A lot of kids dream of being on Broadway, but few make it to the big stage. Alayna Martus, 13, is one of those kids who made their dream a reality. “I got discovered at a theater camp in NYC, where an agent signed me,” Alayna stated, when asked how she got discovered.
In Alayna’s case, she had to work hard to be discovered, “I’ve been singing since I was born, and I started musical theatre at age 6, as well as acting,” she says.
“Performers must be in the top 10% to get hired and cast…” says The Broadway Collective. This statistic encompasses mostly adults, so imagine how small of a chance kids have, to get in.
When asked about her shows and the roles she played, “I’m in The Lion King,” says Alayna, “I play young Nala and baby elephant.”
Broadway is a full-time job, usually each day is 8 hours of intensive singing and dancing, so it is no wonder performer’s lives change once they get cast. “When I moved to NYC, I had to quit a gymnastics team I was on and off since 2017. It was honestly so worth it and I’m glad I did it, to pursue theater,” says Alanya, talking about the time commitment of being on Broadway full time.
Kids on Broadway have a lot to deal with, on stage and off. Before the accessibility of home schooling and virtual school due to the Covid-19 pandemic, school and star life got intertwined. “I had to miss a lot of school and I would sometimes get behind on homework and tests because I had to travel a lot to New York,” says Alayna. “I’m now doing homeschool and it’s so much more flexible and doesn’t collide as much as it did.”
Life as a Broadway star may not be full of glitz and glamour as we think, but there is still a lot of fun in the job. “The shows never feel the same, even though I’m performing the same thing every time. It always excites me when stuff like malfunctions happen, it keeps me on my feet,” says Alayna.