Joshua has been attending our ADP program at Vocational Visions since 2012. Below, Joshua shares one of his very special talents in his own words. This article first appeared in our August 2020 newsletter.
My name is Joshua and I love to use my acting talents to bring a smile to the audience.
My interest in acting began in December 2000 when I sang for my elementary school choir. In junior high (middle) school, thanks to some influence from a drama teacher I had, I joined Musical Theatre Village (MTV for short) in the fall of 2005 and my passion for acting has been growing ever since. I have also managed to make new friends with many of the other MTV performers and I consider them as my second family.
I’ve had a blast in many of the shows MTV has done over the years and I appear in five or six musicals and plays each year with them. By the way, in some of them, I got to perform multiple characters. I would like to talk about three characters I have played which meant a lot to me.
During the Summer of 2010, The Wizard of Oz became my big break at MTV. After I did my first performance as the great and powerful Oz, several members of the theatre, as well as the audience, were completely blown away by my powerful booming voice. Some said that I sounded like a completely different person.
During early 2013, I was really excited to play a Disney character. Aladdin is my absolute favorite animated Disney film from my childhood. Even though I didn't get the Genie part that I auditioned for, it was a great experience playing Princess Jasmine’s father, The Sultan. By the way, that is not a fake beard. I had to grow out a full beard for this role.
Oklahoma was the very first show that I ever ever did with MTV. While I have performed as an ensemble cowboy (2005) and as Slim (2013), the time when I performed as the Persian peddler man Ali Hakim (2018) would have to be my favorite role. This is not only due to the Persian Goodbye scene and the numerous kissing scenes I had to do, but also because of the accent I had to perform which was, at first, hard to pull off. I’m glad that I made the audience laugh several times.
Hopefully, some day, I can use my acting talents to make millions of people all over the world happy.
On Saturday, August 8, 2020, MTV hosted a free virtual event called 'A Disney Cabaret'. Joshua sang 'Will the Sun Ever Shine Again?' from the animated Disney movie called 'Home on the Range'.
