F
ox Chapel Area High
School alum Gaelen
Gilliland was born to
perform. From musical
theater in Pittsburgh to the stages of
Broadway, the actress has definitely
made her hometown proud.
Gilliland was born in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, and moved to Pittsburgh
on her sixth birthday. “My family
sang happy birthday to me as we
drove from Wisconsin to ‘da ‘burgh’
in our big blue van,” she laughs.
She is the youngest of five
siblings—three of which still reside
in the Pittsburgh area. Gilliland
graduated from Fox Chapel Area
High School with the class of 1992.
“Fox Chapel High School was a
great education and atmosphere,
and got me really going into
musical theater because of the
quality of their productions,” she
says. Gilliland also took plenty of
dance, theater classes and summer
programs throughout the Pittsburgh
area that afforded her loads of
experience, including her work
with Ken Gargaro and Pittsburgh
Musical Theater (PMT).
“I got into musical theater
through Ken Gargaro’s mentorship,
who honed my talent and
encouraged it out of me,” she notes.
“I never really realized what kind of
voice I had until later in life because
I was so set on dancing. I realized I
was getting a lot more attention for
voice than anything else, so I started
to take it more seriously in college.”
Following her graduation from
Gaelen Gilliland (bottom right) and her castmates in “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
Fox Chapel Area, Gilliland went on
to receive a BFA in Musical Theater
One of those bookings was for a national tour of “Dr. Dolittle,”
from Syracuse University. “I began
where
the casting director, Jay Binder, took an immediate liking
to love it more and more, and never tired of the long hours of
to
Gilliland,
and booked her for what the actress considers
rehearsals and performing throughout my college years,” she says.
her
“big
break”—a
concert at Carnegie Hall, in a production
Gilliland’s journey to Broadway was not glamorous. “It all
of
“South
Pacific”
that
starred Reba McEntire, Alec Baldwin
started in my small three-bedroom apartment in Harlem, getting
and many Broadway celebrities including Lillias White, Jason
ready for yet another audition in the midst of the busy spring
Danielly, Brian Stokes Mitchell and more.
audition season in New York City,” she recalls. “I remember
“Since the concert was only one night, I was convinced it
pointing to the heavens and saying ‘God, I will quit this business
would
be the beginning and end of my career,” Gilliland laughs.
if I don’t book something soon!’ only to realize God wasn’t
“My
parents
and sisters came into town to see me perform,
going to shout from the heavens that I shouldn’t quit. I realized
and
just
as
they
arrived, I decided to run over to an afternoon
I needed to light my own fire, and get myself out there giving
audition
for
‘Wicked.
’ I remember hurrying through the audition
it everything I had to get people’s attention. I went into that
because
I
was
just
so
thrilled
to be playing Carnegie Hall that
audition season with a better attitude, less desperate and more
night in a chorus of 45.”
joyful, and got called back for 10 out of the 11 auditions, finally
booking two.”
Continued on next page >
FOX CHAPEL AREA
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SUMMER 2018
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