About Me

WELCOME TO THE THEATRE ENTHUSIAST!

Hi everybody! Thanks for taking a moment to visit my blog! My name is Hillary and I am the Theatre Enthusiast! I started this blog back in 2016 thanks to some urging from friends and family. I wrote on and off for a little over a year, but then life got in the way and I stopped for a while. I recently decided to re-launch the blog and post regularly again, just like I had originally planned!

I reside in the Washington, DC area in the United States and have lived here all my life. I graduated from the University of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies in 2015. Since graduating from college, I work full time as an administrative assistant, and in my spare time I love to perform in local community theatre productions. When I was studying theatre in college, I was taught that it is just as important as a performer to constantly see shows and learn to be a good audience member. As one of my favorite college professors once told me, "Go see good theatre and go see bad theatre. You'll learn a lot from both."

New York City is my favorite city in the world, so I try to take trips there as often as I can and see as many shows as I can afford! Thanks to the many opportunities theatres offer for discounted tickets, I have been lucky enough to see many shows both in Washington, DC and New York City (full list here)!

On this blog, you can find reviews of shows I've seen as well as regular blog posts discussing hot topics in the theatre world. I'd love to know what you think of the blog, so feel free to leave a comment on any of my posts and let's start a discussion! I hope to post regularly and I hope you decided to read regularly as well!

If you really like my posts, be sure to click the subscribe button at the top of your screen so you can receive emails whenever I post next! Thanks again for reading The Theatre Enthusiast, and I hope to see you back here really soon!

P.S. Follow me on Twitter & Instagram @HillTempleton!

Comments

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Drains Your Savings?

I, like most of the theatre world, am completely captivated by the new Broadway superhit Hamilton . I have listened to the cast recording on repeat nonstop for the last several months. I know every word to every song. The cast members have all become celebrities in my house. I am also extremely lucky to have seen Hamilton, and it completely blew me away and exceeded every expectation. I also luckily only paid $57 for my ticket. That sentence usually is greeted with gasps, dropped jaws, and “HOOOOOWWWW?!” That kind of price for this show is completely unheard of these days. If you buy a Hamilton ticket face value, the cheapest you can get is $139. StubHub and Ticketmaster Resale is filled with people re-selling their tickets for as much as $1,500 or more PER TICKET. Why are people doing this? Because people are so desperate to see the show that they will pay 10x the original ticket cost to see it! This alone is where our problem lies and created the whole reason why I am

Proper Stage Door Etiquette

All theatres have a stage door. It’s primarily where the actors, musicians, crew, etc. enter the theatre. At Broadway and large regional theatres, it’s also where the audience gathers after the show to get autographs and pictures with the actors. Stage doors can be very fun, but can also cause some people to reach an unacceptable level of crazy. I have waited at dozens of Broadway stage doors over the years and have many stories to tell. I will share some of these stories to help teach you all proper stage door etiquette, because let’s be honest – a lot of people in the theatre world need to be taught how to property act. 1) Don’t be bitter because you’re not at the front of the crowd. For those of you who have never “stage door-ed” a show before, typically the theatre puts up police barricades that the fans wait behind, to provide crowd control and safety for the actors who come out to sign autographs. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a spot right up against the barricade

"It's Good to See Me, Isn't It?" Broadway is Open!

photo by Jenny Anderson It seemed so normal yet foreign and dreamlike all at once. On a warm September afternoon, I walked out of the New York Marriott Marquis, turned right towards 46th Street, cut through the Hotel Edison lobby, and emerged on 47th Street. I stared at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, its marquee lights sparkling like a lighthouse welcoming weary sailors home. I joined the line to enter the theatre and showed the attendants my ID and proof of COVID-19 vaccination - a sign of how different life really is these days. As I passed through the metal detectors, I heard the unmistakable beeps of the ushers' ticket scanners (a sound I hadn't heard in far too long), and that's when it hit me. Broadway is back, and so am I. The usher directed us to our seats and with a deep breath, I stepped into a theatre for the first time in 18 months. My family and I arrived into New York City earlier that day with tickets in hand for that evening to see Wicked's second perform

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