For Olivia Gaidry, seeing The Lion King on Broadway at the age of four was a life-changing experience.

“The storytelling was so rich and vivid,” she said. “As a four-year-old I didn’t know how to put it into words but I said, ‘Mommy, I want to do that.’”

Gaidry, a member of the Old Saybrook High School (OSHS) Class of 2019, is doing that.

In June, the Connecticut Drama Association (CDA) named her and one other Connecticut high school senior as winners of Armand Zimmerman Scholarships, awarded to “graduating high school students who are pursuing their dreams in the various aspects of theater,” according to the CDA’s website. The application required the submission of a videotaped audition.

Perhaps more impressive, Gaidry was accepted to the University of London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where she’ll focus on musical theater.

“For my concentration, they accepted 18 students out of thousands...who auditioned,” Gaidry said. “It’s pretty intense. And I didn’t find out about this until later, but they have a less than one percent acceptance rate. I was pinching myself.”

Musical theater is “inherently American,” Gaidry said. “It started as an American art form. But what I love about [the London program] is that the acting, just the straight acting, is so rich in and of itself. That’s what stood out...apart from these other schools. It’s not just focused on the song and dance aspect; it’s well-rounded and it’s rooted in acting.”

Gaidry applied to more than 20 theater programs, but “went into the process not having a top choice because all the schools are so subjective and the chances of acceptance are slim,” she said. “But after I got that acceptance, I think it just felt right.

“I really liked how small the program was, and how acting-focused and the individualized attention,” she continued. “That was probably my most personalized, individualized audition. I felt that really sealed the deal for me because they didn’t just see me as another auditionee, they took time to figure out who I am as a person and talk with me and that’s something I really valued.”

No Simple Applications

Applying to undergraduate theater programs is an arduous process, Gaidry explained.

“I started this time last year with the college application process,” she said. “I got all my basic academic applications out of the way over the summer, but to audition for a theater program, many schools require pre-screens, which is essentially a video audition. So you film yourself doing two monologues, two songs, typically, and then you send that in, and that is a pre-audition, so the schools decide if they even want to see you, based on that video submission. And if they do, then they’ll extend an in-person audition to you.”

Between November and March of her senior year, Gaidry and her parents took many trips for those in-person auditions.

“For most of the academic year, I was traveling every weekend, sometimes during the week,” she said. “I missed a lot of school, but I caught up.”

Auditions known as unifieds, which take place in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, make it easier for prospective students by providing a central location for admissions staff from various programs to observe auditions. In addition to her many auditions on individual college campuses, Gaidry took part in the New York unifieds.

“It is an overwhelming experience because it’s a bunch of teenagers auditioning for these very competitive schools,” she said.

How did she deal with the stress?

“Luckily, I had a really great support system,” Gaidry said. “My parents are wonderful and helped me through this entire process...My extended family, my friends—they are all so supportive and keep me grounded. And because of that, I have a strong sense of who I am and my abilities and I find that comparing myself to others doesn’t really help anything.”

Looking back on her theater experience at OSHS, she credits her role as a sophomore as Mrs. Van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank as a particular challenge and an opportunity for growth.

“That obviously is a very heavy subject matter,” she said. “And I was playing a middle-aged woman, so getting into that mindset was a challenge in and of itself. But [Mrs. Van Daan’s] character arc—she’s a woman who goes from having a lot to having nothing at all. So there were a lot of discoveries and boundary breaking and all of that stuff going on in that show.

“Every production has shaped a part of who I am,” she continued, “but particularly, in terms of community and camaraderie and the spirit of coming together, I think On the Town this year was really great as bringing the drama community together as a tight-knit family.”

The show, which tells the stories of three young sailors on leave in New York, features three couples, and five of those roles were played by OSHS seniors.

“This show was really a great last hurrah for all of us,” said Gaidry.

A New Challenge

Perhaps the most challenging experience for her overall was directing.

Lenore Grunko has been OSHS’s theater director for just two years but has been teaching and directing student actors for 23 years. The CDA, in which Grunko previously held a leadership role, holds a weekend-long festival each year for high school students from across Connecticut, and central to that event is a showcase of one-act plays performed by students.

Gaidry got permission from Grunko to direct a play for the CDC conference and devoted much of the summer to research on directing.

“I read many plays to find one that would be suitable for a competition setting,” she said.

CDA has several requirements, including a length of no more than 45 minutes, which includes strike—or removal—of the set at the end, so one of Gaidry’s own requirements was a minimal set, as well as a small cast, as “for my first time directing I wanted it to be manageable,” she said.

She settled on Impromptu by Tad Mosel, a play about four actors in search of a script that will imbue them with the personalities and meaning they’re lacking.

“The process was extremely collaborative,” she explained. “From the start, I chose people that I know I work well with, that I consider trustworthy, hardworking people... It was a lot of question and answer and there was no right answer.

“It was an entirely student-run production,” she added. “That’s the thing I know I’m proudest of. Everybody in the cast and crew was proud of that.”

One of the actors, fellow OSHS senior Janae Jeune, was selected on the basis of the production for CDA’s All-Connecticut Cast.

“Up to 12 are chosen at CDA from all 250 to 300 people attending,” explained Grunko.

The award is presented for “excellent work in creating characters that are believable, often complex and textured, and truthful to the style of the production,” according to the CDA’s description.

Gaidry is now working on finding a flat in London to share with another new student. Looking toward a very exciting future, she is wistful about what she’s leaving behind.

“My friends and I, we are so close and I love them all dearly,” she said. “But because we are so close, I’m not worried about losing touch with them. I’ll be back for Christmas break and summer break. Social media’s wonderful—we’ll be texting and calling and face timing, all that stuff. I’m thankful for them.

“And they can’t get rid of me, no matter how hard they try,” she said.