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Actors Todd and Ali Smith Reflect on a Lifetime at SLT

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Actors Todd and Ali Smith Reflect on a Lifetime at SLT

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Todd and Ali Smith have played some of the most beloved characters in theatre history, and many right on The Landers stage. Springfield Little Theatre audiences have seen Todd as Tevye in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and Ali as Aldonza in MAN OF LA MANCHA. The Smiths have been artistic partners in many projects across four decades. Both are musically gifted and trained in acting and improv. They have performed together in mainstage productions as well as original pieces they wrote together.

“We used to do a thing called Smith & Smith,” Ali relayed. “People would hire us all over the place and we would perform for parties and conventions and stuff like that. We would do 20 or 30 minutes of parodies we had written.”

Sharing the stage has been a source of joy throughout their marriage. In fact, their performing partnership predicated their romance and began at Springfield Little Theatre. The pair met when they were cast as the leads in one of musical theater’s greatest love stories, THE MUSIC MAN. Sharing scenes as Harold Hill and Marian Paroo, their real-life chemistry was undeniable.

“So, in 1986, Ali and I were cast opposite each other in THE MUSIC MAN,” Todd began, recounting the short version of a story they have clearly told together countless times. “Then, that was it for us. We knew that’s what we wanted.”

Less than a decade later, they would reprise their roles on a larger stage. SLT partnered with Juanita K. Hammons Hall in 1995 to present a community production of THE MUSIC MAN. By then, the Smiths were married and raising a toddler, but they were once again cast as the leads.

“That was the first nonprofessional production on that stage after Hammons Hall opened. It was kind of a big deal,” Todd recalled. “We had a horse drawn carriage for the Wells Fargo wagon. In Act 1 when the curtain rose, I forget what kind of car it was, but it was an old 1905 automobile on stage.”

“It was a big deal. It was terrifying,” Ali confirmed. “I remember one night we went up in the second balcony when there wasn’t anybody there just to get the audience view and we were like, ‘Holy cow, this is a big place.’”

While the cast was comprised of volunteers, there was a notable Springfield celebrity in the cast.  “If you remember, we also had Ned Reynolds,” Ali giggled. The beloved sportscaster played Harold Hill’s foil, Charlie Cowell. “Whenever we do an ice breaker like in a Sunday school class or something and they say, ‘Tell us something about you we don’t know,’ I always say, ‘I have kissed Ned Reynolds.’ He still calls me ‘Girly Girl’ when he sees me.”

When their child, NYC performer Jody Smith Harper, was born, the couple stayed engaged at SLT, but recall ‘taking turns’ performing to raise their family.

“[SLT] been pretty much a constant throughout our adulthood,” Todd remarked.

“Our marriage for sure,” Ali added.

Ali was the first of the pair to be an SLT regular. She recalls seeing shows with her family that predate SLT officially adopting the Landers Theatre as its home. “I’ve got programs from the late 60s,” she revealed. “When they were performing at Central [High School] and Clara Thompson Hall at Drury, [my parents] took me all the time to the musicals and stuff.”

Throughout her childhood, Ali was a natural performer. She recalls singing with her stuffed animals for her sisters. As she grew up, she became more serious about music, performing in high school productions and studying music and theater in college. She graduated with a degree in theater. “I’ve always been a little extroverted,” Ali laughed.

Following graduation, Ali returned home to Springfield and began regularly volunteering at SLT through the Junior League. Her volunteer placement backstage led to nine years as president of the Stage Technician’s Guild on the Board.

“[Former SLT Technical Director] Chuck [Rogers] and I started the volunteer organization called BRAVO – Backstage Running Crew and Volunteer Organization,” Ali explained. “We had our own awards we gave out. Chuck and I started The Frannies.”

Ali recalls her grandmother being close with The Frannies awards namesake, Frances Vandivort. “The reason we picked ‘The Frannies’ was for Frannie Vandivort who was my grandmother’s best friend. Frannie was part of my life. My grandmother worked in the concession stand, because she didn’t want to be on stage, but she always did it when Frannie was in something. They would use her furniture and stuff. It’s always been a part of my life.”

