Former Edmond student packs for New York City

Courtney Bryce
Special to The Sun

EDMOND Fri, May 16 2008

— A former Edmond student could soon see her name in lights.
Abby Smith will earn her master’s degree in music theatre from Oklahoma City University in May, shortly before moving to New York to pursue her career.
“I’ve kind of grown up with musicals,” Smith said. “I found musicals were my niche.”
She earned her bachelor’s degree in vocal performance at Harding University. She moved to Houston to perform in plays for the AD Players Theater. And, after three years, Smith decided to attend OCU to earn a master’s degree.
“Being a musician is part of who I am,” she said. “I missed it.”
She chose to attend OCU because of its reputation of having one of the best music theatre programs in the nation. Growing up in a musical family, Smith has had endless support from her parents.
Her father, Steve, is a voice teacher at Julliard and her mother, Carol, accompanies him on the piano.
“Because they’re in the business they think of it as a valid profession,” Smith said. “They completely support me in anything I do.”
Carol Smith said they are very interested in what their daughter is doing and have missed very few of her performances, despite the distance between them.
“It makes me so proud she’s willing to put herself out there and give herself to her singing,” she said.
Carol said what strikes people about Abby is her ability to touch each person she is performing for and communicate with them.
“We used to call her Meryl Streep,” she said. “She was very expressive even back then.”
Abby said she has lived in the south all her life and never planned to move to New York. She said, however, that she made many connections with New York residents in the music profession through programs and workshops at OCU.
“The more I learned about, the less scary and intimidating it was,” she said.
Smith recently was chosen as one of 14 senior and graduate students to represent OCU in a showcase in New York. Abby said directors and casting agents will attend to see if any of the performers are right for roles in their productions. One of the agents who judged the audition for the showcase said he had some roles in mind that might be good for her.
She will perform one of her last roles in Oklahoma at 8 p.m. Saturday at OCU’s Kirkpatrick Fine Arts Center, Northwest 24th and North Blackwelder. She will play Penelope Pennywise in “Urinetown.” Abby said the show is about a town that suffers from a drought and has to revert to paying to use a public restroom. Penelope is in charge of the facility and deals with people who are too poor to keep up with the restroom usage fees.
Abby said the show is a farce of many things, including politics and musicals.

FOR TICKET INFORMATION, call 208-5227.

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.