Pictured is Laura Horton as Eve in the BU Theatre Department’s production of “Children of Eden.”
“My overall career goal is to be where the Lord wants me to be and follow the Lord’s calling on my life,” Laura Horton said. “My main goal is to work at a Christian theatre company because that aligns both my passions for music and theatre with my calling as a Christian to spread the gospel.”
Horton is a senior majoring in General Theatre and Applied Music with a Vocal concentration. She is a Presidential Scholar, resident assistant, and supplemental instructor. A member of BU’s Honors Program, she has been named to the President’s List each semester, inducted into the Alpha Chi National College Honor Society, and awarded for maintaining the highest cumulative grade point average at the most recent Honors Convocation. She is a cabinet member for the Student Government Association and will serve as the Women’s Discipleship Leader for Bluefield University Student Ministries in the upcoming academic year.
This summer, Horton will intern with Sight & Sound Theatres at its Branson, MO location. Working behind the scenes on the production of Queen Esther, she will rotate between the wardrobe, deck, animal care, lighting, and sound teams before selecting a team to serve alongside until the conclusion of the internship in August.
“I think that one of the prime reasons that they chose me for this position is the experience that I have already been able to acquire at Bluefield University,” Horton shared.
Since making her debut in BU’s Theatre Department as Miss Claus in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Horton has portrayed Professor Willard in Our Town, Marsyas in Philemon, Mrs. Cratchit in A Christmas Carol, Eve/Mama Noah in Children of Eden, and Miss Trunchbull in Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical. She has served as head or assistant costumer for several productions, assistant stage manager for Disney’s Frozen JR., light board operator for Dracula, and music director for A Christmas Carol and Matilda. Over the past two years, she has been a member of set construction, scene shifting, production, and painting crews.
“Theatre professors Charles Reese and Rebecca McCoy-Reese have been a huge encouragement with this. Everything that they teach within the theatre major prepares us for work in the real world, so they’ve definitely equipped me to be able to do what I do,” she said.
Horton is only the latest success story from Bluefield University’s College of Arts & Letters. Fellow senior and General Theatre major Ian Matullo will be interning with Wolfbane Productions in Appomattox, VA this summer. Winter graduates Brian Fisher and Noah Jennings joined the casts of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Wohlfahrt Haus Dinner Theatre in Wytheville, VA, and The Rivals at the University of Richmond respectively.
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