Her family remained dedicated patrons of the arts. When Ali lost her mother at just 26 years old, the family donated the magnificent chandelier at the Landers in her memory during the 1985 remodel.

Todd also volunteered on the SLT Board of Directors for four years, eventually rising to serve as Board President. In his final year, Ali directed YOU’RE A GOOD MAN CHARLIE BROWN. She notes the production marked SLT alum Lucas Grabeel’s final production. They were also leads in Grabeel’s SLT debut, OLIVER!.

“Springfield Little Theatre is such a unique thing. For a town our size to have this continuously running, very busy place for 90 years is unheard of,” Todd reflected. “The thing that I enjoy most is when I’m in a show – and this dawned on me in OLIVER! – there aren’t many things in life where people from all ages, all walks of life, all different interests are put together and have a common goal. I think that is just so cool.”

“Some of our best friends are in their 20s. I don’t know about that in very many other instances,” Ali added.

“Especially in the world we live in today,” Todd continued. “It’s almost impossible to get people from disparate backgrounds, different thoughts about things to admit they have anything in common.”

The duo still volleys between backstage and on-stage contributions. Ali worked on crew when Todd performed in SOMETHING ROTTEN. Recently, Todd performed in one of his dream roles as Tevye in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Ali worked backstage for the show and later that season, they served on crew together for GUYS AND DOLLS. The pair say that being in the theater is all that matters to them.

“If I really love a show, I enjoy being in the chorus,” Ali professed. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“I’ve had some of the most fun just being in the chorus like SPAMALOT,” Todd agreed.

“I love working backstage, too,” Ali said.

Todd recalls that he fell in love with many shows as a child from the perspective of an audience member. He has grown into several of those roles and given them his own spin as an adult.

““[Springfield] Little Theatre used to do one big musical a year. They would bring in a well-known star. In fact, when they did OLIVER! at the Landers, Betty Buckley was Nancy,” Todd recalled. “They were either an up-and-coming new talent, or a TV star everybody knew by name. In 1970, they did THE MUSIC MAN. The guy who played [Harold Hill] was a guy named Robert Horton from a western called WAGON TRAIN. That was a big deal to have a TV star on stage.”

After all the shows the Smiths have watched, directed, acted in, and worked tech for, THE MUSIC MAN remains a special tie through their relationship.

“THE MUSIC MAN is the first live theater thing I ever saw. It’s the thread,” Todd declared.

“It’s also the first show I was ever in in high school,” Ali added. “My dad was a barber shop singer, so he sang all THE MUSIC MAN barbershop stuff, too. It’s just been kind of the heartbeat of our lives. We just didn’t know how big of a deal it was gonna be.”

Begin your SLT volunteer journey this season. Explore opportunities to get involved now.

Choir Director Alberta Smith Found a Refuge in Theatre Then Paid It Forward at SLT

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There is a great comfort in practicing a song, then looking across the music stand to see choir director Alberta Smith cheering you on. Her joyful spirit and enthusiastic encouragement are often the greatest reward for a hard-fought performance. Affectionately referred to as “Smitty” by her students, Smith is best known for her musical talents. However, she is passionate about being involved in every facet of theater. Being well rounded, she says, is at the heart of Springfield Little Theatre’s culture.

“I was on and off stage. I love doing both kinds of things,” Smith professed. “It seems like everybody does that at SLT. If you get really involved, you’re not just on stage. If you’re just on stage, it’s like, why would you do that? There are so many jobs you can do to help out.”

Smith is now the Choir Director at Westminster Presbyterian Church following more than forty years as a choral director across Missouri. Locally, she is perhaps best known as a beloved former teacher at Central High School where she was once a student. Her cheerful disposition seems innate, but her passion for students in the arts was born in her own crisis.

