Playbill’s Tyler Mount returns to Austin for high school musical awards
This Texas native trained at the Long Center and St. Edward’s and has thrived on Broadway.
On April 18, the Long Center will fill to bursting with thousands of hopeful teens, parents and fans from 38 Central Texas drama programs, who will cheer the nominees for the Greater Austin High School Musical Theatre Awards. Along with the awards, expect a parade of numbers selected from the nominated shows, medleys from lead actors and showstoppers from a select ensemble of the area’s best young performers.
The emcee this year, Tyler Mount, is an Austin product made good on Broadway. He performs and produces in New York, but Mount, who trained at the Long Center and St. Edward’s University, is best known for his vlog on Playbill.com, on which he has interviewed the theater’s biggest stars. Long-distance, we asked him a few questions. American-Statesman: Tell us about your high school drama experience.
Tyler Mount: I grew up in small-town Texas — Montgomery, to be exact. I never felt like I really fit in, except for when I was within the confines of the theater department. Theater was, and is still to this day, my safe space. Theater gave me a reason to get up in the morning and made me passionate about something like I had never been before. High school drama changed the entire trajectory of my life, and I’m so thankful it did. What made you select St. Edward’s for college?
I knew I wanted to stay in Texas but that I had to live in Austin. It was the liberal island in a sea of red, and it was where all the arts in Texas — whether it was music, theater or fine art — was happening. After touring St. Edward’s and the University of Texas, I chose