Rising stars on Long Island

MARTY LAUTER, Northport 

Lauter, who plays Kit Kat Club dancer Victor and is Adam Lambert's understudy as the Emcee in "Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club" on Broadway. studied at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Massachusetts. Following work in regional theater and a role in "Kinky Boots" Off-Broadway. Lautercompeted in season 15 of "RuPaul's Drag Race" (finishing seventh) as their alter ego Marcia Marcia Marcia. "They always say that the race starts after the show, and it’s really, really true," Lauter said. After a year of touring globally in drag shows, Lauter landed "Cabaret." As the Emcee, he brings a whimsical touch to act one, but it's their dramatic shift in act two that really stands out. "During the audition, I sang one of the songs from the second act called “I Don’t Care Much” and she [director Rebecca Frecknall] said what was really interesting to her was how dark I was able to get," Lauter said. The show will go on with Lauter as the Emcee on Oct. 28 and at the Nov. 6 and 27 matinees.

CHRISTOPHER ARDRA, Huntington

Music has been a part of Ardra's life since his school days. Most of his career has involved playing with bands including Station, which he said has an " '80s throwback vibe" to it. Over the past four years, Ardra has become focused on working solo. "Once the pandemic came, I was able to put down to paper a lot of the other music in my head," he said. The result is "Sometimes Other Times," his solo album which comes out Oct. 4 and features songs that are "about changing instances and changing times in my life," said Ardra, who grew up in Plainview. The album also allowed Ardra to take full control of a project. "This new venture as a solo musician is me being in every aspect of it," he said. "I'm performing pretty much every instrument, writing everything by myself, producing it myself. I'm very much a one-man band in that sense." An album release party with a performance by Ardra is set for Oct. 10 at DROM in Manhattan's East Village.

ARIANA GLASER, Smithtown

Glaser, who's studying music (with a minor in journalism) at the University of Miami, has loved performing ever since she sang "The Girl I Need to Be" from "The Secret Garden" at the Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts when she was 9. Since then she has performed on many Long Island stages in shows like "The Great Gatsby" (as Myrtle) and "Parade" playing murder victim Mary Phagan. Writing is also an important part of her life: She has self-published two novels and has penned more than 300 songs, including "Godsend," which is on Spotify and deals with learning to be your own person. "I think in high school, there is a lot of pressure to find someone," she said. "The song is about how you can be your own godsend. You don’t need someone to be that for you." In November, she'll play Levora in "Disaster!," a musical homage to '70s disaster flicks, at the University of Miami.

KAITLYN DAVIS, Levittown

In sixth grade, Davis played Anna in "The King and I" and has been performing since. After earning a bachelor's degree in music education from Hofstra University and a master's in opera from Rutgers University, Davis had "a huge dream come true" when she got to play Christine in the national tour of "The Phantom of the Opera." Life certainly has been "Beautiful" for Davis for some time. She played King in the national tour of the show as well as in productions at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine, the Marriott Theatre in Chicago and this summer at The Gateway in Bellport. "I feel like Carole has such heart," Davis said about her connection to the role. "She can be funny, strong and smart and there are so many different colors to the character. ... There’s so much to do over the course of 2-1/2 hours." Davis is set to return to the Marriott Nov. 18-19 for two concerts performing numbers from "Beautiful" as well as songs by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson.

NATHAN HALTIWANGER, Setauket

Though trained in opera, Haltiwanger said he fell into musical theater when friends started asking him to perform in their shows, appearing in everything from "Don Giovanni" at Opera Ithaca to "My Fair Lady" (as Freddy) in the national tour of the venerable musical. And let's not forget "Evil Dead: The Musical," a campy sendup of the horror movie franchise, at Georgia's Springer Opera House. "That was really fun with a lot of fake blood," he said. "Every night I would be drenched by the end of the show and wearing a chain saw for hands." "Legally Blonde," in which he plays Warner Huntington III, marks his Long Island regional theater premiere. While it lacks the gore of "Evil Dead," it's just as high-energy, he said: "It's like a machine with so many moving parts. It's a perfect summer show and we just have a good time the whole way through." Looking toward the future, Haltiwanger said "I would love to continue to do more regional work, Off-Broadway and then Broadway. That would be my ideal trajectory."

