Broadway bound

Noblesville’s Rosie Allenson heads to the Big Apple

At just three years old, Rosie Allenson announced to her parents that she was going to be an actress. Now, having taken early graduation from Noblesville High School, she is Broadway bound and planning to study at the world-renowned American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) in New York this fall.

The American Academy of Dramatic Arts is a private performing arts conservatory with locations in both Manhattan, N.Y., and Los Angeles, Calif. Their list of alumni is impressive and, according to Rosie, a little intimidating. Graduates include Robert Redford, Grace Kelly, Lauren Bacall, Kirk Douglas, Spencer Tracy, Anne Bancroft and a host of modern actors. See a full list at this link.

Rosie is not going to the east coast alone. Her parents are going to relocate to New York to support her as fully in this stage of her education as they have through her life.

The Reporter had the opportunity to speak with Rosie, with her parents Jodie and Dave Allenson, and with her mentor, Main Street Productions (MSP) Board Member Tom Smith about Rosie’s work to make her dream come true.

Photo provided

According to her mother Jodie, “Literally when she was three years old she just said, ‘I’m going to be an actress.’ We didn’t even think she knew what that meant. As she’s gotten older she has just never deviated.”

Rose has been going to New York to study through Broadway Artists Alliance for the last six years.

“The first year she went to New York she asked if she could go study,” Jodie said. “I said, ‘If you can get in to one of these programs then we will go.’ That very same day she submitted a video and they called her that day and told her that the accepted her.”

AADA, where Rosie will study starting this fall, only accepted 300 students, and people apply from around the world.

“I thought they are applying from England and all these places, there is no way she was going to get in,” Jodie said. “We made her apply to different places. AADA was her very first choice. She submitted her audition tape on Thursday and by Saturday they had called her.”

According to Rosie, getting into the AADA feels nothing short of wonderful.

“AADA has for a long time been my dream school and I’m delighted to have been accepted there,” Rosie said. “I have some very large shoes to fill. It does have impressive alumni. Honestly, I’m starstruck just being in that space. To be able to go there and to delve into the art that I so dearly cherish and study where some of the greats studied – I find it hard to believe sometimes that I am so blessed that I get that opportunity to do that.”

Rosie told The Reporter that the moment she stepped foot in the city she knew that’s where she wanted to be.

“To actually be going there and staying there is nothing short of a dream come true,” Rosie said.

Rosie Allenson

Rosie’s father, Dave, told The Reporter she’s always been passionate about acting.

“When she was four or five years old, she loved Cinderella and Snow White. Of course, we bought her the costumes. She would dress up as Snow White. We always had a bowl of apples on our table in the kitchen. She would take an apple and take a bite out of it, as it is was the poisoned apple, of course, and she would fall down and faint very dramatically. Then of course, since we’d be watching, she’d get up and immediately get another apple and do it again. My wife wound up making a lot of applesauce from all the apples that had one bite taken out of them.”

Now, Dave and Jodie are planning their move to New York to support their daughter in the next stage of her education.

MSP Board Member Tom Smith told The Reporter, “Her parents are 100 percent behind her and they believe their jobs in life are to make sure that she does what she wants to do for a living. I think it’s really admirable. Of all the kids that I have worked with and know, she is the one I truly believe will actually make a living at this.”

Smith calls Rosie his “de facto granddaughter.” They met on stage during MSP’s production of Picnic in 2018. They became friends and go to each other’s shows. Now she’s heavily involved in Westfield Playhouse in leadership roles.

Westfield Playhouse recently formed a youth advisory council, on which Rosie is a co-chair.

Rosie said she feels blessed to have the kind of support she does from her parents.

Rosie Allenton met her mentor, Main Street Productions board member Tom Smith (left), while acting in MSP’s 2018 production of Picnic. (Photo provided)

“The sad truth is not many students who want to pursue a career in the arts have that support,” Rosie said. “There is this opinion that a career in the arts is not a stable one or a wise one and often times students are on their own if they want to pursue a career like the one I do. To have parents that are so abundantly encouraging and supportive enough to want to move with me to help me see those dreams through is incredible. I’m so humbled that they are willing to do that. They’ve always told me that they would support me in whatever I chose to do and they’ve never come up short on that.”

Dave said he has seen other parents who view a career in the arts as a gamble.

“I’ve had coworkers whose kids have been involved in theater and wanted to have a career in it,” Dave said. “To the last one of them they said, ‘Well, that’s fine but what are you going to do for a real job?’ There’s always a market for live entertainment, ever since the courts of the kings. That will never, ever go away. And if you love it, do it!”

Both her parents and Tom Smith pointed out how impressed they all are with Rosie’s self-motivation on this path and with her getting into AADA so quickly.

“We sound so biased, but really, it’s kind of incredible that she’s doing this all on her own,” Jodie told The Reporter.

“Their alumni are a ‘who’s who’ of actors and actresses,” Dave said. “Seeing how quickly she got in just blew our minds. She’s always wanted to go to New York. We are so looking forward to it and to seeing her develop and grow.”