Just An Act

As she had her music playing loudly, she sang to the top of her lungs, while listening to her Glee soundtrack. She hit every note, singing and dancing along with them.

Katelyn Bowman is a Musical Theatre major at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO. However, her hometown is Louisville, Kentucky. She came to Missouri on an academic scholarship and decided to go to Lindenwood because it was one of the only schools in the Midwest that had musical theatre.

“I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people's minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing,” she says as she quotes Audrey Hepburn.

Audrey Hepburn, is one of her favorite icons. Katelyn also enjoys learning Spanish, which she is teaching herself to become fluent.  She watches a lot of Spanish Novelas and listens to a lot of Spanish music. Her favorite Spanish singer was Selena.

“I take dance classes three days a week from Jazz to Ballet”, she says while she demonstrated a Ballet move.

The summer before coming to Lindenwood, Katelyn took part in a big role, Hair Spray the musical, as Little Inez.

“After I perform I have a lot of energy, however sometimes I am overwhelmed,” she says with hand gestures.

She then explained to me how she has to change up her appearance for the shows. “Now that I have really short hair there is not much to do with it so I have to use a lot of different wigs and hair accessories to fit the part,” She said as she pat her short brown fro. “I guess no one likes the natural,” she then joked.

She has participated in other plays at Lindenwood such as “Once upon a Mattress”, “Urine Town”, “One Act” and “A Christmas Carol”.

“I recently auditioned for The Muny in Forest Park, I’m anxious for the results,” she says sighing.

When she is not doing homework or at rehearsals, Katelyn is acting as a host for shows that she did not make the cut for, that way she can sit and enjoy the plays as well.

“I don’t know how she does it all” Her Roommate Jessica says, “She never has time for herself; it’s always work, rehearsal, and school”.

Katelyn gets up every morning for class at eight a.m. and is attending classes until four p.m. Then she’ll do Work and Learn, which is an on-campus job that helps pay for your tuition. After that it’s straight to rehearsal.

“She sings very loud when she is in the shower, the neighbor always knocks on our door asking if we could be quiet, “says Jessica playfully teasing Katelyn.

When asked about whether her parents are supportive or not, Katelyn told me that both are her parents are very supportive.

“My mom gets a little scared sometimes about me going to different auditions around St. Louis, with me being four hours away”, Katelyn says.

Her dad is oversees, in the military stationed in Europe. With the time zone being different, and her busy schedule, she has to find time to talk to him because she’s pretty much a daddy’s girl.

“I try to go home every holiday, to relax and just enjoy time with my family,” she says.

Her future plans are to move to a big city like New York after college, perform in Broadway shows, and get hopefully make it to television.

“Hopefully all of her hard work will pay off and we will she her on our televisions in the near future. I wish I was not so shy because I would love to perform in big shows like she does”, says Jessica.

“As for right now, I’m currently trying to find different jobs in St. Louis, while I focus on school” she says smiling.