able to book my first ever Zilker show at my first Zilker audition and to be able to work with so many talented people.”
When Kenney received news that she got the part she was shocked, in disbelief that such a well-known company in Austin wanted her.
“I auditioned for a lot of professional theaters this summer as a joke,” Kenney said. “I wasn’t expecting any outcome. So when I got my results from my audition. I was really happy and I was like ‘There’s no way they want me for this role.’”
When balancing performing and her personal life, Kenney faces various challenges including scheduling conflicts and maintaining her most valuable asset, her voice.
“When I want to scream and shout at football games, I can’t, because it will destroy my voice, I can’t risk injuring myself or messing something up,” Kenney said. “I schedule between school, Zach’s professional company and I work as a party performer, so a lot of times I have to contact all of my directors and bosses and be like, ‘hey, this is what my weekend looks, what do you want?’”
As a part-time job, Kenney works as a party performer, where she dresses up as different characters for children’s parties and public events.
“In middle school, I used to do cosplay,” Kenney said. “I would wear historical clothing to school every day. And now that I no longer do that, I just still have fun dressing up, participating in themes and just wearing fun cool clothes.”
On top of performing, Kenney used to dance for the McNeil Majestics team but gave it up to devote time to pursuing theater.
“I loved it so much, I miss dancing every time I see them perform,” Kenney said. “It was so cool to be able to perform on the football field and in pep rallies and go to all these different events with the team. We got to go to New York City last year as our trip, which was a dream come true. I saw Broadway musicals and I met actors that I’ve been listening to forever, so I was having a blast the entire time.”
Kenney finds her biggest inspiration to be any black woman in musical theater, Cynthia Erivo specifically stands out to her, whom she discovered from a video of her performing a song from The Color Purple.
“She is just so talented and really awesome, I was watching that because I was singing that song for a recital,” Kenney said. “Then later I had just started watching bootleg videos of her performances and stuff. Now she’s about to play Elphaba in the Wicked series of movies, and that is my favorite musical, so I’m very excited.”
Kenney’s family is encouraging of her decision to pursue theater and helps her get to all of her necessary rehearsals and auditions.
“They let me go to these rehearsals and auditions and audition for shows and be in shows,” Kenney said. “I think they’re really supportive. They believe that I can get a career in theater. And they’re just like, ‘Do your best.’”
Her twin sister, junior Katherine Kenney also used to perform in theater alongside Kenney but quit to participate in other activities, where she now performs in marching band, winter guard, choir, show choir and orchestra.
“I was doing musical theater and volleyball at the same time and then I think it was right before sixth grade, our parents told us we had to pick one,” Katherine said. “So I picked volleyball and then did club. And I mean, I don’t regret it. I loved performing, but volleyball was a great part of my life as well.”
Since Katherine used to perform alongside Kenney, she loves watching her perform at the level she does now.
“I really enjoy getting to go and see the magnitude that she’s performing at because it’s insane,” Katherine said. “With Zilker, she’s 16 years old and got a featured role and then just got a nomination for the B. Iden Payne awards and she was in the Select ensemble at the Heller [Awards] last year. So I don’t tell her, but I’m definitely proud to see her do it because she’s so happy doing it and it just brings a lot of good for her.”
Although they don’t always see eye to eye, the twins share similar interests and believe in each other.
“When she’s set on something, she just 100% goes for it, she’s definitely a huge go-getter, and just kind of jumps feet first into everything,” Katherine said. “We’re twins, so we do have a lot in common, the basic stuff, we wear the same size clothes, we take pretty much all the same classes as well. We’re both really big on music, we were both in band and we both sing and do nails.”
Through Katherine, Kenney was introduced to one of her close friends, junior Maddie Cregar in their freshman year.
“She was on sapphires and then her sister and I had English together so I met her through her sister,” Cregar said. “Kaitlyn is a very passionate performer and friend and I love hanging out with her and I love her family, they’re all the sweetest humans. She’s really made me feel welcome in her family and made feel like a part of it and always makes me feel like I have somewhere to go when I need to talk to someone. I’m so grateful for her.”
Cregar is also in theater with Kenney, last year they performed in the theater’s production of Legally Blonde together and have been working alongside one another for this year’s upcoming production of Little Shop of Horrors.
“It just makes me so proud to watch her perform because I see her in rehearsals every day and getting to see her put it all together, I love watching her do what she loves,” Cregar said. “She’s a good belter when it comes to singing and provides a lot of emotion through her songs and it stands out a lot. I love watching that.”
For Little Shop of Horrors, Cregar is the assistant stage manager and aids in keeping the production up and running, together she and Kenney express passionate feelings toward the theater department.
“We both get really passionate about theater together and when things aren’t going our way, we try our hardest to make it better and make everybody’s experience in this department better,” Cregar said. “We’re just really passionate about that and sometimes it can come out in many different emotions and seem aggressive, but it’s just because we care so much about it.”
In the future Kenney looks forward to further performance opportunities and hopes to attend college and pursue a career in musical theater professionally.
“The end goal for me is to make it on Broadway,” Kenney said. “But just overall, I want to have a career in musical theater, performing and entertaining people past high school.”
For the last three weeks, Kenney has been preparing for her upcoming role as Crystal from Little Shop of Horrors, Oct. 17-19 and hopes to see the audience in front of her.
“I very much relate to her, I think it’s interesting how quickly my character’s mood changes from angry at the world to everything is sunshine and rainbows and really happy,” Kenney said. “I would really appreciate it [if people came to the show], we work hard to put on these shows and it’s just fun to watch and support live theater.”
Kenney’s message to aspiring performers is to keep putting themselves out there and to keep making an effort.
“Keep auditioning and keep putting yourself out of your comfort zone,” Kenney said, “Because I’ve auditioned for literally everything, either as a joke or just to get the experience and it’s gotten me this far.”
