The Shield: What is your major at McCallum?

Ellie Zambarano: I’m a theatre major.

TS: And why did you decide on becoming a major?

EZ: Well, McCallum is not my home school. When I was in the eighth grade, McCallum wasn’t my feeder school so I applied for a transfer, but I also applied to the theater program just because I like theater, so I was like, ‘I’ll be a theater major!’ And I got the transfer, but I still wanted to be a theater major.

TS: So how long have you been acting?

EZ: Since, like, fourth grade I think. I started at Zach Theater when I was in fourth grade and then I did theater there until seventh grade, I think, and I was at Austin’s Children’s Theater for a few years and then I went back to Zach, and then I was at McCallum.

TS: And you also sing as well, you’ve been in several musicals.

EZ: Yeah, I mostly do musicals, I’ve actually only been in play, that’s just how it’s worked out. So, yeah. Mostly musicals.

TS: Do you prefer musicals?

EZ: Probably. I feel like singing is the thing that I enjoy the most out of the three disciplines, and I just love the musical aspect, like I’m constantly listening to musicals and I just like musicals more than I like plays. I’m more drawn to musicals.

TS: Did you consider applying for the choir strand, then?

EZ: No, I actually applied to the musical theater strand. I applied to both [theater and musical theater] and they just put me in the theater strand. But I’m glad that I’m in the theater strand, cause the musical — (indecipherable). I had just never really taken choir and I had always been more interested in musical theater, like the theater aspect of music performing.

TS: Would you like to pursue the arts as a career?

EZ: Yeah! That would be awesome, and that is what I’m planning on doing. I’m currently applying and auditioning for schools for musical theater so hopefully I’ll be doing that for the next four years and then, we’ll see what happens after that.

TS: So what schools have you applied to so far?

EZ: So many. I’ve applied to about twenty schools because it’s just so competitive, especially for girls, because lots of girls are in musical theater. So yeah, a lot. Some of them that I applied to were OCU, TCU, Texas State, University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, Ithaca, Penn State, and lots more. But just like, lots of schools.

TS: Wow. So do you have a top choice?

EZ: I don’t know, I feel like what a lot of people say are the top three musical theater schools are University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon and The College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. So a lot of people have one of those as their top school, or a another one, but I feel like because it’s such a specific program with such specific program heads that I would be spending so much time with— I’m going to have to visit them to see what my top choice is. I don’t want to have one that I’m connected with and get torn up if I don’t get in.

TS: So have you started the audition process, or is that coming up?

EZ: Yeah, I started already. I went to OCU for my first audition last semester, and then I had a series of auditions in Dallas that were all in one hotel through these two college audition coaches, so I had like thirteen auditions then, and some of them are just preliminary auditions, and then I have some callbacks this semester, and some of them are final auditions, so then I have— my next audition is this weekend at Texas State, so that’ll be fun. And then I have, there’s this thing called Unified, which is in Chicago, and it’s just like a bunch of auditions for musical theater schools and acting schools. A lot of them are in the same hotel or around the same area so you don’t have to go to all the different schools and fly to different ones. And that’s the beginning of February.

TS: So you’re still doing a lot of travelling for your schools.

EZ: Yeah! Yeah, but less than, like, I would have if I was an instrumentalist or something like that, or like if I was auditioning for vocal performance. I don’t have to fly to each school individually, thank god.

TS: So what does being a musical theater major in college mean? Like what kind of classes would you have to take?

EZ: It kind of depends on what degree you’re getting, so I’m most likely going to be getting a bachelor of fine arts, which is super rigorous, like constantly in dance classes or acting classes or [learning how to] act a song, or Shakespeare, or scene study, or voice lessons, just constantly doing those things. And I’ll also have, you know (gen-ed?) classes that I’ll have to take, and then hopefully I’ll also have time to take some like, you know, some fun educational classes. But yeah, it’s definitely going to be a lot of rigorous training and learning.

TS: How has being a theater major affected your time at McCallum?

EZ: I think it’s just definitely just given me a little like niche to fit into and given me connections to different people and allowed me to meet new people in different grades that I wouldn’t normally meet. It’s just such a community to be in, and everybody is constantly with each other and we’re constantly in the same musicals together and constantly going towards the same goal, and you definitely have to form a strong community because like, you’re all competing against each other, especially with the girls, so you can’t really- you have to like each other or else it would just be not great. And we’re all like interested in the same things and you know have the same passions, so it’s just an awesome community.

TS: So do you have any close theater friends who are applying to the same schools as you?

EZ: Yeah! I do. I know Miranda Vandenburg and Atley Brown- I’m trying to think if there are other people- I know they’re both auditioning for musical theater. And some other people are going for straight acting and other people are going to do the more technical side of things. But a lot of people are just did theater as a high school thing. I have a lot of friends outside of McCallum that are applying as theater majors.

TS: What do you feel has been your biggest accomplishment in your four years of high school theater?

EZ: At McCallum? Or like, in life?

TS: Probably like so far as theater goes, but at McCallum or in your outside work.

EZ: Oh, god. Biggest accomplishment… I think this year has been a pretty big accomplishment for me, like just the [college audition] process because it’s so tiring and hard and auditioning was always like this really scary thing for me, and I would like go in to audition and come out and be like, ‘I don’t remember anything that happened.’ Like I just don’t know what happened. Which is a scary thing because for theater you’re constantly auditioning. So I think just like gaining that confidence in myself and like losing my fear for auditioning has been a big thing for me this year, and has been an exciting accomplishment for me.

TS: Now for the fun part- what will you miss the least about McCallum theater?

EZ: Oh my god, about McCallum theater? Damn. The least… Let me think about this.God, I have to not be shady. Okay. Well, the weird shows Denning picks. I can’t with them sometimes. I’m like, this is just so weird. And then it’s just like, it can be tiring, especially when you are with the same people all the time because it can just get really tiring. A lot of people are like, ‘you have to do every show!’ And when I was a freshman I was like, ‘you’re right! I have to do every show!’ But by the end I was like, there’s no way I’m going to do every show. So I won’t miss people being like, ‘you’re doing this show, right?’ And I’m like, ‘no. I am not doing this show.’ I just want to take time for myself.

TS: OK, so what will you miss the most about McCallum theater?

EZ: Honestly I probably will miss Denning. I do love him. He’s such a weird, specific dude. He’s so funny. But I’ll miss him a lot. And just the people in McCallum theater that I’m not super close with, so I probably won’t keep in touch with them. I’m just so used to seeing them all the time, so yeah. I’ll miss the little things.