An inside look at Broadway National Tours with Kaitlyn Mayse
Find out how this fairy tale worked for triple threat Kaitlyn Mayse, a St. Louis native who now performs all over the country, Canada, and Mexico.
Video courtesy of Kaitlyn Mayse on YouTube (@kaitlynmayse5988 )
When Kaitlyn Mayse was two years old, she’d pretend to be different princesses. Her parents struggled to keep up. She’d say she was Snow White in the morning, but by dinnertime she wouldn’t respond to that name.
“I’m not Snow White, I’m Cinderella,” she’d say.
No surprise when 21 years later, a year after graduating from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre and a Dance certificate, Kaitlyn debuted as Cinderella on a Broadway National Tour.
“I screamed hysterically,” says Renee Mayse, Kaitlyn’s mom, about receiving the news. “I was excited beyond belief.”
I should know — I lived it, too. She’s my cousin. Years of being her co-star in “Sisters” from White Christmas inspired me to pursue acting. If performing is your passion, hopefully she inspires you, too.
Be patient.
Becoming a princess (and a performer) is rigorous, tiresome, and downright unpredictable. The process was so long that Kaitlyn assumed she didn’t get the role.
She spent six months in and out of auditions and callbacks. Once, she’d just gotten off the plane to head to a family reunion when producers contacted her to say they needed her for a callback. She stepped right back on a plane to New York. It paid off. Kaitlyn was cast as ensemble and understudy for Ella and Gabriella in 2017 for the national tour of Roger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
Next came the chance to play Ella in a performance as an audition for following year’s tour. Kaitlyn accidentally dropped the basket of vegetables she was holding and had to pick them up while singing and carrying a large book. The scene started changing when she wasn’t even done snatching up the last apple.
“It was not far into the show that I remember thinking, ‘Well there goes my audition. Not going to book this role,’” Kaitlyn says.
But her mesmerizing stage presence got her cast as Ella for the closing tour in 2018. When the same company began assembling the first national tour of Bandstand the next year, the producers invited Kaitlyn to audition.
Kaitlyn says that’s because she was all-in on doing the work, ready to meet casting, creative teams, and producers — always building good relationships — because connections matter in the theater industry.
“You might be someone they think of for an opportunity, or turn to you in a pinch,” Kaitlyn says.
It worked for her, and she joined the cast as ensemble member, Jo, and understudy for Julia.
The show is your life; the people are your support.
The cast of Bandstand rushes out of the massive tour bus and piles into the hotel, exhausted yet pumped with adrenaline from a performance. The hotel is their home for the next two days, until they move to the next city.
These times of frenzy and fun create “incredibly strong, resilient, lasting friendships,” Kaitlyn says.
She bonded with one Bandstand castmate when they both discovered they were vegan. Together, with a hot plate and skillet, they made many meals in hotel rooms.
“We found each other in this life and she's my rock,” says Oz Shoshan, whose family is in Israel, so he considers Kaitlyn his family in the United States — home-cooked family meals and all.
Sometimes you wear the wrong wig.
Kaitlyn says there was a moment during a quick change when the wrong wig was put on her. She ran out on stage and her friends started laughing.
“I thought they had told a joke to make each other break,” she says. Then she realized the joke … was her. She was wearing an oversized mohawk during a ball dance scene in Cinderella.
“I kept thinking, ‘Don’t look at me,’” Kaitlyn says.
The cast did anyway, broke character, laughed on stage, and they all got in trouble for it after the show.
It strikes the powerful chord of why you do theatre.
Kaitlyn and her cast and crew performed Bandstand, a musical about veterans after WW II, in Washington, D.C., with 80 members from Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) — those grieving the loss of a military loved one — in the audience. They also met with veterans at housing facilities.
It was, she says, a once in a lifetime feeling.
“There was something electric about the energy in that theater knowing they had lived what we were presenting,” she says. “This is why we tell stories.”
Performances like that make it worth it to say goodbye to your old life, she says, one that may have been more comfortable. “You have to figure out how to pack your life away into two suitcases.”
You are also going to miss out on milestones from back home. You miss holidays, birthdays, and maintaining your connection with family and friends.
(I’m still sour about you missing three birthdays in a row, Kaitlyn.)
And after touring?
Kaitlyn just finished performing in Cabaret in Asolo Repertory Theatre in Florida. She’s working her side hustles, enjoying time with her partner, exploring hobbies, and, of course, auditioning, auditioning, auditioning. COVID slowed her progress but didn’t stop it.
“Her superpower as a performer is this ability to mold herself into whatever the show needs,” Shoshan says.
Touring gave Kaitlyn stamina and fortitude as a performer. Now, she says she’s moving forward with “direction and focus,” grateful for the opportunities it gave her.