I'm not the best singer in my school. I'm not the best actress either, but I made it to Broadway. Let me explain. It was this past fall when my mother was looking at the Kids Night On Broadway website to buy tickets to a Broadway play. Did you know that the first Tuesday and Wednesday of each month kids can see a free Broadway show if you take an adult with you? Any way, on their website was an essay contest in which Kids were asked to submit essays about their love and experiences with theatre. Winners of the contest would be asked to join the first ever Kids Advisory Board. It sounded like it could be a great experience so I wrote an essay and hit submit. (Never thinking I would win.) Well, I won! Hundreds of kids from across the country submitted essays but only a panel of twenty kids were chosen. I was one of the 20 chosen. I could not believe it! Who knew? I might not be the best singer or the best actress but I could write!! A portion of my essay was even featured in the evenings PLAYBILL. (How cool is that!!)
February 3rd was the 13th Annual Kids Night on Broadway and I was asked to go to NYC to meet the other kids that were also selected for the Advisory Board. (They were flown in from all over the United States) We met at a restaurant called X and 44 and we all got to eat lunch with Rosie O'Donnell. Rosie is the Kids Night on Broadway National Ambassador for 2009. We were asked our opinions on what we think about theater and we also were asked to recommend ways to make Broadway a better experience for kids like us. It was pretty cool because the people asking the questions were professionals who are involved in putting on Broadway plays every night. They were truly interested in what we had to say.

After lunch we were taken by a Double Decker sight seeing bus to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum for a pre-theatre party. That's when the fun really began. We had our pictures taken by the press and we got to see all the wax statues. The Broadway shows had booths with lot of things for kids to do. There were dance lessons taught by the cast of Billy Elliot and Chicago. Cast members from Chicago taught us the steps to "All that Jazz'. Wicked had a photo booth where I was able to dress up like Elphaba and take a picture in Oz. My favorite was The Phantom of the Opera booth. There I met Thelma Pollard who is the production makeup supervisor for Phantom for almost 21 years. I had the honor of her applying my makeup for that evening's night at the theater. She also did the makeup for one of my fellow board members just like the Phantom's. It looked so real it was scary. The cast from the Altar Boyz were signing autographs. We designed a freak flag at the Shrek booth and we got tattoos at the Disney on Broadway Booth. The Kids Advisory Board also had a table that I had the opportunity to work at. There we spoke to kids and ask their opinions about Broadway. I even got orchestra seats to see The Little Mermaid that evening.