Lilli Cooper: Full-Time Student, Full-Time Broadway Actress
About the author:
Think you're busy? Try combining a full class load at a prestigious New York City high school with eight Broadway shows a week—at age 16. That's how Lilli Cooper spent the past year as one of the youngest cast members in the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Spring Awakening. Oh, and it was her junior year, always the most stressful for an ambitious, college-bound student. On the plus side, a Broadway musical is a pretty impressive extracurricular activity, one that attests to Cooper's work ethic and stamina, and to hear her tell it, all the juggling and late nights have been worth it. Here, the young actress explains how she does it all.
My journey with Spring Awakening began in the second semester of my sophomore year at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts better known as the school in Fame. I'm part of a theatrical family: My dad, Chuck Cooper, won a Tony Award for The Life, and I remember hanging out in his dressing room at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. I loved spending time with the chorus girls backstage as well. That show was pretty risqué for a six-year-old, but I loved growing up backstage! Both of my older brothers went to LaGuardia and everyone expected me to go there, too, but I was shy and quiet as a little kid, so it took me a while to be sure of what I wanted to do. In eighth grade I did Godspell at my middle school, and that's when I knew I wanted to act.
I got the role of Martha in Spring Awakening just before our school's mid-February break, and I had to tell my teachers that I would be out for two months, with on-the-set tutoring. Later, during rehearsals for the Broadway production, I was tutored for the first semester of my junior year. It was really, really tough, especially with SATs, but I had a lot of support, especially from the three other kids in the show who were being tutored. Our cast is really young and at the time it ranged in age from 15 to 24, but I always felt completely equal to everyone else. People say how mature I am for my age—maybe because I've had so much responsibility.
The hardest transition came after Spring Awakening opened and I went back to school. My schedule became even more demanding: I was in class from 8am to 4pm, then I'd go home and do homework for two hours no time to watch TV or listen to music!. I'd get to the Eugene O'Neill Theatre by 7, do the show, get home at 11, finish my homework, and finally go to bed at 1 or 2. Weekends, with four shows, were especially hard to try and fit in time for any homework.
A lot of the teachers of my academic subjects weren't very supportive, and I found it hard to connect with them when I went back to school. But my drama teachers were understanding and helped me get through everything. At the end of the year, my drama class did classical scenes and I played the title role in Lysistrata.
On top of junior year academics, I had to prepare for the SAT with an online Kaplan course, start looking at colleges and make time for Spring Awakening-related interviews and photo shoots. It was a lot to juggle, but I've always been a perfectionist, and dealing with the pressure has been a good learning experience. I ended my junior year with a 94 average, which may be better than I would have done if I hadn't been so busy! Being in a Broadway show made me work even harder at school.
After a summer of eight shows a week, I'm back in school taking a full roster of senior year classes, including AP Spanish and honors math. I'm pretty sure I'll go to college, although I haven't decided where I'd like to apply. The day of the SAT, I had to take the test at 8am after my Friday night performance, then race to the theater to do two shows. I did fairly well, but I want to take it again this fall. I'm pretty sure I want to major in theater or film. I still have a lot to learn, even though I've worked in the field professionally. But my parents would understand if I decided to take a year off first!
All the hardships and difficulties of the past year have been worth it because I love to tell the story and sing the music of Spring Awakening every night. I love my character, and the show itself is so much fun and so fulfilling.