BILLY RECCE, Hauppauge

Recce started penning musicals in fourth grade but it wasn't until high school that he began thinking of it as a career thanks to encouragement from one of his teachers. Most of Recce's shows, including "Five: The Parody Musical," "A Musical About Star Wars" and "Singfeld: A Musical About Nothing," are rooted in pop culture. "I like treating pop culture as our collective history and that drives me as a storyteller," he says. Recce's most recent show, "Fowl Play," which played Off-Broadway in August, dealt with two queer musical theater writers who are hired to come up with an apology musical for Chick-fil-A. In July, the first single from his upcoming musical "Bimbo Summit," about Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and the paparazzi in 2006, began streaming on Spotify and Apple Music. Producers are looking to bring back "Fowl Play" and locations are being scouted for "Little Black Book," his punk rock musical about "Hollywood madam" Heidi Fleiss.

NICOLE FARAGALA, East Islip

Fragala played violin and piano as a child but didn’t begin taking vocal lessons until she was in high school. That led to doing shows with Broadhollow Theatre Company where she played Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” and a string of Disney princesses. Though she studied opera in college, her career has so far been in musical theater. Last year, Fragala was in the national tour of “Tootsie” and now she’s making her Long Island regional theater debut as Vivienne Kensington in “Legally Blonde.” “Even though I’m playing the antagonist girl, it’s so nice to feel like I’m part of the sisterhood of this show,” she said. Fragala also can’t rave enough about her canine co-stars who play chihuahuas Ricky and Cha Cha. “They know their blocking, they know when to speak,” she said. “And they’re so adorable and loving.” Fragala will be seen early next year in the Netflix miniseries “Zero Day” starring Robert DeNiro.

JOHN DRINKWATER, Greenport

Drinkwater is playing Elvis-inspired Conrad Birdie in "Bye Bye Birdie" at The Argyle Theatre in Babylon through Sept. 1. He landed the role of Birdie over some hefty competition, including his twin brother, Matthew. "Last year we both tried out for 'Grease' at the Argyle, and he got the part," Drinkwater said. "If I’m going to lose it to anybody, I’d like to lose it to him." There's clearly no sibling rivalry here: The two brothers have performed together at Feinstein's at 54 Below and Birdland. They also recently released a new single (a cover of Niall Horan's "This Town") and an EP, "Smiling and Weeping," featuring six of their original songs. "I'd describe it as singer-songwriter, folk-rock sort of stuff," Drinkwater said of the album. He also appeared in and composed the music for "As You Like It," which was performed this summer at Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island.

SOFIA DIMARCO AND SARAH BORUSSO, both Rockville Centre

Borusso and DiMarco, who make up the musical duo Sarah and Sofia, just released the single "All the Same" in July. Borusso, a voice and opera major at the University of Maryland, and DiMarco,who's studying jazz piano at the University of Miami, are childhood friends who started performing together in their sophomore year of high school. They began playing pop and country music covers at cafes and at town events, but last year began writing their own songs, which fuse folk and jazz, Borusso said. "The original music came about through a senior project. We used the last three weeks of school to write, record and produce a five-song EP project," she said. As college students, they've continued collaborating remotely, Borusso added: "I’ll send her a chorus and she’ll send a guitar part over and we sort of piece together songs, and we record them when we’re back together on school break." They'll be performing at People's Pub in Bayport on Aug. 4.

MICHELLE FABRE, Franklin Square

Fabre, who just released the single "Rock Me With a Deeper Love." was 4 when she got her start performing a jingle in an ad for Eskimo Pie. It was the first of many commercials she made. In 2020, she formed a duo with her dad, who's a producer, audio engineer and guitarist. A few months ago she put together a five-piece band which has been playing at various spots on Long Island. Fabre describes her musical sound as "commercial pop with a crossover of rock, R&B and a little bit of country" and writes her own songs which are based on everyday situations. "One of my songs, 'You Stole My Makeup,' is based on a girl that literally stole my makeup," Fabre said. She and her band will be performing at Tiki Joe's Cupsogue Beach in Westhampton Beach on July 12, Repeal XVIII in Huntington on July 13, The Edge at Lulu's in Patchogue on July 21 and Aug. 17, and Memories in Williston Park on Aug. 16.

