Note: Carson’s last show as Billy in the Venice Theatre production of Billy Elliot the Musical (BETM) in Florida, was on December 3, 2016
Debut: November 9, 2016 (Venice Theatre, FL)
Total Performances as Billy: 11 (No partial shows)
Carson Maschmeier was 13-years-old when he debuted as Billy in the Venice Theatre production of BETM. He lives in Fort Myers, FL, and is an 8th grade student at St Michael’s Lutheran School.
Outside of performing, Carson’s interests include sailing and competing in the Science Fair. He is on his school sail team and was on the Lee/Charlotte Co State Science Fair team where he placed 5th in 2015 and 4th in 2016 in Cellular and Molecular Biology. Despite his busy BETM schedule, Carson is competing again this year to try and make it to the Florida State Science Fair.
Carson has been tap dancing for three years, with his training taking place at Dance Studio of Maine and Curtain Call Studios. A year and a half ago Carson took up jazz, also at Curtain Call Studios, and he learned just a bit of ballet in that time. It was only in May this year that Carson properly took up ballet at Gulfshore Ballet. His instructor there, Jose Gamero, had actually trained a Billy before and so he helped Carson learn all the correct technique that he would lead to play the role. Carson worked very hard on his ballet and put in hours and hours of blood, sweat and tears to get himself ready for his audition.
At a competition in Southwest Florida, Carson won the 2016 Young Artist Award for Dance Age 8-13. His winning tap dance performance can be seen here.
Carson has a lot of previous theatrical experience, having appeared in nine productions at Broadway Palm Theatre in Fort Myers since 2012. These include:
- Kurt Von Trapp in The Sound of Music (Feb-Apr 2013)
- Young Shrek in Shrek The Musical (Jun-Aug 2013)
- Gavroche in Les Miserables (Feb-Apr 2014)
- Young Ebenezer in A Christmas Carol (Nov-Dec 2014)
- Ensemble in The Wizard of Oz (Jun-Aug 2016)
He has also appeared in a previous production of BETM, at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre in Jupiter, FL, in December 2015. He played the role of Tall Boy, alongside their Billys Nick Dantes and Jamie Mann.
Carson’s journey to “be Billy” started when he was performing as Tall Boy in BETM at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre. One of the BETM superfans saw the show and was so impressed with Carson’s performance as Tall Boy that he said he thought he would make a great Billy, and that he would make it his goal to make sure that Carson played the role one day. From then on he sent Carson’s Mom information every time a theatre bought rights for the show, including Venice Theatre since it was close to Carson’s hometown. Carson successfully auditioned for the show and the first person he emailed with the great news was this fan.
Rehearsals for the show started in September. Carson had a punishing schedule with rehearsals taking place from 7pm-10pm on Mondays to Thursdays and 2pm-9pm on Sundays. For tech week the rehearsal hours were even longer. On top of this, the Billys often had to arrive early in order to practice dance or do flight training. Carson thought that the people from ZFX, who provide the flying, were amazing, as they taught them all the mechanics behind the flying and were very focused on safety.
Carson is honored to be playing Billy Elliot, as he really relates to the role on a personal level. It means so much to him to finally have this chance, after working towards it for the past three years.
When Carson stepped on the Venice Theatre stage on 9-Nov-2016, he became the 174th actor in the world to play the role of Billy Elliot.
For more information about Carson visit:
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