Carnegie Mellon drama senior Ryah Nixon struggles impatiently with the unfamiliar reality of rush-hour traffic. She is driving into downtown Pittsburgh, and she knows she can't be late. Today is the final rehearsal before a staged reading in front of an audience. Knowing that award-winning Broadway composer and Carnegie Mellon alumnus Stephen Schwartz will be in that audience to hear her sing only adds to Nixon's jitters.
But there is profound excitement for Nixon as well. From an earlier audition, she landed a lead role in a musical being workshopped by Carnegie Mellon and the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, in partnership with the ASCAP Foundation. The workshop is part of a national program that encourages the development and refinement of new works in American musical theater.
For the Pittsburgh collaboration, the CLO Academy provides downtown space for the rehearsals. Nixon makes it on time, just barely, to the theater. Once there, she and the other students fine-tune their work on Bubble Boy, a musical comedy about a boy without an immune system who builds a mobile bubble suit to sneak off to save the woman he loves.
For Nixon—who plays the role of the Bubble Boy's overprotective mother—a meaningful performance comes sooner than anticipated. Taking advantage of a mid-morning break in rehearsal to work with the show's composer, Cinco Paul, Nixon belts out a solo piece. She turns around mid-song to discover that the theater isn't empty.
Schwartz (A'68), whose Broadway credits include Godspell, Pippin, and Wicked, stands in the back of the theater watching quietly and intently. Nixon doesn't miss a beat, though. Afterward, when she has a chance to talk with Schwartz, she worries that she might find him intimidating. She doesn't. "He was so personable and really complimentary," she says, "and he gave me some really honest feedback."
Complimentary feedback didn't come just from Schwartz. When Paul learned that he would receive a musical theater award at ASCAP's annual gala held in New York City's Lincoln Center, he invited Nixon to perform one of his Bubble Boy compositions.
Among the select group of invited guests were Schwartz, who presented the award to Paul, and folksinger Judy Collins, who received an achievement award. "What an experience!" recalls Nixon. "I was nervous beforehand, but the second I started singing in front of all of those wonderfully receptive people who are so in love with this art form, I felt right at home."
A huge ovation followed her performance.
—Beth O'Brien
