In his four years at McCallum High School, senior Tristan Tierney has had roles in eight different plays, starting with his freshman year when he played Wilbur Henderson in You Can’t Take it With You, and finishing his McCallum career this year as Tony in West Side Story. Tierney also played big roles as Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner, Bill in Me and My Girl, and Carl Hanratty in Catch Me If You Can.

In just a few months, Tierney will be going back to New York, his home state, to study musical theater at Ithaca University.

Tierney says that Ithaca was always near the top of his list of schools throughout his college search, along with other strong musical theater colleges Oklahoma City University, Wright State University and Otterbein University.

“Ithaca had always been one of my top schools since I started looking,” Tierney said. “And I decided mid-April that it was the place for me once I did a little research and talked to some people.”

Tierney says he ended up deciding to go to Ithaca because he felt he could participate in both the musical theatre and acting programs there.

“The integration between the acting and musical theatre programs drew me to Ithaca because of the way the program is structured,” Tierney said. “I can take acting classes with both the musical theater and acting majors, and I have the ability to be in straight plays and musicals, which is something that I wanted to do because I love both.”

The move to Ithaca will be somewhat of a homecoming for Tierney, as he lived in New York until he was 11.

“I’m from Syracuse which is about a hour north of Ithaca,” Tierney said, “so it’s kind of like going back home, but I moved here when I was eleven so it’s been a few years since I was in that cold so the weather is definitely going to be something I have to get used to, but I’m really excited to go back.”

Tierney is also looking forward to going to Ithaca because he is ready to spend time with people who have the same passion for musical theater and acting as he does.

“It’s not very often you get to spend four years with a bunch of people who love what they do and do the same thing as [you],” Tierney said.

Along with being excited for the next four years of his life, Tierney is also excited about how Ithaca will prepare him for his future in theater.

“The goal is to end up getting to Broadway or something like that,” Tierney said. “Ithaca has a very good reputation as one of the top programs in the country and they’ve had a lot of alumni go out and work consistently and go to Broadway and tours. They are definitely equipped to prepare people for the future and I think that going there is going to help me grow as an actor to the point to where I leave and I’m ready to face the industry ahead of me.”

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