Smith’s parents deserted their family when she was just entering high school. Courts granted her older sister custody of the young teen when she was in her freshman year. Despite the domestic turmoil, Smith’s friends encouraged her to audition for the Central High School production of THE LARK, featuring the life of Joan of Arc.

“It was a drama, not a musical. I tried out for it, and I got a role in it,” Smith recalled with wonder. “I was Joan’s little sister. Then I was the understudy for Joan.”

Smith dedicated herself fully to her assignments. Performers can be tempted to be dismissive of an understudy position, especially for a short run of a show. She, instead, was thorough, learning multiple roles of her own and fully committing the lead to memory. When the senior student cast as Joan became unavailable after the first performance, Smith stepped into the spotlight for the rest of the weekend. 

“As the understudy, I took that really seriously and I memorized her entire role. It was a lot,” Smith admitted. “[Joan] was the centerpiece of the show. We had three performances. They let the senior play it once. I, as the understudy, played the other two. That was my first introduction to theater.”

Through that performance, Smith discovered her passion and connected with a lifeline. Central’s drama teacher at the time, SLT alum Kay Jones, encouraged her to continue in theater, and gave Smith somewhere stable to live – with Jones’ mother. Jones was active at SLT and invited Smith to explore opportunities within the organization.

“[Kay] played leads in big shows,” Smith admired. “She played in WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF with Tess Harper, and I worked backstage for that show. Kay was like, ‘You should come work for the show.’ I think I worked CAMELOT, MAME, WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, and then the beginning of my sophomore year, I tried out for a play. I got the part.”

Jones inspired Smith to continue in the theater, but she always knew she loved singing. It wasn’t until her junior year that Smith connected with one of her biggest lifelong mentors and fully realized her passion for music.

“I got in choir with Connie Bilyeu. I wasn’t even in there with her until my junior year of high school. I was doing all the drama stuff,” Smith emphasized. “I asked her to play for me at the drama banquet. She played for me and asked, ‘Why aren’t you in choir?’ So, then I got back into choir.”

Having an outlet where she could be creative and challenge herself during a difficult time at home revealed to Smith what the arts can do for young people – especially in times of need. She loved the craft and became committed to helping kids. Bilyeu helped her envision that interest as a career.

“I did a lot with her, worked for her a lot, helped her as much as I could. She said, ‘I think you could do this, if you want to,’” Smith recounted. “In my mind, the way I grew up and everything behind me, it never even dawned on me that I could go to college. I hadn’t even thought of it. I decided then, I’m gonna be a choir teacher, so that’s what I did. I never looked back. I never doubted it at all.”

Smith has become that inspiration and champion for her own students. She enthusiastically praised former students who have graduated and gone on to build – and even found – arts organizations in the Ozarks.

After attending Southwest Baptist University and teaching in St. Louis and rural Missouri, Smith primarily taught at Central High School in Springfield. In the 2000s, she noticed her students were as plugged into SLT as she once was.

“When I started teaching [at Central] I realized, ‘Oh my goodness, these kids do it all.’ They did the IB program, they did my program, they did Gretchen Teague’s program, and they did Y.E.S. Troupe,” she marveled. “I didn’t understand how involved that was for them. They just juggled it all. They came to everything I needed them at. They rarely missed.”

One year, Central and SLT partnered to take students to New York and Smith served as a chaperone. It would become the first of many such trips and led to her more dedicated involvement in the SLT education program.

“I really got to know the Troupe kids [on that trip], then [SLT Education Director] Lorianne [Dunn] asked me if I would do their vocals,” Smith explained. “I did it for several years. We did New York trips so that each student involved in Troupe could go to New York once in their four-year term with Y.E.S. Troupe.”

Smith says teaching at SLT reinvigorated her own interest in performing. Although doing shows for an audience is always special, Smith says that her most magical memory at the Landers actually occurred during an audition. Several of her own students watched her callback for CATS. All the auditioners who were up for a role were asked to sing ‘Memory.’

