“Being backstage there was like a dream come true, to say the very least.’’ “Especially being backstage and seeing how all these actors and all these people that I look up to, how they coexist and how they live in this industry and this place that I’ve so coveted for so long,’’ said Thone. There is also nothing like experiencing first-hand the profession you hope to enter one day. “And just the idea that us, from Wisconsin, we’re able to be on a big Broadway stage and that other people can do it as well.’’ I hope that I can kind of pass that on to the other people that I work with.

And I hope I can allow that joy, that pure happiness that we got to experience, that we had the privilege to experience. And as difficult as it can be, when you have other people that believe in you, you can’t help but believe in yourself a little bit. “I hope I can pass on the support and love,’’ she said. Gibbons, who will be a senior at Green Bay Southwest this fall, also said she knows the importance of paying it forward. And they told us you have to recognize that even if someone might not like your performance, or your audition, that does not mean that they don’t like you.Īmelia Gibbons on stage at Minskoff Theatre. “Because, especially in this industry, so much worth is placed on whether you get a ‘Yes’ or ‘No,’ whether people like you or not. “The thing I took away was the idea of someone said, ‘Who you are is not what you do,’” she said.

Of all the things Gibbons said she’ll take from her trip to New York City, the most important will be advice.

“It’s an opportunity for our high school students throughout northeast Wisconsin to be able to participate in a year-long learning opportunity,’’ said Maria Van Laanen, president and CEO of the Fox Cities PAC, “where they get to engage with touring artists who come through the Fox Cities, here at the Performing Arts Center, as well as receiving specific coaching and feedback to their musical productions.’’

The Fox Cities PAC Center Stage program is in its sixth year and consists of 24 area high schools.

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