Senior Melissa Goldman was recently accepted into Bellarmine’s musical program. As Bellarmine is an all boys school, they needed a talented girl to play female roles. Melissa managed to get the position of playing the role of The Gypsy in “The Who’s Tommy” play at Bellarmine last year. This year, she got the female lead position as Christine in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”

Melissa has been acting since she was young. She started when she was four years old. She discovered her passion for acting when her older sister, who was nine years old at the time, tried out acting for Peninsula Youth Theater (PYT).

“It’s kind of a funny story,” Melissa said. “My dad didn’t want me to do theater at first, because he kept saying it was ‘my sister’s thing,’ and that I should find my own hobby. I’m glad my mom convinced him to let me do it, otherwise I don’t know who I’d be today.”

Melissa joined PYT when she was five years old, and she has been into acting ever since.

“There was something magical to me about the stage, about seeing the actors onstage singing and dancing their hearts out,” Melissa said. “I don’t think I fully understood what they were doing, but I understood that it was exciting and fun. So I asked my mom if I could be involved too.”

Both Melissa and Katherine were heavily involved in PYT. Melissa’s first show with PYT was “Stuart Little,” when she was eight years old. Since then, Melissa has participated in over 20 shows at PYT. She has had several lead roles, including Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” and Demeter in the musical “Cats.” One of her most recent roles was Belle in PYT’s “Beauty and The Beast.” Melissa considered the role quite challenging for her, since she wanted to avoid being seen as a “stereotypical Disney princess.” She said she was able to portray Belle as a multifaceted character.

Melissa’s foremost considers herself as a singer, then an actor, and lastly, a dancer. She took voice lessons ever since she was seven years old, inspired by Katherine, who also was practicing to sing. Ever since then, Melissa has also entertained audiences with her singing.

“I try to be modest, because no one likes people who are full of themselves,” said Melissa, “But people have told me that I’m an amazing singer, and that sometimes when I sing onstage, I make them cry. And to an actress, that’s one of the best things you could hear. Because it means you touched them, and that’s what our job is.”

Melissa’s preference for musicals and singing was a major factor in her decision not to join Broken Box.

As further proof of her accomplishments, she has won 2nd place in the Musical Theatre division of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition this past year, and 3rd place of the same division the year before. Because of her talents, Melissa is planning to major in musical theater for college.

“My ultimate goal is to be an actress on Broadway, but I’d be just fine with being an actress off of Broadway too,” Melissa said. “All I want to do is act. It’s what I love. Countless people have told me that there’s no money in show business, but that doesn’t matter to me. As long as I’m doing what I love and I’m happy, having money or having none doesn’t matter at all.”