ALEX SCHECTER, Great Neck

Schecter studied at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music in Nashville. Since graduating, he has since worked in both regional theater ("The Happy Elf," "The Wizard of Oz" at The Argyle Theatre in Babylon) and in New York City. One of his most notable Gotham gigs was as a swing performer in "The Office: A Musical Parody," which played to his strengths as a singer and a comedian. "I love getting the laughs," he said about doing theater. "And you get to do it again the next day, and to try different things each day. He's been pitching the pilot "Sunny Achers," a comedy set at an assisted living facility that he created with his friend Kelly Grago, to streaming services. Schecter said the idea sprang from visiting his grandparents' community in Florida. In the show, he and Grago play octogenarians "in not so amazing wrinkle makeup and gray wigs," he jokes. "The tone of it is very 'Seinfeld,' " he adds. "No sappiness, no lesson learned, just the day-to-day adventures of these wacky characters."

JUNO MORENO, Lynbrook

Moreno always looked up to her brother, Mike, who performed with a punk band as a teen, so it was only natural that she'd eventually follow suit with her own group, the femme punk riockers Sorry Mom. Moreno, who now lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, writes most of the songs for Sorry Mom and says she draws on personal experiences for her music. Having recently joined a softball league, she was in a sports state of mind when she penned "But I'm a Quarterback," the band's first single after being signed by Hopeless Records. She and her band, who have performed at Bowery Ballroom, The Knitting Factory and South by Southwest, will be touring the East Coast July 11-14 and supporting Destroy Boys July 27-Aug. 1 in the Midwest.

DANIEL QUADRINO, East Rockaway

Quadrino is part of the ensemble of "The Who's Tommy" on Broadway, and he also understudies for Tommy and Cousin Kevin. His love of acting got off to a sweet start: He got the bug after playing a lollipop in a student-written production of "Candy Land" in elementary school. Quadrino took dance classes and made his Broadway debut in the ensemble of "Bye Bye Birdie" in 2009. After graduating from Pace University, he landed another Broadway role — after 24 auditions — in "Newsies." "If you just keep putting the work in, it will happen," he said. Roles as one of the Lost Boys in NBC's "Peter Pan Live!" and as Boq in the Broadway phenomenon "Wicked" followed. In "Tommy," not only does Quadrino sing and dance, but he has a harmonica solo. "The first day of rehearsal, they told me I was playing the harmonica, and I was like 'Are you sure?' Now I love to play it and I learned a new skill," he said. Quadrino hopes that within five to 10 years, he'll get to originate a role in a new Broadway musical.

JIMMY BREWER, Bay Shore

Brewer is an actor who last year appeared on Broadway in "Shucked" as well as a musician (trumpet is his instrument) who performs with two rock bands. He starred in the Off-Broadway musical "Scotland, PA" in 2018 and the following year played the lead in "The Flamingo Kid" at Hartford Stage in Connecticut. During the pandemic, Brewer began to focus heavily on the musical side of his career and in 2021 joined the indie rock band Pan Arcadia. Last year, he formed his own group, the alt rockers Sample Size for whom Brewer writes all the songs. "Think Aerosmith meets Nothing but Thieves," is how he describes Sample Size. Performing with a band has also informed his acting in shows like "Kinky Boots," which he did at Bucks County Playhouse in Pennsylvania in 2022, and last year's hit "Shucked," in which he was in the ensemble. "Having played music onstage with a band helped me have a newfound confidence when I stepped onstage again," he said. That confidence was evident when he got to go in for the three roles he understudied in the show — Bo; Gordy, the antagonist; and Story Teller No. 2. You can catch him with Pan Arcadia at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn on April 26.

CHRIS MILO, Commack

Milo, who writes and performs his own songs. describes his music as a blend of ‘50s vibe and modern soul with a Latin feel. He has performed on Long Island (My Father’s Place in Roslyn, The Suffolk in Riverhead) as well as New York City (The Bitter End, The Roosevelt Hotel) and has opened for Randy Jackson of Zebra and the Lords of 52nd Street featuring members of Billy Joel’s original band. “Richie Cannata made me come on stage for the encore of ‘You May Be Right,’ and that was so great singing along with that band. The energy was crazy,” he said. Milo plays guitar and is also an accomplished Latin ballroom dancer who has appeared in many competitions. “I do rumba, samba, paso doble, and I incorporate that into my shows,” he said. “It separates my shows from a lot of other people’s.” He's releasing his first Spanish single, “Eres Bella,” and he'll perform at The Warehouse in Amityville on April 21, at Danfords in Port Jefferson May 5 and at the Montauk Music Festival May 16-19.

