Broadway Role Transforms a Summer

Loudoun 7th Grader Summers on Broadway

by David Sackrider/Special to The Washington Post

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

NEW YORK — When 12-year-old Emma Rowley returns to Blue Ridge Middle School in the fall and writes her “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” essay, she may need to explain that she is not making it up.

The freckled seventh-grader from Hamilton is starring with theater legend Patti LuPone in a Broadway musical — that’s Broadway as in New York City.

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Emma Rowley: Local Girl on Broadway

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At right is Patti LuPone as Mama Rose, with Sami Gayle (center) and Emma Rowley (left). (Photo courtesy Joan Marcus)

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Twelve-year-old Emma Rowley from Hamilton poses in front of the New York City Center, where she is performing. (David Sackrider)

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Twelve-year-old Emma Rowley from Hamilton poses in front of the New York City Center, where she is performing. (David Sackrider)

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Twelve-year-old Emma Rowley from Hamilton poses in front of the New York City Center, where she is performing. (David Sackrider)

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“This has been the craziest year,” Emma said recently in a quiet park across the street from New York City Center, where she takes the stage eight times a week as Baby Louise in the revival of “Gypsy,” which closes Sunday after a three-week run.

Maybe not crazy, but it certainly has been unusual.

On that sunny afternoon, she spoke with enthusiasm about visiting a toy store with a mind to adding to her doll collection, and maybe getting a movie star’s autograph, much like any other girl on a trip to New York with her mother.

A moment later, she was talking about working onstage with LuPone and their director, Arthur Laurents. Soon after that, the soft breeze flirting with her straight brown hair, she mentioned her disappointment in not being able to join her cousin for the usual summer holiday at the Jersey shore.

In other words, she has got lots of things going on, just like a typical girl. Except for the part about having people pay more than $100 per seat to hear her sing.

“She has been singing and dancing since she could walk,” said Emma’s mother, Kathie Rowley, who has been living with Emma for the summer in an apartment several blocks from the theater. “It sounds like a cliche, but I can’t remember her not doing it.”

Rowley said Emma was eager to learn to dance before anyone was ready to teach her. “We took her to one school that would not take her,” she said. “They told us that the students had to be at least 3 years old. When she was 3, she still wanted to take lessons, so that’s when she started.”

As a 4-year-old, Emma saw “The Wizard of Oz” in Washington. And the performance bug bit hard. “I remember looking at the actors and thinking, ‘Why am I not in this?’ ” she said.

Shortly after that, she started singing, dancing and acting out all the roles from her favorite shows, sometimes in front of the family video camera.

Over the years, the natural beauty of her voice developed and her ballet training continued. Opportunities for performing in Loudoun County would occasionally come along. In fall 2005, she won the lead role in the Pickwick Players’ production of “The Secret Garden.” For her performance as Mary Lennox, she received enthusiastic applause and encouraging reviews.

She continued performing for the Pickwick Players with smaller roles in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and “Disney’s High School Musical.”

Far from being a prima donna, Emma cheerfully handed out programs when she did not have a part in the company’s production of “A Christmas Carol.”

At the time Emma was in “The Secret Garden,” her mother said that she and her husband, James Rowley, were glad Emma enjoyed performing but that every step she took toward the stage would be her choice.

Eventually Emma wanted to audition for a touring production of “Annie.” She traveled with her mother to New York in the spring of last year for the tryout. Although she did not get the part, she had an exciting time, her mother said.

“Emma knew she would have loved getting the part. And still she was happy coming home without it,” Rowley said. “She takes it in stride.”

Taking things in stride was one thing, but Emma really did want to improve her chances in auditions. That led her to start working with Dolly Stevens at the Spotlight Studio in Purcellville. Stevens directs the studio, which specializes in song-and-dance training for musical theater.

“She needed coaching for acting,” Stevens said. “She has a great voice, and if it ain’t broke, you don’t fix it. And her dancing was fine. She had to learn to stay in character while she sings and dances. It’s song interpretation, and acting a song in a convincing way. That will help her stand out.”

When open auditions for “Gypsy” were announced, Emma was studying with the right coach: Stevens had played Mama Rose on stage twice and knew the show inside and out. Stevens was able to help Emma find a depth to the role she was trying to win.

“Dolly told me that I had to know Baby Louise. Who is she? Dig into her character,” Emma said. “It’s a miracle what Dolly was able to do.”

With this fortuitous tutoring and a patient family willing to let mother and daughter make three trips to New York in the span of two weeks this spring, Emma outlasted the 30 other would-be Baby Louises.

The whole family, which includes her father, an independent builder, and her 5-year-old brother, Jack, made the third trip together. It was at that audition that director Laurents finally saw Emma and the rest of the cast together.

He must have been impressed. On the return trip to Virginia, James Rowley’s cellphone rang. After a brief conversation, he looked at Emma and smiled.

“I asked him, ‘Did I get the part or something?’ When he nodded, I just screamed,” she recalled. “Then I asked for the phone and told everyone on my calling list!”

Between that phone call and early June, life became a little hectic: The Rowleys completed a long-planned move from a house in Round Hill to one in Hamilton; temporary living accommodations had to be found in New York; and Emma needed to finish sixth grade a few days early to start rehearsals.

With the start of rehearsal, Emma learned one thing right away.

“There is a lot of waiting in professional theater,” she said. “Since I don’t have a huge part, we might do one of my scenes, then Patti LuPone and Mr. Laurents might have a long talk.”

And what is it like for a girl from Hamilton to work with a star? “She’s nice,” Emma said. “On opening night, she left a huge basket of candy backstage for all of the children in the cast with a note that said, ‘God help you! Love, Patti.’ The candy turned my tongue blue, and I had to rub it and rinse it to get it cleaned off before I went on.”

During all of the waiting backstage, the theater’s child wrangler watches as the children go about being children. “We play Nintendo DS, or play with our American Girl dolls,” Emma said. “My friend Katie and I play dare-dare — we don’t play truth-or-dare.”

Nintendo, American Girl dolls, dare-dare. Emma is just an ordinary 12-year-old girl on summer vacation. Except for that Broadway show eight times a week.

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