Senior nursing major Denise Branthoover has acted in two musicals at Waynesburg University; “The Princess and the Pea” and The Drowsy Chaperone.” She has also choreographed two shows, which were “The Little Mermaid” and “The Addams Family.”

Branthoover’s love for theatre predates her collegiate acting career while at Waynesburg.

“I did musicals for four years while in high school, and then in middle school they had a musical in eighth grade and I did that too. I have always been in love with theatre-type things,” Branthoover said.

In this year’s spring musical, Branthoover played the starring role of Janet Van De Graaff, who is a celebrity “giving up her life of glamor” and marrying Robert Martin, played by co-star Ed DiOrio, freshman sports broadcasting major. Although it was her last time working on a show on the Goodwin Performing Arts Center’s stage, Branthoover said she really enjoyed the experience, in addition to collaborating with other students and each of their roles in the play.

“The whole cast was so much fun to hang out with and really made rehearsals fun,” Branthoover said. “There was this one time with Thomas [Faye], he was the only one that remembered a line that we all were supposed to say. We were all supposed to say ‘yeah’ and Thomas was the only one who said it and it was so funny.”

According to Branthoover, her favorite song in the show was “As We Stumble Along”, because of its tune and melody. As a nursing major in her senior year, it was challenging for Branthoover to balance nursing classes and going to rehearsals for the show, but according to Branthoover, it was not as demanding as she thought it would be.

“I thought that it was going to be really bad, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be,” Branthoover said. “I am a super academically-focused person, so that was something I was concerned about, which is why I chose not to do shows here years before. This semester it just worked out that I was able to balance everything.”

Performing on stage was something Branthoover missed, and she compared coming back to the joy to riding a bike again.

“It was really, really amazing being in a musical again,” Branthoover said. “I missed it because that is who I was in high school – doing musicals, singing, dancing and acting. Who I am kind of shifted during college. In high school, I wasn’t academically focused. Now that has totally changed.”

With graduation approaching, Branthoover said that she will miss being a student at Waynesburg because “you never really feel alone here.” Because of the size of the campus, she said that whenever she walks through various educational buildings she always knows somebody. Branthoover has one piece of advice that she would tell incoming freshmen: “be yourself.”

“It’s always a good moto to live by,” Branthoover said. “You go through high school and you know they talk about being yourself and finding yourself and that’s great. But then you finish high school and feel like you have to do that all over again and you forget how to be yourself. If I would have known that I would have maybe done things differently.”

Branthoover’s plans after graduation from Waynesburg University is to move to northern California and get into a residency program, so she can further pursue a career in nursing.