“A whole bunch of my kids at Central, had tried out for CATS and made callbacks. They were all standing in the wings watching me sing,” Smith reminisced. “It didn’t really dawn on me, they had never heard me sing in a professional sense. Of course, they would hear me sing in choir and at the end of the year I would always sing this song called ‘May You’ to the seniors, and I would cry my way through it, so that was their memory of me singing. But I nailed that song in my audition. I turned around to walk out, and those kids all came rushing me and crying like, ‘We didn’t know you could sing like that!’ That is like my greatest memory.”

That audition landed her the role of Jennyanydots, marking her first named role in a musical at SLT. Previous performances she enjoyed include JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, SWEENEY TODD, CINDERELLA and CHILDREN OF EDEN. Smith says she has marveled at all the talent she has seen and performed with at the Landers. Many have gone on to great professional success, including her own students.

“Think of all the families that have been [at SLT], starting with the Crosbys back in the 70s. Kim [Crosby] was in OLIVER! Being in a show with Betty Buckley – she played Nancy in that show,” Smith recalled. “Then I was in other stuff like THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER. Tess Harper was in that. I was in a show with Tess Harper. It was just fantastic and just all the people who have gone on and done incredible things that you get to share the stage with.”

Throughout her career, Smith was busy raising her own family who shared her interest in music. She appreciated that bringing her children to work always felt welcome and that they also enjoyed being involved.

“It’s this place that feels like family. Everybody is very connected. I think any place you’re at, any program you’re at, connecting with people is the most important thing. SLT is really, really good at that,” Smith reflected. “[My daughter] Aubrey was in a lot of those shows with me. She was very focused on opera, but we did several shows together and that was so much fun. My older son, Quint, I dragged him along to everything. He had to sit in the auditorium at the Landers and watch me. My grandson definitely is going to be at SLT when the time comes.”

Smith says she has stayed involved at SLT because it aligns with her primary value as an arts educator. If there is any lesson she successfully imparts on all her students, she hopes it is this.

“SLT has an environment of kindness and this drive to persist to the perfection. You should always persist to the perfection,” she encouraged. “Don’t expect to achieve it, because it’s live theatre. Anything can happen. All of us have seen stuff happen on stage. It’s that dynamic of its real life, but it’s all of these people persisting to that perfection that makes it so special.”

Explore education opportunities at SLT this season.

 

An Onstage Mishap at SLT Sparked LA Actor Lenny Hernandez’ Career

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Actor Lenny Hernandez has been popping up on your screen for nearly two decades. He’s appeared on Nickelodeon and filmed a Comedy Central pilot. His most prolific gigs have been in commercials for major companies including Listerine, Dairy Queen and Tylenol. For all his Hollywood success, however, he’s never forgotten the first laugh that made him fall in love with performing.

As a high school freshman, Hernandez was cast in the ensemble of THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW at Springfield Little Theatre. He balanced rehearsals with football practice until the actor cast as Ichabod Crane dropped out for his own athletic ambitions. With less than ten days before opening, Hernandez was asked to learn the part of the famous schoolteacher. He recalls his first crash course in learning a part under a hard time crunch.

“[Assistant director] Tonya [Cunningham] and I met all day Saturday and all-day Sunday the weekend before the Thursday we opened,” he remembered. “I got the notice midweek, so on Saturday and Sunday the weekend before we opened, she and I rehearsed stuff and ran like three, four hours the weekend before to just run it, and run it, and run it.”

At the time, the show’s director Beth Domann was building up the education program and wearing many hats. Hernandez recalls that Domann had spent all week constructing a plaster horse that Hernandez could actually sit on.

“I mount the horse for the first time and then [my character] gets scared, so I start spinning. I accidentally kicked the head of the horse, and it flops over and breaks,” Hernandez explained. “So, the horse head is just limp.”

The disastrous prop malfunction could have been an unfortunate footnote in the show’s run, but Hernandez used his comedic skills to turn it into an opportunity.

