With a passion for participating in choir and theater, sophomore Matthew Pitman has come to be one of the school’s lead students in the arts. He is a part of jazz choir, concert choir, and theater.

Ever since third grade, Pitman has fallen in love with singing and theater; he has come to the point where he has performed in big theater productions as a lead and other roles. In order to succeed as the lead, Pitman shared his method of getting ready for shows.

“A lot of it is about confident character choices, really just studying your character and saying the same lines a couple of different ways to figure out how your character would say it,” Pitman said.

By taking lead roles, Pitman has boosted his confidence in the theater world. He has connected with others and has learned how to not only play a character, but become one. Other characters in his life have inspired him to keep going, one being his mom.

Pitman said, “my mom is a singer, so she [said,] ‘why don’t you try choir?’ and I did, and I just fell in love with it.”

His mom has encouraged him through the choir and theater path, and sometimes the whole aspect is overwhelming. Since Pitman is a part of an outside theater company, called AYT, he has performed in multiple productions, some even at the same time as school shows. It is hard to balance all of the classes and work, but he gets through it.

“It’s always seemed to somehow magically work itself out but it’s definitely not easy. My mom [also] really pushes me to get good grades and getting good grades is a motivation for me,” Pitman said.

He would also like to pursue in a career of the arts, and by keeping good grades, Pitman is able to keep control of all of his school work and theater work. However, he takes a zero hour just to be able to take both jazz and concert choir which is a handful. By including himself in two choirs, Pitman has the skill to tie his singing into his acting.

Pitman said, “you have to hold harmonies a lot in theater, and I feel like I’ve become pretty good at holding harmonies through choir, I’ve been able to develop singing skills that have helped me get roles.”

All of this hard work pays off, Pitman shared that theater and choir is one of the most important things in his life and it would be unimaginable without it.