Joel Kim Booster

I grew up in the southwest suburbs of Chicago.

I remember seeing when my sister was about to go to high school, we went to the high school and saw the spring musical, which was The Wizard of Oz, because my sister was really interested in theater and had done theater in middle school.

And I remember that was a real huge moment for me was when I was like, oh, I want to do that.

Like whatever this is, that's what I want to do.

And there wasn't really a frame of reference for any way else into the industry but theater, you know, community theater, high school theater and things like that.

So being an actor and specifically being like on Broadway, I think was like the earliest sort of realistic goal I had for myself in the arts was

Because you just didn't know how else anybody else got into the arts.

And so I went to school for theater, musical theater.

And from there, because I never thought about being a writer, I never thought about being anything but an actor.

And it wasn't until I got to theater school that I...

Sort of started to realize all of the different ways in which you can be involved in the arts.

And I did one summer.

My first professional acting job was a summer stock theater in southern Illinois where I did musical a musical professionally for the first time.

And I did not enjoy it or I did not enjoy it enough.

I had enough frame of reference a year into theater school, seeing my friends work professionally, seeing the people that were graduating and their paths towards success.

And I knew that I wasn't talented enough in that area to ever really make it a profession.

Meaning acting or singing?

Singing and dancing mostly.

And so I got back to school and I changed my focus almost immediately to playwriting.

I wrote my first play my sophomore year.