PETER SANDSKY-TRAFICANTI, Garden City

Acting is in Sansky-Traficanti’s genes – his grandmother is a professional actress as well as a mentor to him. “She wanted to send out my sonogram as a headshot but it didn’t quite work,” he joked. Sansky-Traficanti made his theater debut at 4 in a local production of “Miracle on 34th Street,” and soon after was seen in a commercial for Skittles and short films including one as a tricycle-riding, time-traveling superhero. In 2022, he appeared on “Saturday Night Live” with Selena Gomez in a sketch about a class for aspiring models. He’ll be seen in two local plays this spring – “Don’t Drink the Water” (April 6-17 in Franklin Square) and “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (April 19-28 in Floral Park). As a theater acting major at Adelphi, he’s hoping to land a summer internship in Los Angeles. “Acting is what I love to do,” he says. “It always has been since I was old enough to realize what it was.”

RYAN ALVARADO, Bethpage

Alavardo, a longtime Long Island theater veteran, is thrilled to be making his debut at The Gateway in Bellport playing Usnavi de la Vega in "In the Heights" through April 14.  “It’s been a bucket list theater for me,” he said. And he couldn’t have asked for a more challenging role than Usnavi, who serves as the narrator of the musical. “I play a role in the onstage story as well, but I feel like the greatest function of my character is to be the bridge between the audience and the characters onstage,” he said. Alvarado comes fresh off the national touring company of “Hamilton,” in which he played the title role. He also got to work with Lin-Manuel Miranda, who created both “Hamilton” and “In the Heights.” “He’s an amazing human. He’s made of that giving energy. He really gives everything he can to any space of people he happens to be around,” Alvarado said. He’s still firming up his next gig, but Alvarado eventually wants to work as a teaching artist and direct as well as perform.

KATELYN HAROLD, Bethpage

Harold is making her regional theater debut as Frankie Valli's daughter, Francine, in "Jersey Boys" at the John W. Engeman Theater in Northport through May 26. She also plays about 15 other smaller roles including seven different waitresses. Harold has been stage struck since playing Belle in a school production of "Beauty and the Beast" when she was 12. Performing at the Engeman has long been a goal, although the tight two-week rehearsal schedule has been both challenging and exhilarating. "Learning how to take a note and how to be superfast on my toes, and applying that to the character has been great," she said. In October, she sang the national anthem and then met Billy Joel when a street was named for him in Oyster Bay. "I felt so grateful to get to do it," Harold said. "I sang and then I turned around and shook his hand. He’s not a man of many words but he certainly was very kind to me and very friendly." Broadway, film and TV are part of her vision for the future. "I really love sharing my gift with the world and making people smile," Harold said.

ASHLEY D. KELLEY, New Hyde Park

Kelley plays Storyteller 1 in the country-music-flavored Broadway hit "Shucked." Her desire to perform came about in high school after discovering the musical "Ragtime." "As soon as I heard the opening number. I thought, I want to do this," she said. Since graduating from Temple University in Philadelphia, she has appeared in regional productions of "Nunsense," "Chicago" and "Hairspray," and earned a best actress nomination at the 2018 Lucille Lortel Awards for the Western musical "Bella: An American Tall Tale." Still, nothing compares to being on Broadway. "Every night I go on the stage I still kind of pinch myself and go, wow, I’m here," she said. In “Shucked,” she and Storyteller 2 get to show off their improv skills as they open the show. "We come out and we get hit with a wall of energy from every single person in the theater," she said. Kelley has also appeared on the Netflix series "Luke Cage" and "Insatiable," and she hopes to do more TV work and eventually put out an album.

ESMERALDA CABRERA, East Quogue

Cabrera, who moved here from Los Angeles last year, was a junior when she realized performing was in her blood. That became especially apparent after her first role as Lilith in the Dungeons and Dragons-inspired play "She Kills Monsters." Since then, she has appeared in "Chemical Imbalance" at Southampton Cultural Center, "The Producers" at Northeast Stage in Greenport and her favorite, "The Portuguese Kid," which was a challenge given her shy nature. "Patty in 'The Portuguese Kid' was a character that could be a little fierce, a little fiery, and a lot of people told me that they liked my performance and how I grounded her," she said. Cabrera will play a mother for the first time in "The Chalk Garden" at Southampton Cultural Center in October. She also is contemplating a move to either New York City or back to L.A. to pursue film work.

