Southlake's Pim van Amerongen stars as "Don" in the Broadway Revival of A Chorus Line
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A Southlake Star Shines Bright
Pim van Amerongen Stars in the Broadway Revival of A Chorus Line
“When I was a kid, I was singing all the time,”brsays Pim Van Amerongen as he gazes out the window of his Milwaukee hotel room,breyes fixated on the Wisconsin Center. Tonight he will cross the street andbrtackle his life's dream head on as a cast member of the Marvin Hamlischbrmusical- A Chorus Line.
Pim, a theater fan since as far back as hisbrmother can remember, graduated from Carroll Senior High School in 2008 and isbrcurrently enjoying the sights and sounds traveling across the country as thebracclaimed Broadway revival completes its six-month U.S. tour.
As Fate Would Have It
For Pim, playing the role of “Don Kerr” is bitbrof an ironic twist of fate. If you are not familiar with the story of A Chorus Line, it’s based on a book bybrJames Kirkwood Jr. and Nicolas Dante about 17 dancers auditioning for—wait for it—a spot in a Broadwaybrmusical. Throughout the auditions, each member tells their personal story ofbrhow and why they made the decisions to become dancers.
“Out of all of the cast of characters, I seebrmyself most like Don,” Pim explains. Amongst the exciting cast, which includesbra flamboyant “Bobby,” an ageless “Connie” and the troubled childhood of “Paul,”brDon stands out just for being somewhat normal.
In the role, Pim can easily relate. “Don is abrnormal guy, a mid-western kid who always loved theater. Not much more to itbrthan that.” However, the similarities go a little deeper since both Pim and hisbrcharacter in the show moved to New York City to audition for a role on thisbrparticular chorus line.
In reality, Pim graduated Cum Laude in thebrspring of 2012 with a fine arts degree in Musical Theater from the BostonbrConservatory. Founded in 1867, the school is the oldest performing artsbrconservatory in the nation and is internationally recognized for its music,brdance and theater programs.
After graduation, Pim packed his bags and leftbrBoston for the bright lights of New York City. brImmediately upon moving to the Big Apple in August, he was quicklybrliving the quintessential metropolitan lifestyle of an “emerging artist.”brSecured with a small apartment and a job waiting tables at a nearby Tribecabrsteakhouse. Pim wasting little time explained, “In my first week, I went tobreight auditions.”
And within a month, his confidence grew alongbrwith the number of auditions, which was now in the twenties. His proximity tobrthe heart of Broadway and his drive to become a star was starting to paybrdividends.
“I remember seeing the August calling for ACL [A Chorus Line] but I was finishing up abrsummer show in New Hampshire,” he recalls, “so when I saw the second posting onbrSeptember 2nd I asked for the day off from work.”
Bolstered by the opinions of his theater friendsbrand knowing in his heart he wanted the role of Don, he wore the character'sbrsignature striped shirt, going the extra mile for his tryout.
“We all had to dance the opening combination tobrthe show,” Pim recalls. “I was nervous, but felt very good about it.”
Pim made the first cut and then did abrnerve-racking ballet solo for the casting directors. “When I was younger, Ibrdidn't consider myself to be a strong dancer, but taking dance classes at thebrConservatory really helped me excel on stage.”
After making the second cut, he sang for thebrcasting directors and with little feedback from them went to his night shift atbrthe steakhouse. While at work that night, he received a call to report the verybrnext day to read for the part of Don. A successful read-through led to the callbrhe had dreamed of his entire life—he got the part. “Of course, I was verybrexcited. My audition was a success!” he said.
A Star is Born
Pim's mother, Beth, and father, Marcel, havebralways enjoyed music and theater and made sure their three kids were exposed tobrthe arts at an early age. Beth sang inbrthe choir, played the piano and performed in theater while Marcel played bothbrthe piano and the violin. “The whole family enjoys theater and it has alwaysbrbeen a part of our lives,” says Beth.
But there seemed to be something special earlybron with little Pim…
“It sounds hard to believe,” says Beth, “but Pimbractually sang before he spoke. We remember one day in the car, he was just ninebrmonths old and he sang along with us. He was on pitch and sang with the beat.brThat was the first time we knew he had talent.”
Growing up as a young boy in Charlotte, NorthbrCarolina, Pim explored other activities but he always gravitated back towardbrperforming. He loved it so much; it didn't take any prodding from the familybrfor him to join the local children's theater group. As one of the only boys, he had littlebrtrouble getting parts and promptly earned the role of “Prince” in their fairybrtale adaptation, Unlucky Cinderella.
His stage presence showed from that very firstbrleading role. In the lighthearted rendition of the fairy tale classic, Pim wasbrto sing the ballad “Ten Minutes Ago,” but as often happens in children'sbrtheater a cue was missed. Like dominoes, one thing led to another and Pimbrmissed the opportunity to sing his first solo. Knowing already that the showbrmust go on, he just kept right with his lines. “I was so proud of how hebrhandled it,” recalls Beth. “He just let it all roll off his back.”
