Although his first scripted musical was when he played Rooster in Annie, it wasn’t until years later when alumnus Julian Schenker finally realized that theatre was the career for him. “I happened to be in PPTOPA’s [Pembroke Pines Theatre of Performing Arts] production of In The Heights right around [when] I was [going into] my senior year,” says Schenker. After some experience, Schenker felt that “[I got] my first taste of what [musical theatre] could be.” Since then, he has been in the spotlight for over 12 years and was fortunate to work in an Off-Broadway show called My True Love. To Schenker, all his awaited dreams were now slowly molding into his reality.
In the beginning, Schenker always felt that he was going to study psychology in college. “Both of my parents are psychologists, so if I didn’t do [theatre], I would have probably done that,” he reveals. It wasn’t until after four years of high school theatre that Schenker noticed the impact that performing and acting had on him. Schenker exclaimed “Mrs. Kidd was a high influence on me as she is the one who really got me thinking about [theatre] as a serious profession.” Mrs. Kidd helped him get a role in the play In The Heights, provided him with useful advice, and reminded Schenker to always put 120% effort into it.
Once he graduated in 2019, Schenker took his acting career to the next level and got his BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) in Musical Theatre at Long Island University (LIU Post). Since LIU Post was in the conservatory-style program, “we were in theatre classes right from the get-go, and most of my associates were already done by the time that I got there,” Schenker explains. During his time at LIU, Schenker was able to not only get more comfortable with acting but also explore stage, TV, and film productions.
Soon enough, Schenker was booking roles left and right for many different shows. Despite growing up in Florida, Schenker has had to travel to several different states so he can be in the productions he has auditioned for. He firmly believes that “acting is a game of booking something and then [‘living the dream’] for however long you have that contract [for].” Schenker continues how once the contract and role are played, he dialects that he has to go “‘back [on] the grind of auditioning for something else because now I have nothing again.’”
The world of theatre is a continuous and chaotic cycle that has many moving parts to it. For instance, Schenker confirms that he “did [my] Off-Broadway show back in May, and I worked on that from the end of March until [about the] second week of June. Now I am here in Kentucky in Louisville, working at Kentucky Kingdom for their Christmas Concert.” With theatre comes many long hours of rehearsal, choreography, singing, and so much more. Everyday is different to actors and actresses, however, running things such as lines and lyrics becomes a part of their daily routines: this is what helps them reach their full potential.
Having experience in a career has taught Schenker a few things, one being that “the start is very, very slow before you start seeing success.” Even back when he was rehearsing Gee, Officer Krupke for his Thespians Competition, Schenker realized that theatre is all about patience and waiting for the right time. Regardless of what has come his way, Schenker, with no doubt, will “always try to fill [his] time with jobs that will put [him] in a space that [he] wants to be in.”