GINA NAOMI BAEZ, Rockville Centre

Baez says she was 4 when her mom introduced her to “The Sound of Music,” but she never imagined she’d get the chance to play Maria in "The Sound of Music," which runs through July 2 at the John W. Engeman Theater in Northport. “You think Julie Andrews or Mary Martin,” she says, adding “it’s so important to be a model of representation of Latina women and people of color who want to play these iconic roles. I’m so proud and so honored to be able to do it.” Her other roles have included Fantine in “Les Miserables” at CM Performing Arts Center in Oakdale, Esmeralda in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” at The Argyle Theatre in Babylon and Celia in “Rattlesnake Kate” at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Baez will take part in the Transport Group's June 26 benefit performance of "Nine: In Concert" at the Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center. After that, she'll be in season 3 of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” which returns Aug. 8.

MICHAEL DEANER, Melville

Michael plays Young Leo in “Leopoldstadt,” which won the best play Tony Award, on Broadway through July 2. The acting bug hit Michael hard when he made his stage debut at 4 in the Northport Community Theater’s production of “The Music Man.” “There was a moment in the finale where I had to crash the cymbals, and whenever I marched, my knees were trembling because I was so excited,” he said. Michael has played a number of roles in local productions including Young Calogero in “A Bronx Tale” in March 2022 at the John W. Engeman Theater in Northport. Still, nothing can compare to the thrill of being on Broadway. “It’s very cool,” he said. “Being on stage in general is amazing, and there are a lot of kids in my show, so I’ve made a ton of new friends.” In addition to singing and dancing, Michael plays the trumpet and the piano. He will next take part in the workshop of a new musical.

JAKE GOZ, East Northport

Goz, who now lives in Manhattan, stars as Danny Zuko in "Grease" at The Argyle Theatre in Babylon through Aug. 27. He comes from a show-biz family — his parents and grandparents were all performers. In middle school, a teacher who knew about Goz's family asked him to join the choir and by eighth grade he did his first show, "The Music Man." Goz graduated with a master's degree in voice from the Boston Conservatory intending to be an opera singer, but one of his teachers suggested he go to New York City and try musical theater. "And then COVID happened, so there was a bit of a delay but I got here," Goz said. Though he did an opera last year, Goz said his "feet are firmly planted on this side of the fence," referring to musical theater. Playing Danny in "Grease" has been a chance to show off his comic timing as well as his vocal abilities. "We have this idea that Danny’s a greaserr and he’s cool," Goz said. "He’s not cool. He’s trying to be cool, but Dannyy’s a goofball." Goz said he's a free agent after "Grease" wraps, but he's always auditioning for the next thing.

FRANKLIN MASTRANGELO, Orient

Mastrangelo's skills as a singer, keyboardist and saxophonist helped him win the East End Arts' Linda Rie Cohen Rising Star Award. He plans to use to the $10,000 award toward his education at SUNY Oneonta, where he's majoring in music industry. When not studying, he can be found performing jazz, pop and R&B at venues including The Suffolk in Riverhead, Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, and The Halyard and Claudio's in Greenport. At school, he gets to indulge his wild side as part of a heavy metal band. He credits his bass-player dad, Phil, for encouraging his love of music. "Every time I saw him playing, it was so inspiring. I knew I wanted to be on that level," he says. Mastrangelo will be playing gigs around Greenport this summer and he says he's hoping to put together a Motown cover band with his father.

AVA MICHELE HYL, Coram

Ava plays Young Rosa and Bella in the Broadway hit "Leopoldstadt," which runs through July 2. She was Inspired to take up acting after seeing the joy her older sister had being a performer. Ava began acting when she was 6 and has since appeared in a number of TV commercials and short films. Though she never thought of herself as "a theater kid," Ava has savored every moment of her time on Broadway. "It's very cool being onstage because while you’re acting you can see people out in the audience and feel their reactions to it," she said. Ava and her mom live in Manhattan most of the week, but head back home after each Sunday's matinee and return to the city on Tuesday. Ava also has a featured role in the upcoming movie "Ramona at Midlife" starring Josh Radnor and Rosemarie DeWitt. "I'm definitely not done with my career as an actress," she said.

JAMIE BAIO, Sayville

For Baio, who recently became a swing performer in Off-Broadway's "The Office: A Musical Parody," getting into musical theater was almost a certainty given that his mom is a choreographer. In 2017, he received the Hampton Theatre Company's Peter Marbury Scholarship award to high school seniors for excellence in theater arts. Since graduating from Wagner College on Staten Island last year, Baio has appeared in several regional shows, including Hampton Theatre's April production "The Lifespan of a Fact" in Quogue. "It was only an 80-minute show, but when you’re talking for 70 minutes out of those 80, and 50 of them are consecutive, it can be really taxing on your voice," he says. Even more challenging is "The Office," where he has to be ready to go on at a moment's notice for anyone in the cast. "I was told they have at least one swing go on per weekend," he said. Baio said his ultimate goal is to work consistently on Broadway.