“I do like a 25-second bit with the horse head trying to get his head back upright. I’m like, ‘No! Gunpowder, are you okay? No, I hurt you. Are you okay?’ I lifted it up and it fell back over, so I lifted it up, let go of it, and it just fell back over,” he laughed. “I’ll never forget it because my mom has a very distinct laugh and, as anyone who knows Beth Domann also knows, she has a very distinct laugh. I can hear both my mom and Beth in different parts of the auditorium laughing hysterically over everyone. It’s just one of those moments that I’ll never forget. Having that moment where it’s just like, ‘Oh, I’m making two of my favorite people laugh very loudly from this silly little thing I’m doing with this horse head that I accidentally broke.’”

Hernandez’ magnetic stage presence was apparent from a young age. A middle school teacher noticed how entertaining his class presentations were and approached his mother to recommend Springfield Little Theatre for further training. He leaped at the chance to learn dancing, acting, and improv and started in classes with Beth Domann.

“Beth was absolutely funny. She was one of my favorite people. I could tell you that I’m sure she found me to be some kind of obnoxious little thirteen-year-old. I was attempting to be a thirteen-year-old brown version of Jim Carrey. No doubt about it,” Hernandez joked. “That was me and I was always just bold.”

He continued acting through Central High School with Dr. Gretchen Teague then unexpectedly landed in the theater program at Drury University. Once again, he was spotted for his talent and recruited to the school.

“I was planning on just going to OTC because I didn’t know anything about colleges,” he admitted. “Nobody told me about how to do that process. About two weeks before school was letting out, we had a student teacher from Drury ask me, ‘Are you going anywhere to college for theater? Drury is auditioning in two weekends. You should audition for Drury.’ So, I auditioned for Drury and got in for their theatre program, which is insane.”

However, in his first year of college, Dr. Teague invited him to attend a performance of WEST SIDE STORY at Missouri State University with her class. Hernandez was mesmerized by the Broadway classic for a very personal reason. It was the first show he had seen representing the Puerto Rican community like his own family heritage.

“I said, ‘That’s the kind of theater I want to be doing,’” he reflected. “After seeing WEST SIDE STORY, this is a show about brown people. That’s what I want to do.”

After graduating with a BFA, Hernandez headed west. Within months of moving to Los Angeles, he had booked an agent and only a few auditions later landed his first job. As the lead in a series of promotions for New York New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Hernandez quickly learned how tedious film work can be.

“They flew us out to Vegas for five days. I was the lead, and it was my first time on set. It was just such a wild experience,” he recalled. “The first day there, we did the club sequence, so they booked out an entire modeling agency out of Vegas. They had a crane shot where they followed me with a crane through a crowd as I’m weaving and bobbing my head. They go, ‘Action!’ Then call, ‘Cut, cut, cut, cut! Back to one.’ Like four times they called cut after just a handful of movements and I was like, ‘What am I doing? What’s going on?’ And somebody goes up and was like, ‘No, no, no. It’s not you. The extras are staring at the camera.’ So, they had to go to each one of these extras and tell them to stop looking directly at the camera when it cranes through, because they’re models, they aren’t actors. That was a hilarious part of that.”

Hernandez’ most memorable acting note from the shoot was that the director didn’t want to see the blood flowing in his neck veins, so he had to hold his breath for 40 seconds through multiple takes.

As he adjusted to screen acting, he recalled his SLT training. Commercials, he noticed, don’t have complicated back stories or time to develop the character.

“The biggest thing with commercial work is you really have to use your imagination to put yourself in the situation as quickly as possible,” he explained. “That was stuff that I learned with Beth at SLT was using your imagination to help you see it and visualize it. That’s where the commercial work starts landing you gigs. That’s a direct reflection of the training I did at SLT in those middle school years.”

Hernandez said that his experience at SLT has also opened more opportunities by knowing when to say, ‘Yes.’  “Another great thing about being adaptable from SLT and beyond is that when you book or try to audition for things and you didn’t get in, they would sometimes offer, do you want to work crew? Do you want to work back behind the camera?”

