Barrett Wilbert Weed

I would love to do stuff on camera. That's what I want to do. It took me a really long time to feel confident as an actor. I think, also, because there's a weird stigma about musical theater where we treat the men who do musical theater differently than we treat the women in musical theater. ”

One of the things that I love so much about the character of Sally Bowles is that she is such a huge character - she is so roomy. ”

One of the things I love about stage makeup is I get to play up my eyes even more than usual. ”

I wound up going to the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, which was a really life-changing experience that's still the most intense working environment I've ever been part of. Even now, as a professional actor, I've never once been held to the standards I was held to at my high school. ”

My senior year, I got to play Maureen in 'Rent,' and I had more fun than I'd ever had in my life. ”

I started performing with the Boston Children's Opera when I was 5, and I stayed working with that group until I was about 12 or 13, so that was a huge part of my life. It was, weirdly, an extremely professional environment geared towards kids. ”

I got serious about performing, and I got serious about acting. It's very funny; singing has always been a very separate thing for me - until I went to college. I just studied musical theater because I was like, 'That means I can study voice and acting in the same major, and I won't have to double major.' Now I do musicals for a living. ”

I think, when you're an actor, it kind of enables you to fully inhabit all of the youngest parts of yourself. ”

When 'Mean Girls' came out, I was 15. So I saw that movie and was like, 'That is so funny.' But it still has that fluffy, happy ending, and that doesn't happen in high school. ”

I think it's important to be friends with the person you have to kiss onstage in front of a hundred people. You might not be friends in real life - especially if you're in high school - but you need to at least be 'secret friends' for it to work. Try to be comfortable with each other. ”