TRAMAR PETTAWAY, Southampton

Pettaway is a producer of the feature-length film “Footprints of an Angel,” which begins streaming on Vimeo June 24. The project is very personal for Pettaway, who's also a performer (he played the Scarecrow Off-Broadway in "The Wiz" and the Tin Man on tour). The movie is based on a play he wrote to honor his mother, Shonda Pettaway, who died in 2013. "It's about her dealing with cancer, and her son dealing with his mom while also trying to finish school and get his acting career started," Pettaway said. Director Anthony Mealing wrote the screenplay, but Pettaway was involved in casting and knew he wanted Bettina Pennon, Patchogue-raised singer Chrisette Michele, vocalist Meli'sa Morgan and actress Julia Garrison to play major roles. When a 30-minute version of the film was shown in August 2021, Pettaway said "it was the greatest feeling in the world. Watching the audience response was amazing. I felt like we did our job." Pettaway plans to get "Footprints" on the film festival circuit. "I want to reach the masses with the film," he said.

EMILY ROSE DEMARTINO, Shirley

DeMartino plays Essie, one of the factory girls, and also understudies for the role of Mary Phagan in "Parade" on Broadway through Aug. 6. She auditioned for last summer's City Center production of "Parade" and got a callback but didn't get cast. Shortly after she was cast this winter in the role of Bebe in "A Chorus Line" at CM Performing Arts Center in Oakdale, the "Parade" producers asked DeMartino to play Essie in the Broadway company. "I was completely surprised. I didn't even know it was transferring to Broadway," she said. "Parade," a musical dramatization of the 1913 murder of 13-year-old factory worker Mary Phagan, stars Ben Platt as her accused killer. Working with Platt has been a dream come true for DeMartino. "It can be nerve wracking when you’re working with someone you’ve looked up to your entire life, but he’s so genuine." After "Parade" wraps, DeMartino said she might continue her musical theater education or possibly book another show.

NOAH MARCUS, Dix Hills

Marcus' ship really came in when he was hired by Disney for their nautical musical shows in June, just one month after graduating from Indiana University Bloomington. He and his fellow actors spent a month in Toronto rehearsing three shows — "Twice Charmed," a spin on "Cinderella"; the revue "Disney Dreams"; and "Tangled the Musical," in which he played Maximus the horse. "They're hourlong shows, but Disney bills them as Broadway-caliber productions, and they truly are," he said. Playing Maximus also was an education in puppetry. "It was one of the coolest puppets I’ve ever seen," he said. "I wore the back and controlled the head, the eyes and the ears." He even got to hoof it up a bit. Marcus is hoping to be called back by Disney, but his ultimate goals are to be on Broadway and break into film and TV.

JOHN HANNIGAN, Baldwin

Though he has performed in shows since the fifth grade, Hannigan only turned professional in the past year after leaving a career in the finance world. "One thing that came out of the pandemic for me was an evolved perspective and a certain amount of courage that I hadn’t had before," he said. Hannigan, who now lives in Brooklyn, tried out for two regional productions last summer — "Jersey Boys" in Highlands, North Carolina, and "Forever Plaid," an homage to the guy groups of the 1950s, in Chatham, New York. He landed both. "That was a defining moment for me," he said. Getting the chance to play Smudge for a second time in Plaza Broadway Long Island's "Forever Plaid," which runs from March 18 through April 2 in Elmont, allows him to bring something new to the role, he said. Hannigan will return to North Carolina's Mountain Theater Company this summer for an encore of "Jersey Boys."

DOUGLAS GOODHART, Stony Brook

Gateway Playhouse in Bellport is like a second home for Goodhart, who took classes there when he was 12 and appeared in the theater’s productions of “Urinetown” and “Show Boat” the following year. “I fell in love for the first time right here on the Gateway grounds, and I also got my heart broken here,” he says. After graduating from the Boston Conservatory of Music, Goodhart has never stopped working with roles Off-Broadway in “That Bachelorette Show” in “My Very Own British Invasion” at Paper Mill Playhouse, as well as HBO’s “The Time Traveler's Wife” and a slew of TV commercials. Goodhart is playing Robbie Hart through Feb. 26 in "The Wedding Singer" at Gateway, a role he clearly identifies with. The essence of the character, he says, is all about “losing yourself during a breakup and having to claw back and find yourself.” He also performs with his sketch comedy group Uncle Function. Goodhart also has done a slew of television commercials, including his most recent one for U.S. Bank, in which he plays a man who loves to crochet.