One such opportunity appeared on the set of ALIENS, CLOWNS, AND GEEKS with director Richard Elfman – brother of celebrated composer, Danny Elfman. When Hernandez lost out on the role he auditioned for, he had the opportunity to assist Elfman on set.

“On the second to last day, we had a very long day, very heavy in prosthetics, and some guy dropped out, so guess who got to fill in as a full-blown prosthetic alien? Me! So, I got to step in and get an actual credit in front of the camera,” Hernandez remembered. “I would always recommend to people, even if you don’t get the role you want, figure out a way to still be part of the production. Even if it’s behind the cameras or behind stage, just so you can learn more things that you had not known before. You can always use that to your advantage moving forward.”

After the pandemic hit, Hernandez relocated back to Missouri, auditioning remotely as the industry became less concentrated in LA. He recently toured the festival circuit with multi-award-winning short film PARADISO, which he starred in and produced. The short also features SLT alum, Imari Stout. He will next appear in upcoming major feature film DUST TO MALIBU filmed primarily in Springfield.

Hernandez admits that film work can be clinical. The actor is often a tool for the director to get the shot they want. He occasionally feels the pull to do stage work again, which he finds to be a more creative endeavor. He starred in the award-winning Hollywood Fringe play SAVING CAIN and returned to SLT to lead PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED directed by Beth Domann.

“What prepared me to go out to LA was the fact that people like Beth Domann and Dr. Gretchen Teague empowered kids to fully go as far as they can when it comes to performing,” Hernandez credited. “Be as ridiculous or insane or left field as you possibly can to see if something works, then find the best way of doing things as it works inside the script or the environment you have created. That’s one of the biggest things about theater, and learning it early on, is learning how to really be free of your self-conscience.”

How NYC Singer Brandon Looney is Using His Art to Help Others

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New York City performer Brandon Looney has been settled in the Big Apple for more than a decade, but on occasion, he still heeds a special call to come home to the Landers’ stage. For BRANDON LOONEY PRESENTS: I STILL FEEL ALIVE, the singer is uniting friends from Springfield Little Theatre and coworkers in NYC for a powerhouse performance.

“I am super excited. We have a live band that’s coming, three SLT people: Sally Trtan, Sheristen McCullah, Imari Stout,” Looney announced. Trtan and McCullah just wrapped up performances in WAITRESS and Stout played the iconic princess in the most recent staging of CINDERELLA. “I am also flying in three of my dancers from the first show – Moe Ivey and AJ Blankenship. They are incredible artists who took time out of their day. Both of them have been on Broadway, they’ve toured, they’ve worked on MATILDA. They’ve done very, very cool stuff and I’m just so happy they agreed to come along and fly down to my hometown. It’s going to be fun.”

Come ready to get up and dance, Looney teased. The concert is filled with great music, high energy, and vocals that promise to bring the house down.

“It’s genres of music I go to when I’m feeling happy or feeling sad. It’s a mixture of things and will definitely take you on a journey,” he promised. “It’s going to be such a great time. It’s very high energy, fast paced. You’re going to be up on your feet. I’m encouraging dancing, dancing in the aisles. There will be a lot of stuff going on, it’s going to be super, super fun.”

The show is a celebration, but ticket sales will support a very important cause. Looney was diagnosed with end stage kidney disease in 2023 and has been undergoing dialysis three times a week. He also receives an infusion every eight weeks to combat the Atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) with which he was diagnosed in 2024. aHUS is a rare genetic disorder affecting only 2 out of every 1 million Americans that causes the formation of tiny blood clots that reduce or prevent proper blood flow, especially to the kidneys. Despite his diagnosis, Looney is still performing regularly.

“When I attend dialysis, I’m the youngest person by 30, 40 years,” he noted. “It’s interesting to be in the dialysis facility – which I’m there three times a week – and still get to go and perform during the nighttime. I’ll take a little nap, then show up at the theater at 6, and perform my little heart out. It’s been such a blessing to be able to still do this and perform and travel and still get to do what I love.”

