When she was in eighth grade, Emily Fishman decided that she was going to audition for “The Little Mermaid” at Young People’s Theater. Now, three years later, she knows that participating in theater is how she wants to spend the rest of her life and hopes to end up on Broadway. “That one decision changed my whole career path and now I know what I want to do and I’m working towards that and that is all I’m focused on,” Fishman said.

She was drawn into theater by her middle school best friend, who invited her to audition for her all time favorite Disney movie, “The Little Mermaid,” which YPT was going to put on. Even though she can participate in other high school theater programs such as Community Ensemble Theater or Pioneer Theater Guild, she continues with YPT because she loves the classics and Disney movies that they consistently put on, but she always enjoys watching CET’s plays.

Out of all of the musicals that Fishman has participated in, “Seussical” (a musical based off of Dr. Seuss’s stories) was her favorite. She played one of the Bird Girls, who narrated, danced and sang, but she aspires to one day play Gertrude McFuzz, the female lead of the play. She is auditioning for the role at Encore theater in Dexter, where professional adult actors can get paid, but young actors cannot.

Besides Gertrude McFuzz, other roles that Fishman would like to play are Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors” because of the songs that Audrey sings, Glinda in “Wicked” because Fishman can relate to her wildness and one of the sorority girls in “Legally Blonde: The Musical,” because “I love to play dumb parts … and I’m already a little dumb, so that just adds to the character.”

After high school, she wants to attend either New York University or University of Michigan for musical theater. She believes that NYU would be a good option because it’s well-known and near Broadway, which would bring her closer to achieving her goal of performing there. U of M is convenient because it’s close to home, but also has a good reputation for its musical theater program.

Fishman knows that it’s tough to make it all the way onto Broadway, so if that doesn’t work out, she has other ideas of careers that she would like to have that still involve theater. She’d love to work as an actor at local theaters close to Ann Arbor like Encore, or as a director or teacher for high school students in performing arts. Whether she ends up performing in front of millions of people or teaching acting to high schoolers, she knows that she’ll be happy.