Senior Steven Ricks is an actor, a singer, and a friend. Recently he was accepted into the National Theatre Company, where according to Tech One teacher Shawna Marquis; no other student has been accepted from Arizona, ever.

“This opportunity allows him to work with Broadway actors, professionals, leading male and leading female Broadway actors, working Broadway musicians, choreographers, and directors,” Marquis explained.
Ricks reveals that he has been competitively singing for roughly two years. He has participated in multiple singing competitions, some of which include the summer classical and the summer music theatre competitions.

Ricks reveals, “I work in between them I practice a bunch and I go to these competitions. Some are in Chicago and some are in Boston and I have had a lot of success in these different competitions.”

Many people around campus know him for his singing voice and his acting skills, but what Ricks believes has helped him the most is, “Just gaining the experience and singing in front of people and being comfortable with performing in front of people.”

When applying for this theatre company he explains he did it off of a whim and that this competition to get in was not only last minute but it differed from the other competitions.

“It was kind of in the back of my mind type of thing, a last minute thing. Last second my teacher said to me, ‘why don’t you audition to do this thing?’ so I turned in a video last minute and I completely forgot I had did so.”  

He was planning for other shows when he got the news that he was accepted into this National Theatre Program. Ricks has been in numerous Perry Theatre Productions; his most recent, “The 25th Annual: Putnam County Spelling Bee.”

“In ‘Putnam County’ I play one of the main character’s dad, Olive,” Ricks said. “Her dad is not in the bee at all or in the setting but is part of the show. She imagines her ideal world where her parents love her. So me and Noel Soucek who plays the mother; we come in at that part.”

Ricks is excited to be a part of the National Theater Company, and is looking forward to the opportunity after graduating from PHS in May.