Photos courtesy of Evie Strickland.
Homewood High School senior Evie Strickland
Evie Strickland is a member of Homewood High School’s mixed [10th-12th] show choir group The Network, and I serve as a lieutenant on the Star Spangled Girls dance line.
Q: Please tell our readers about yourself.
A: Hi! My name is Evie Strickland, and I am so thrilled to be representing Homewood in this article and sharing my ambitions, dreams and life with you readers. A little run down about me is I am 18 years old and a current senior at Homewood High School. I admire the arts so much, and although I spend the majority of my time dancing and singing, I love to spend time with friends and family any chance I get. I am one of five girls, and that has been the biggest blessing in my life along with the coaches, teachers and leaders that have helped me transform into who I am today.
Q: What extracurricular activities do you participate in at Homewood High School?
A: I am a member of Homewood High School’s mixed show choir group [10th-12th] The Network, and I serve as a lieutenant on the Star Spangled Girls dance line this year. I also have recently finished my first ever musical produced by Homewood’s theatre department! I am so beyond grateful to be a part of these outstanding programs at Homewood, and they truly have taught me so much about myself and allowed me to embrace my love for the arts. Each director has taught me something different that will stick with me well into college and beyond!
Q: What do you love most about attending Homewood High School? What advice would you give to students new to Homewood High School?
A: Homewood’s admiration and appreciation for the arts is definitely what makes my love for Homewood so strong. This school pours so much into their different programs, along with amazing coaches and directors to create beautiful moments on the stage or Friday nights at Waldrop Stadium! My biggest advice for new, upcoming students attending Homewood High School is that every child has a special place in the arts department. I strongly encourage everyone to be a part of one of these fabulous programs because I have truly seen the directors, friendships and performances become the best moments of students’ high school experiences at Homewood! Never hesitate to try new things, and always follow your passions!
Q: What is your best or favorite memory from your time spent at Homewood High School?
A: One of my favorite memories from my time at the high school would be hosting and performing at our own show choir competition — South Central Classic. Over the years, this competition has been so much fun and a great outlet to meet new choir kids from groups all over the States! I have truly loved being a leader when hosting smaller age divisions, and last year I had the opportunity to host an all-girls group, which brought such joy to be able to empower these young girls alongside my good friends and pour encouragement and confidence into them!
Q: Being a Spangle, being in show choirs and doing musical theatre, you obviously love performing. What do you love most about performing? Do you prefer singing or dancing more? Why?
A: My love for performing has grown over the years thanks to my amazing coaches and directors who have poured into me and taught me so much! My biggest love for performing would be presenting the crowds our end products, but most importantly working together with my teams, [whom] now I call family. Truly the friendships I have made over these past four years have been the biggest blessings imaginable and have pushed me to be a better performer and individual today. Alongside that, I have been dancing officially since I was around the age of 7, so I will always have a very deep love for dance. But when I joined Homewood Middle School’s show choir and started voice lessons, I eventually learned how truly passionate I was for singing, as well! I have learned they are both huge passions in my life separately but, when done together, create such magic and happiness in my life.
Q: You recently participated in Seussical the Musical at HHS. What role did you play in the show? What was that experience like?
A: I played the role of Mayzie Labird, and this character was such a dream to embody and play! She is feisty [and] persuasive and loves a good salsa, and I could not be more thankful to have been chosen for this role and thankful for Homewood’s theatre department. The couple of weeks prepping for the shows were very hard to juggle with my show choir and Spangle commitments, but the directors within the arts department work so hard to allow students to follow their passions and participate in new things at the school! The actual experience of being in the room with new faces and [having] new content to learn every rehearsal was thrilling and helped me learn new things about the theatre world. The new friendships I made and the new directors I met hold such a dear place in my heart. I am so excited to see where the theatre department goes from here and can’t wait to root on newcomers who want to call this program home!
Q: Please tell our readers about your experience performing in New York over the summer. What was it like performing on stage in such a big city? What were the most powerful things you learned about performing while doing that show?
A: Words cannot describe how much joy I had when working toward my NYC debut with On Stage Collective! First off, New York is my favorite place to be in any season of life, and a dream of mine is to one day live there and perform. The experience of performing at The Green Room 42 was unreal and taught me so many incredible things about myself as a performer. This experience allowed me to feel more of what it was like for current individuals performing in shows and [what] trying to make it in the big city today was like. The directors and people I met — young and old — allowed me to envision what it takes to become a true performer and to use your specific gifts and talents to showcase your strengths. But the words of wisdom that stuck out to me the most [were from] my experience in Emma Pittman’s masterclass at Pearl Studios. She told me that letting [my] walls come down and allowing the raw emotion and storytelling through my song choice to shine through was the best version of my performance and that this should carry on into every new audition [I] go to and every new song [I] sing. Her words will always stick with me and remind me to embrace the music and to love what I am creating!
Q: Who is your role model and why?
A: I have many role models [whom] I look up to within their singing and dancing professions currently, but my biggest role model is my mom. My mom is my biggest inspiration on the daily because she always encourages me even when things feel impossible sometimes. She never shies away from being her authentic self and always tells me to follow my dreams and passions. She constantly tells me that your profession should be something you wake up every day and love doing because you are passionate about it, and that’s why I want to continue to follow my dreams to work in the arts one day and hopefully make my dream a reality.
Q: Do you plan to keep performing after high school? What are your plans following graduation?
A: I am currently in the process of auditioning for schools as a musical theatre major and hopefully after high school will be able to pursue this major in college. I see myself continuing voice lessons and potentially [continuing] at a new dance studio in my more open free time once I graduate. I am so beyond thankful for my voice teacher, Marjorie Trimm, and my dance instructors for pushing me to pursue this career and [be] confident in doing so. My love for performing will not end after high school comes to a close, and I will strive to keep working hard and pursuing this as a future career. The arts are so special to me, and I wouldn’t be who I am today without them.
