{"id":127827,"date":"2022-08-08T10:28:06","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T14:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=127827"},"modified":"2022-11-15T10:18:29","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T15:18:29","slug":"dear-dkaylah-unique-whitley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2022\/08\/08\/dear-dkaylah-unique-whitley\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear D\u2019Kaylah Unique Whitley"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Wright State musical theatre major D\u2019Kaylah Unique Whitley has spent the summer on Broadway as an understudy in \u201cDear Evan Hansen.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

D\u2019Kaylah Unique Whitley has been away from Wright State University\u2019s Dayton Campus since April having quite the professional adventure.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s in New York. \u201cMoving to the city has been a whirlwind,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a whole different world from what I\u2019m used to. I\u2019m learning how to literally navigate New York City \u2014 mostly the trains, if you know, you know \u2014 while also learning two principal tracks in a Broadway show.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just any Broadway show \u2014 if there is such a thing as \u201cjust any\u201d Broadway show. She\u2019s an understudy in \u201cDear Evan Hansen,\u201d winner of six Tony awards, a Grammy award and the Olivier award for Best Musical.<\/p>\n

Whitley debuted two different roles within four days of each other: Alana Beck on June 3 and Zoe Murphy on June 7. The roles opened up those days because the actors portraying these characters had to call out. Enter Whitley, the understudy.<\/p>\n

Whitley, a musical theatre major<\/a> at Wright State, was nominated to audition for the LINK program. She attended the program for two weeks of workshops, master classes, auditions and more. Shortly after, she auditioned for \u201cDear Evan Hansen\u201d by Zoom and attended a few in-person auditions.<\/p>\n

She learned on March 17 that she booked the role and was told to be in New York City by April 5. \u201cI\u2019ve been here in New York since April 1,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As an understudy, she learns roles so that she can step in should the full-time actor not be available.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy normal day is usually rehearsal during the day and the show at night,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She and the other understudies work on lines and sometimes play games to pass the time. \u201cWe\u2019re there just in case \u2014 people have been called in mid-show before,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

There is one other thing Whitley has been doing: taking Wright State classes online during the summer so that she can graduate in December.<\/p>\n

Her path to Wright State started when she was at Heritage High School Academy for the performing and visual arts in Conyers, Georgia. She had auditioned for musical theatre programs at several universities her senior year and had been accepted by Wright State.<\/p>\n

While she was still deciding where to enroll, she attended a thespian conference where she performed an \u201cindividual event.\u201d One of the adjudicators was Joe Deer, who at the time was chair of Wright State\u2019s Department of Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures. They conversed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe asked me if I had plans to go to school for theatre and I told him I has been accepted to Wright State! The rest is history. I felt like Wright State had a welcoming environment,\u201d Whitley said. \u201cAnd I got to like Joe. He was one of the deciding factors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

In June, D\u2019Kaylah Whitley debuted in \u201cDear Evan Hansen\u201d in two different roles within four days of each other.<\/p><\/div>\n

Deer, who is now artistic director and distinguished professor of musical theatre, shares his enthusiasm for Whitley.<\/p>\n

\u201cD\u2019Kaylah is a really wonderful student, now professional. She came to us with an incredibly open spirit, a huge native talent, and a real willingness and eagerness to take everything in that she could in learning her craft,\u201d Deer said. \u201cD\u2019Kaylah has always found a way to find extra opportunities, to figure out what kind of work she was interested in doing and has been quietly very proactive in building professional relationships. I think this is going to serve her so well as she goes forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deer said he could not be prouder of her for taking advantage of the remarkable opportunity she has with \u201cDear Evan Hansen.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is always interested in learning more. I can\u2019t want to see what all the next chapters will be for D\u2019Kaylah,\u201d Deer said.<\/p>\n

Whitley is looking forward to life after graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ultimate goal is to always be creating art and perfecting my craft,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ll be auditioning for the next project and hopefully doing a few workshops.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s quick to credit Wright State for helping her succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWright State has been a great help through all of my acting classes, dance classes, and voice classes,\u201d she said. \u201cWright State taught me how to be ready and prepared and to apply the work that I\u2019ve done on paper into the audition room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deer added, \u201cOne of the things I like most about Wright State\u2019s theatre program is that we can work with students when incredible opportunities like going into a Broadway show come up. Everyone on our faculty is interested in finding a flexible way of helping students complete this rigorous pre-professional degree. So D\u2019Kaylah is on Broadway, at the pinnacle of her profession, and still completing the very last few courses online through flexible delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitley continues to learn her way around New York \u2014 the city and the theatre. And loving it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with Tony-nominated actors and actresses, learning what they\u2019ve learned and passing that down to me has been very insightful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wright State musical theatre major D\u2019Kaylah Unique Whitley has spent the summer on Broadway as an understudy in \u201cDear Evan Hansen.\u201d Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":127839,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,4859,747,715,4298],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-fine-and-performing-arts","category-liberal-arts","category-news","category-student-profile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127827"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127859,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127827\/revisions\/127859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}