Binne Lenihan (left) and Deacon Kynan-Wilde (right) take a moment with choreographer Darcy Goodall. Binne and Deacon will be attending the American Musical Theatre Festival in the United States in February. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
From the time the two young musical theatre enthusiasts land in New York, they will be thrust into life behind the scenes of Broadway.
The pair auditioned in Auckland last year to become part of the Kiwi All-Stars team of 25 to represent New Zealand musical theatre.
They will undergo training on the East Coast to prepare them for a 15-minute segment to be performed in Sacramento, California.
Deacon, a year-13 student at Central Southland College, said he was determined to take a shot at the big time and had been slogging away with his fundraising to ensure it happened, but never wanted to see another sausage again.
"I'm so excited for it.
"I think I'm particularly excited just to perform with other people who really love theatre."
He hopes to deepen his theatre experience and meet others who have made theatre their job.
"I think it's going to be quite different from regular shows because of the way it works.
"With this we're given just like five days to put on our entire adjudication and then one day to perform it.
"So it's going to feel very, very rushed.
"I'm quite excited about that."
The pair have been given an extract from Beetlejuice Jr. to study prior to their auditions.
He believed his interest in music came from his music teacher mother, Jolene Kynan-Wilde.
Deacon has been involved in many school productions and has a long involvement with the Invercargill Musical Theatre Company.
While the trip will include daily theatre-skills development, there will be some down-time for the group to go ice skating in Central Park and attend Broadway theatre performances such as The Outsiders, The Great Gatsby and Hamilton.
The New Zealand team will then travel to California where they will find out which roles they will be playing.
He is looking forward to sharing the experience with fellow Southlander Binne, a student at Southland Girls' High School.
"We're quite close and we're pretty much in every show together, so she's a great friend.
"There'll definitely be a lot of pep talks back in our hotel room," he said.
Binne is the granddaughter of Invercargill Musical Theatre company's life member, patron and president Di Lenihan, who has been with the company since 1973.
The 16-year-old, year-12 student has been involved in the arts since she was a young child.
"I'm the third generation to do musical stuff in this family so it definitely runs in the blood," she said.
As a singer-dancer, she said she was looking forward to being immersed in the musical theatre industry "and hearing from people that have been on Broadway that are really big in the musical theatre industry".
It will be her first trip to New York and California, but not her first to the US.
- By Toni McDonald
