They leave behind their family and friends, their home ward and bishop — nearly every aspect of their regular support system — and they live out of suitcases, traveling from town to town with strangers who don’t share their values.
Can LDS actors maintain their testimonies while in the national tour of a Broadway show?
According to two LDS performers with firsthand knowledge, the answer is a strong yes.
Although not without its challenges, touring cross-country offers actors an opportunity to share their testimonies with not only their castmates but others they meet who they wouldn’t have an opportunity to reach otherwise.
“I left behind everything comfortable and easy when I made this leap of faith to pursue a career in performing, but I have never been alone,” says Nikki Bohne, who plays the lead role of Elle Woods in the current national tour of “Legally Blonde: The Musical.” “There are challenges and struggles, but it is something that is not only possible — it’s wonderful! Heavenly Father wants us to be happy, and I really believe that he is leading me on a path of happiness far greater then I could even have dreamed up for myself.”
Recording artist Dallyn Vail Bayles played the rebellion leader Enjolras in a “Les Misérables” national tour and has toured with “Phantom of the Opera.”
“Being on tour most certainly helped me develop my temporal talents and abilities, but that’s only part of the whole picture,” he says. “I had opportunities to grow spiritually and emotionally, to share the gospel, to learn more about myself and about what my Heavenly Father expects of me.”
An actor’s life on the road is anything but consistent, and locating and then traveling to church services on Sunday is a challenge.
“In the middle of a four-show weekend the last thing you feel like doing is getting up early and taking public transportation to attend the 9 a.m. ward in your area,” Bayles says. “But I came to realize how vital attending church and taking the sacrament really was for my spiritual health. Church was, and is, my refuge, my spiritual recharge.”
“The most trying aspects on my testimony while touring are always the little things: finding a consistent pattern of scripture reading, prayer and church attendance,” Bohne explains. “I strive to find different ways to motivate myself, such as studying a new gospel topic each week or involving friends and family in on my study, even though I’m traveling.”
Bohne recalls “a particularly difficult and exhausting five-show weekend” when it would have been easier to just sleep in one Sunday morning, but she attended and had a particularly rewarding spiritual experience. “And I knew Heavenly Father was happy I was at church, regardless of my wet hair and the black circles under my eyes.”
Both Bayles and Bohne believe their experiences have given them a deeper appreciation for aspects of their spiritual life they previously may have taken for granted.
“While I was occasionally able to travel with my wife and only child on the ‘Les Mis’ tour, I wasn’t able to take my family, which had by then grown to four children, on the ‘Phantom’ tour,” Bayles says. “I came to realize how important it is to be around your wife and children, and the spiritual and emotional strength I draw from them.”
Locating sacrament meetings to attend was not nearly as challenging as finding singles wards for Bohne. “I miss attending church with my peers. And though I never thought I’d say it,” she gulps, “but I also miss dating!”
For Bayles, his “favorite thing” on tour was having a chance to share the gospel and clear up misunderstandings about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “I would get asked a lot of questions about certain doctrinal and cultural issues. There were also many times when I would simply make comments about my religion and its teachings as they fit into the conversation we were having. My fellow cast members were very mindful of me, and they either stop engaging in talk they knew would be offensive to me or would jokingly tell me to ‘close my ears’ if they were about to say something they shouldn’t.”
“Sharing by example is the best form of missionary work while on tour,” Bohne says. “I know people watch as I say a prayer before each show or somehow I pull off an eight-show week without an ounce of caffeine. I once had a girl come up to me at the stage door and say, ‘You believe in God, don’t you?’ The sheer fact that she saw the light of God radiate from my performance is the greatest form of missionary work possible. I believe everyone in my cast will walk away from this tour with a greater knowledge of the church and an uplifting impression of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
She adds that while she is traveling to new cities, she still has all the tools to increase her testimony. “I have the Internet to listen to conference talks in my hotel room; I have the scriptures, prayer and every opportunity to continue to share and develop my testimony.”
“The Lord needs strong LDS people of good talent to be in this business of performing,” Bayles says. “There is much good that can and needs to be done, but it needs to be done the Lord’s way. The most important thing an aspiring young LDS performer can do is simply follow the Spirit. Live worthy of it, and follow its promptings diligently down whatever road the Lord would have you go on. It may lead to Broadway. It may go off someplace completely unexpected, but wherever it leads it will be the right and best path for you.”
“It may sound cheesy, but my advice to LDS performers is to embody that Elle Woods spirit and believe in yourself,” Bohne adds. “Take that leap of faith and trust that, with our Heavenly Father and a lot of hard work, nothing is impossible.
“As I look out into the audience during the finale of the show, I know that I am where I am supposed to be, and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Blair Howell is a freelance editor and writer. His wife, Lori, toured the Western states as a theater performer.