AMBER CORRIGAN, Patchogue

Corrigan began appearing in musicals in community theater when she was 4 and then started studying dance when she was 12. Though proficient in tap, ballet is her first love. The culmination of that love affair came in December when she danced with the Seiskaya Ballet as both Snow Queen and Doll in “The Nutcracker“ at Staller Center for the Arts in Stony Brook, and also got the chance to perform a solo. “Dance is really the hidden language of the soul,” she says. “When I dance, I forget about everything else and just become one with the music and it’s really incredible.” Right now, she's focused on continuing her training with both The Institute for American Musical Theatre and the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Ultimately, she hopes to tour internationally with a major ballet company (“Giselle” is her dream role) or star in a Broadway musical.

CHRIS WADOLOWSKI, Lindenhurst

Though Wadolowski started out as a mechanical engineering major at Stony Brook University, his involvement writing scripts and performing with The Actors Conservancy, a theater troupe on campus, changed his plans. He then studied creative writing and took vocal training with an opera singer. While performing in a local production of the musical “Heathers,” a co-star suggested he audition for Argyle’s production of “The Wizard of Oz.” Out of nearly 400 applicants, Wadolowski was hired for the ensemble and as a swing performer. That was followed by a featured role as Curtis in Argyle’s “The Happy Elf.” He’ll next appear in William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” at South Shore Theatre Experience in Lindenhurst Feb. 24-March 4. He’s also working on a script that he’s hoping will be produced. “It's a musical themed after a popular Japanese shonen series called ‘JoJo's Bizarre Adventure,’ ” he says. “A big theme of the show is that the characters and supernatural abilities reference past popular musicians and bands.”

JACKSON PARKER GILL, West Babylon

Jackson started performing when he was 2 and has appeared in several children's shows on Long Island including "The Little Mermaid" (as Scuttle the seagull) and "Moana" (as Hei Hei the rooster). He recently played Randy, his largest role to date, in "A Christmas Story" at the John W. Engeman Theater in Northport. The role was also his favorite, especially when he got to sing "Up on Santa's Lap," which allowed him to cry, scream and whisk down an enormous slide. Even more delectable was the dinner scene when he gets to put his face into a plate of mashed potatoes. Jackson is always ready to audition for his next show, whatever that may be. One thing he is certain about: "When I get older, I want to be an actor on Broadway."

MELISSA GOLDBERG, Port Jefferson

Since graduating from Oklahoma City University in 2020, Goldberg has not been out of work. Theaters were still closed at first, so she took a retail job at Cartier's in Manhattan, but once those stage lights were turned back on, she's been a frequent presence at The Argyle Theatre in Babylon. She played Glinda in "The Wizard of Oz" and was in "Harry Connick Jr.'s The Happy Elf" for its children's theater. Last fall, she was a swing — and got to appear 25 times — in the main stage production of "Elf," and returned in the spring for "Mamma Mia!." Since then, she's done two shows at the Wick Theatre in Boca Raton, Florida — "Milk & Honey" and the current "Cinderella," as part of the ensemble (and as understudy for the Fairy Godmother). Goldberg is anxious to return to Long Island theater and do more regional shows. And eventually, she adds, "maybe there's a Broadway debut in there."

ALY KANTOR, Massapequa Park

Kantor says she has been writing plays for a long time but "it was the sort of thing I did alone in my room." She had written plays for children's theater, but got started focusing on more adult projects once the pandemic hit. She joined a group called the Playwrights' Center and took part in Zoom sessions as often as eight hours a week to hone her craft. Her play "Fish Tank" has been published and been performed by universities. In December, EastLine Theatre premiered her play "These Gilded Souls," in which she put her spin on "The Great Gatsby," "Not only is Nick Carraway a queer protagonist … but I’ve also adjusted the character of Jordan Baker to make her more of a queer mentor for Nick," Kantor says. She's now putting the finishing touches on "Occupied," an L.I.-set comedy about two friends who grow from children into caregivers.