{"id":22041,"date":"2021-05-06T20:56:47","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T20:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=22041"},"modified":"2021-06-16T12:57:36","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T12:57:36","slug":"broadway-reopens-september","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/broadway-reopens-september\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadway’s Return Is Scary Yet Exciting For Young Actors"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: Jamie McCarthy\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Satori Folkes-Stone graduated from the University of Southern California<\/a> in 2019 and immediately moved across the country<\/a> to New York City<\/a> to perform in Broadway\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>West Side Story<\/span><\/em>. Years of training prepared her for this moment and in an instant, she found herself without the one thing she\u2019d worked so hard for. \u201cI had my dream job,\u201d she says. “I’ve worked towards this my whole life and I succeeded. The only reason I’m not doing that job right now is because of a pandemic. It was rough to come down from the <\/span>glitter<\/span><\/em>\u00a0of it all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Over a year ago, essentially all live theaters closed<\/a>. And within those 14 months, the theater industry faced a blackout they\u2019d never planned for. At its core, live theater is meant to be shared with an audience. Actors use the energy from the crowd as a tool to create the best show. The pandemic took away their audience, making the inside of their homes their only listeners. And while breaking the \u201cfourth wall\u201d isn\u2019t common, the lack thereof left many actors feeling lost. \u201c[Theater closing] felt like my breath had been taken away,\u201d Alexandria Thomas says. \u201cThe art I create and the art that I absorb feels like the air I breathe and it felt like someone was slowly \u2013 if not abruptly \u2013 cutting off my oxygen supply. I was no longer able to thrive through my creativity because I no longer had collaboration. And in a time where there’s a virus spreading, there is no collaboration allowed. So that was the biggest strike to the core of me as a creator.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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A post shared by Satori Folkes-Stone (@__satori___)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n