ATW’s ‘The Play That Changed My Life’ Contest

The American Theatre Wing’s book “The Play That Changed My Life”, in which 19 of America’s foremost playwrights discuss the plays that most influenced them, will be released on December 1st. In anticipation, The Wing is conducting an online contest and awarding the folks who most clearly, creatively and passionately answer the question: “What is the play that changed your life?” I know what mine was; I’ll be writing about it here during the week. (Hint: it’s a Best Musical winner based on a play)

This week, The Wing is distributing some exclusive quotes to bloggers on some life-changing theatre experiences from last year’s Tony nominees. Here’s what Sutton Foster and Will Swenson had to say; you can find quotes from many other nominees on other ITBA blogs.

SUTTON FOSTER

I have a couple of experiences. I grew up in Georgia, I was born in Georgia but then moved to Michigan for a while, when I was thirteen. I have three touchstones there. When I was maybe six or seven, the community theatre in our little town in Athens, Georgia did a production of You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. They didn’t have enough boys. So they basically asked my brother Hunter if he would play a role in the show. And we had no theatre background or anything. My mom thought it might be fun. And I remember watching him perform, he played Linus in the show, and I remember him, watching it and being mesmerized. And I was like, “What is this? It’s like make believe and people clap for you.” You know? I was like, “This is amazing!” That was sort of my first time when I thought, “Oh, I’d like to do that.” Later, when I lived in Michigan, and was more involved in theatre and dance, I remember seeing some touring productions. I was influenced in Detroit by the Tony Awards, by cast albums, and by touring productions, because we had never been to the city. I remember seeing Me and My Girl and we saw an understudy go on for the first time in the lead role, and I was just mesmerized. I remember when the curtain went down at the end we heard the cast behind the curtain scream and applaud for him. And that blew me away. And then when I was about fifteen or sixteen years old, I remember watching the Tony Awards one year with my mom and dad – it was the year Will Rogers Follies performed ‘Favorite Son’ with Keith Carradine – and I remember turning to my mom and saying, “I could do that. I’m tall, I can dance, I can do that.” And a year later I was on the national tour of Will Rogers Follies.

WILL SWENSON

Mine is two part: I grew up in a theatre family. We ran a theatre in southern California, small, you know, community theatre, and so to me it wasn’t something that I thought, “Oh,” you know, “I’m gonna do the family business.” But I remember when I was eight going to see Annie and I remember thinking, “That’s great. I love that.” And so I was in shows until I was in high school and I became disillusioned with it and I became a football player. Then a touring production of A Chorus Line came through Salt Lake City and I watched whoever the actress was sing ‘At the Ballet.’ And it shocked me. Just hit me in my heart. And I just thought, “Yes everything is beautiful,” in my head it was the theatre, “that’s where everything goes away and you can express yourself.” And that’s when I just thought, “I’m gonna do this.”