Looney has a living donor, which increases longevity of the organ. Recovery from the surgery can take three to six months and, Looney explained, there is virtually no federal aid for transplant patients or their donors. Recognizing the cost of recovery, Looney hopes to be able to support other patients.

“I’m trying to launch an LLC so I can put on and produce shows and most of the proceeds would go to helping people with end stage kidney disease,” he announced. “That’s my next project and I’m going to switch over into producer realm to do that as well. That’s been on my heart the last year or so. How fun is it to be in this situation and still be able to perform, and I can use both of those things to maybe help someone else? That’s my next step.”

Looney began acting at Central High School with drama teacher, Dr. Gretchen Teague. When several of his classmates started leaving rehearsals early to go downtown, he grew curious. He went to see them on the Landers stage and got hooked.

“I caught the first HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL. It was the first thing I ever saw [at Springfield Little Theatre] and I was like, ‘Wow, that was so much fun.’ I saw all of my friends in it. Then I auditioned for ALICE IN WONDERLAND, JR. That was my first show there.”

Looney grew up singing with family and in church, but he admits he struggled singing in front of people. Looney was a member of Y.E.S. Troupe his junior and senior years and performed in several shows. When he became involved with SLT programs, he began to open up for audiences.

“Springfield Little Theatre really taught me confidence,” he reflected. “I’ve always been a singer. I come from a family full of singers. I very much struggled getting up and singing in front of people before Springfield Little Theatre for sure. I’ve always had a stage fright situation, and I just never really knew what it was. I started doing things at theatre and it helped me being around my peers. It really smashed a lot of that.”

Looney made a splash in 2021 when he returned to SLT to star as Lola in KINKY BOOTS. The show played to raucous audiences and made a lasting impact on Looney’s soul.

“The material, doing that back home, performing in front of my family, it was just a long list of things that literally changed my life,” he shared. “It really, really did. It was incredible. I just love the show but also coming back to my home theater and the storyline hitting so close to home, it was just so many things that made a perfect experience that I will never forget.”

His performance even inspired his aunt, Brecka Henderson, to pursue performing. Henderson will also make a guest appearance in I STILL FEEL ALIVE.

“I did KINKY BOOTS and that was actually the first time that a lot of my extended family came to see the show,” Looney explained. “I had been performing for 20 years and that was the first time that many of them had ever seen me perform. It was very interesting. My aunt saw the show and just fell in love with theater, and she auditioned for CINDERELLA. Now she understands what she didn’t get 15 years ago. She is like, ‘Oh, I love these people. I understand why you do show after show after show.’ It’s just so much fun. You’re so supported. That’s the environment that we should all be in.”

In 2013, Looney was attending MSU for a non—performance degree when he got an opportunity to perform professionally in NYC. He quickly became a staple of the New York nightlife scene with power-packed performances as host of the The Box. Today, he is a singer at theatrical burlesque Company XIV in Brooklyn appearing next in their production QUEEN OF HEARTS.

“They’re a relatively new company of about 12 years, but they put on incredible productions,” he explained. “It’s super cool. It’s Cirque du Soleil meets Broadway style. They have an incredible team. That’s been my longest running job in New York. I’ve been there for about six years now. It’s been wonderful. They change shows every three to four months, so it’s something new every time you come.”

Looney is still appreciative of those experiences at Springfield Little Theatre and Central High School that prepared him for a flourishing career in the arts.

“Springfield Little Theatre, it gave me such a sense of community and belonging and just that self-confidence. Being able to go out there and know that if I flop or not, I’ll have all of that support with my peers. We’re very much cheering each other on. I’ve never been in that environment before, but that environment there is so strong that it really just helped me in so many other areas of my life.”

Tickets are still available for BRANDON LOONEY PRESENTS: I STILL FEEL ALIVE.

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