Kimberly Marable is part of the ensemble of the hilarious musical The Wedding Singer, which comes to The Bushnell June 17-22. Read on for a glimpse of what it's like to be performer on the road, and why she loves doing theater. Welcome to The Bushnell Blog, Kimberly!

Why do I love The Wedding Singer? So many reasons. It's just so much fun to do. I mean I get to dress up like Tina Turner every night, and that's pretty hard to beat. : ) The music is so catchy, I always find myself singing along or dancing around when I'm not onstage. Plus, there's something in every style of 80s music, from hard-core rock, to early boy bands, to pop, and the list goes on. The choreography is SO high-energy and does a great job getting the story across (plus it's a great workout!). More generally speaking, who can resist the classic love story of boy-meets-girl and how they get together? I just love it!

Acting was sort of written in the stars for me. I was telling people at 3 that I wanted to be an actress, singer, and dancer before I think I even REALLY knew what it meant to be one. I grew up taking voice and dance lessons, and spent several summers in various theater camps. I was a Theater and Sociology major at Dartmouth, and after graduating, pursued theater management for a year. Then I moved back to NY a little over two years ago, and hit the ground running with auditions, dance classes, voice lessons, a few regional productions here and there and, well... here I am. I've always enjoyed performing more than anything else. I've never really been able to sit still for very long without bursting out into some sort of song or dance. Being able to portray life situations on the stage, story-telling in general and the ability to provoke thought through theater has always been meaningful to me. Even with a show as light-hearted as The Wedding Singer, I know that from my effort to progress the story of Robbie and Julia getting together, someone is going to go home with a smile on their face and/or relates to what just happened on stage, and that's very rewarding.

Life on the road definitely has its ups and downs. We're living out of a suitcase for however long... in our case 9 months, and traveling every week, which can be a bit nerve-wracking. But I've been able to travel all over the country to places I've never been before and experience the life and, of course, tourist attractions there. Also, because we live with the people we work with, we've forged relationships with the cast, crew, and musicians that in other scenarios might not necessarily happen, simply because at the end of the work day you could conceivably go home. You really become a family, which is lovely since in most cases we're far from our hometowns.