Welcome to #TIGERTALK – a SweetwaterNOW exclusive series where Rock Springs High School Tigers inspire our community by telling their stories in their own words.
Hello, my name is Kiera Harrison, and I do theatre and choir at Rock Springs High School. I started theatre in my freshman year and started choir in seventh grade. After four years in the performing arts, I realised I wanted to pursue theatre as a career. So, I auditioned for colleges and conservatories across the country and ended up enrolling in The Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.
At Rock Springs High School, I played Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde”, The Witch in “Into the Woods”, Lucy in “Dracula”, Deena in “Almost Maine”, ensemble in “Mamma Mia!” and “Hello Dolly!”. At Western Wyoming Community College, I played Fräulein Kost in “Cabaret” and performed as the Anya understudy in “Anastasia”. With BOCES, I played The Fairy Godmother in “Cinderella Jr”, The Baroness in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr”, and Babette in “Beauty and the Beast Jr”. Every role has presented a challenge, and in every show, I’ve been pushed. It took me four long years to get to the level where I’m at now.
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As a freshman in theatre, I was inspired by some seriously talented upperclassmen. They were confident and could put themselves out there. So I started practicing and pushing myself as much as I could. I started practicing by myself in practice rooms, which led to me singing in front of my friends and eventually singing to the upperclassmen. It was pretty embarrassing looking back. I wasn’t very good, yet I was attempting to sing some pretty hard songs from shows like “Hamilton” and “Heathers”. But even with all the second- hand embarrassment I feel now, I’m grateful because it helped me get to where I am now.
In my sophomore year, I saw huge improvements. I got to go to Wyoming State Thespians and performed a duet with my best friend, Hannah. It didn’t necessarily go well, but I put myself out there and had fun. That year, we were doing “Into the Woods” for our spring show. I wanted to be Little Red Riding Hood like crazy, but I was told it would never be possible for someone as young and inexperienced as I. Once we got to auditions, I did a monologue from “The Wizard of Oz” with a stuffed dog on a leash, which was mildly cringey but showed that I didn’t take myself too seriously. In the end, they ended up giving me the character with the last bow, The Witch.
This was an insane bump in the road. Nobody had expected me to get Little Red Riding Hood, much less The Witch. The Witch sang a ton of songs and had lots of time on stage, which I was not ready for. I remember being so stressed that I didn’t have an appetite, and sometimes as I was walking, I would feel this weird sinking sensation throughout my body. I remember getting notes from the directors, and they would always say the same thing: “look less stressed” or “look like you’re having fun”. I never understood what they meant by that because I was insanely stressed, and it wasn’t until performances that I would discover the true joy of live theatre.
Live theatre is like nothing else; every crowd is different. Every night, there are different reactions that cause you to change what you’re doing. Sometimes your scene partner says a line differently, so you have to react differently or even say your line in a different way. There are times when things go wrong, props are missing, music tracks aren’t queued right, and lines and entrances are missed. You have no idea when something could go wrong, you can’t prepare for it, and that’s what is so exciting about it.
After “Into the Woods” ended, I realised what I truly loved about performing. I loved hearing my voice echo throughout the theatre, I loved the sound of the crowd laughing, and I loved the adrenaline rush when I first walked onto the stage. So I decided that I really wanted to dedicate myself to it because I loved who I was becoming through theatre.
After playing the Witch, I got the understudy for Anya in “Anastasia” at Western Wyoming Community College. This was another tough learning experience. The girl who got the lead was insanely talented, and I struggled with comparing myself to her. Nonetheless, I memorized all her lines, her choreography and her songs, while I was doing all my ensemble stuff. I held a lot of resentment for the show until I was given the opportunity to perform in front of a full audience of students. Before the show, I only had two rehearsals to make sure I had it down, so I was feeling the nerves.
Nevertheless, I went out and performed to the best of my ability, and it was amazing. The kids were enjoying the show, and all my hard work had paid off. I went to greet the kids in the lobby, and I was met with resounding affection. The kids attacked me with playbills they wanted to be signed, and I hugged more people that day than in my entire life. Pictures were taken, and memories were made. That day, all my jealousy, insecurities and fears melted away. They were replaced with adoration from the kids and praise from my directors at Western Wyoming Community College. That show taught me that even when I was the understudy, I was still as talented as I was before and that everyone has something different to bring to the table.
Since I had been such a good understudy in my first college show, they decided to cast me in Cabaret. I was in a role that needed to be funny but serious. Through this role, I learned how to take my acting seriously and how to act in a more professional setting.
These roles have all been critical in developing my theatre journey as well as who I am. It turned me into someone who can work professionally with anyone, someone who can put themselves out there in any situation, someone who can act when things don’t go to plan and most of all someone who likes who they are. Before theatre, I didn’t like myself, I was socially anxious, self-conscious and had no idea who I was. Freshman year through Junior year showed me how strong I was and that I could pursue whatever I wanted to pursue, so I pursued theatre.
My senior year of high school has been one of the hardest years of my life. I made the decision that theatre was what I wanted to do, so I started taking musical theatre classes at Western. I took Auditions class, Theatre Practicum, Vocal Lessons, Acting, Ballet and Acting for Musical Theatre. These classes once again pushed me to my limit and required me to do stuff I wasn’t good at in front of my classmates. While taking these classes, I kept up with my 4.04 GPA and started my college journey, which was long and challenging.
BFA programs for Theatre have become very popular, leading to hundreds to thousands of applicants auditioning, while most programs only select fifteen to twenty-five students a year. For top programs, the acceptance rate for theatre is five percent to less than one percent.
Given that these programs are so competitive, most theatre students apply to around twenty schools and twenty programs. So that’s what I did, I applied to nineteen schools all around the country, I had schools in Texas, Missouri, Florida, New Jersey, Arizona, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and more. Academically, I was accepted into every school I applied for, but that was only step one. After applying, I had to send in multiple audition videos, with different songs, monologues and dances. These videos often had to be turned in with essays on a music application. Then they would choose whether or not they wanted to see me again.
After turning in these videos, my nineteen schools got slimmed down to around ten. But the process wasn’t over. Now I had the real auditions. Most of the time, I was lucky enough to schedule a Zoom and audition on my computer, but I also had live auditions that I had to fly and drive to.
Day after day, I faced relentless anxiety; every time I heard a notification from my phone, I felt the fear that it was another rejection letter. Every rejection starts to build up, and as your numbers dwindle down, you really start to doubt yourself. You start to wonder if you were ever good enough to compete with the other theatre kids around the country.
Luckily enough, I ended up getting accepted into The Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. I flew to Chicago and instantly fell in love with the city and the program. Everyone was in love with the art there, and everyone felt like they were on their own personal journey to become the best version of themselves. So even though the school is crazy far from my family and friends, even though the program is insanely expensive and most of all, even though the likelihood that I can make any money doing what I love is near impossible, I still chose to enroll in Roosevelt.
I’m not pursuing theatre simply because it’s fun; I’m pursuing it because I love who it has made me, and I’m excited for who I’m going to become. I have no idea what’s going to happen after I move to Chicago, but I know that I’m strong enough to take on whatever comes my way.
