Sheila Zapata
Staff Writer
In a few months, the curtain will fall for the final time as the seniors step onto a different stage not to perform, but to receive one of the most meaningful milestones in a college student’s life: their diplomas. Before that moment arrives, let’s rewind and follow the journey of one of the department’s standout singers, actresses, and dancers as she reflects on her time at FSC and shares what lies ahead.
Chelsea Campbell is a senior Musical Theatre Major with a dance minor. She started as a dancer when she was a child, but theatre always interested her. Campbell expressed how her shyness restricted her to only dance because she could communicate with her body and not with words. In high school however, she started choreography in musicals, and that’s where she found the desire to be front and center.
“I discover a lot of myself through the characters I play. I feel like I get a deeper sense of who I am as a person,” Campbell said. Campbell believes that FSC has given her the most opportunities to perform and develop her skills as an actress, singer and dancer. The most popular roles that she has played on campus are Fastrada (Pippin Spring 2025), Wendla Bergmann (Spring Awakening Fall 2024) and Louise in the upcoming spring musical Carousel. Campbell has also had the opportunity to serve on FSC’s Vagabonds’ Executive Board as Historian and was the dance captain and Associate Choreographer for Legally Blonde: The Musical.
“I am very grateful. There have been challenges, though, in regard to working with so many different people and directors, but through that, I was able to open my eyes, open my perspective to what it is going to be like beyond college, working with whoever, whenever.”
Campbell shares how her journey in the theatre and dance department has taught her how to craft each skill she has separately to an advanced level, and how she can combine them. “With what I’ve learned, I feel confident going into a dance call or going into a signing all or going in just for a straight play and it’s been really cool.”
After graduation, Campbell hopes to move to New York and pursue a career on Broadway, but she also plans to continue performing in any capacity, acknowledging that many performers experience a reality check when they are no longer cast as frequently as they were in school. Campbell wouldn’t trade her time here at FSC for anything, and she hopes that the future performers choose FSC to start their theatre and dance careers as well. She states that the program is community-driven, has a lot of student leadership and you’re able to have your own opinions and share them without getting judged.
To Campbell, that is what makes FSC’s Theatre and Dance department so special. “FSC is a really good place to be to become anything you want in the aspect of theatre, either because you’ve been given that opportunity or because you made it yourself, so it’s just a beautiful place to be.”