By the sixth grade, Pim was enrolled in a NorthbrCarolina magnet school for visual and performing arts. It was the first time hebrtook drama classes and he thoroughly enjoyed doing so. Excelling at his new school, Pim was the onlybrsixth grader to be cast in the middle school's production of Annie Junior. Playing the role ofbr“Rooster,” he already had a knack for immersing himself in his character. Sobrmuch so that when he first walked on stage with the swagger and Rooster’s thickbrNew Jersey accent his own mother could barely recognize him.
After the completion of the song “Easy Street,”brhe finished on his knees just starring at the lights as the audience cheered.brIt was at this moment that his parents began to see the potential in theirbryoung son.
Marcel's job would have the family move on morebrthan one occasion. Sad to leave his new school in North Carolina, the familybrmoved to Germany for two years where Pim continued with his theatrical studiesbrand added classes in choir and took saxophone lessons.
On the move yet again, the family relocated tobrSouthlake in 2005 and Pim was enrolled at Carroll ISD as a freshman. Bybrwatching fellow Dragons excel on stage and then head on to colleges for thebrarts, Pim realized he too could pursue his own dream as something more than abrhobby.
“People always asked me if I wanted to somedaybrbe on Broadway,” Pim explained, “I always knew the answer was ‘yes,' but Ibrdidn't know if it was realistic. As much as I loved performing I thought ofbrtheater as a hobby, not a profession.”
Living in Southlake, Pim took part in plenty ofbrthe Dallas and Fort Worth community theater including stints with the OhlookbrPerforming Arts Center in Grapevine, and Casa Manana in Fort Worth. “Ohlook was a big part of my life. I enjoyedbrperforming in Thoroughly Modern Millieand a lot more great community theater,” said Pim.
Just as importantly he met plenty of others whobrshared his passion. Plenty of kids in community theater, Pim included, wouldbrfind their way to auditioning for colleges. Through this process, he wasbraccepted into the Boston Conservatory, where he fell in love with the city andbronce again jumped into the community arts scene.
In many ways, attending college in Boston wasbrthe perfect setting for Pim to immerse himself in the arts. Being close to NewbrYork was a good thing, he was on the east coast, but could still focus onbrgrowing as an actor without the distractions of the big city dream. Also,brBoston seemed to him like a small version of New York where he could enjoy, “abrbig city with a small atmosphere that is easy to get around.”
Conquering New York and the US Tour
After completing advanced dance courses, severalbrmain stage musicals and a healthy amount of community theater in Boston, Pimbrwas now more than ready to take on the Big Apple and find a regular paying jobbras an actor.
Pim had found some paying Summer Stockbrperformances while in Boston where he would make several hundred dollarsbrrehearsing and performing in short-lived productions. “We would work extremelybrhard to learn the show, our lines and the choreography,” he explained of thebrcontracts that lasted only two weeks and would include usually threebrperformances.
Through it all, to become a regularly paid actorbrin New York was a lifelong goal, which began when the intensive training for A Chorus Line began in early October.brWith both exhilarating and stressfulbrlong hours six days a week, Pim learned every step and note as the entire castbrreadied themselves for the opening night performance in Tacoma, Washington. Thebrlast of the training consisted of “tech rehearsals” on stage in Tacoma to ironbrout the remaining kinks in dry run-through.
On October 26, Pim and company took to the stagebrfor the first of 72 stops on the tour. On seeing her son take to the stage forbrthe very first time as a true professional Beth admitted, “It was all sobrsurreal, I was just still in shock.” But after the most recent trek to see himbrperform nearby in Texarkana, she has seen six different performances and nowbrfully appreciates the performances saying, “Pinch me! He was great!”
Family, friends and past teachers have all hadbropportunities to see Pim in action and the reviews have been outstanding. Abovebrall, everyone is generally happy for his success in doing something he loves.
For Pim, a fan of such big stage productions as Wicked and Legally Blonde (recently performed by the Carroll TheaterbrDepartment), he’s taking it all inbrstride. Enjoying the camaraderie of the cast, seeing the country and living inbrhotels, (they clean up after him) he says life on the road is never boring.brGetting paid, along with travel expenses and the applicable per diem makes itbrall even better.
As for the future, Pim will head back to his NewbrYork City apartment and more auditioning when the current tour ends in March.brAfter that, he admits, “You can't really say, anything could happen.” Maybebranother tour or maybe a cruise-line production—he's just thrilled to be livingbrhis dream.
The originalbrproduction of A CHORUS LINE opened at the Public Theater’s Newman Theater onbrMay 21, 1975 and transferred to Broadway’s Shubert Theatre on July 25, openingbrthere on October 19 of that year. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, ninebrTony Awards, including Best Musical, Score and Book, and the New York DramabrCritics Circle Award. It ran for nearly 15 years, closing on April 28, 1990brafter 6,137 performances. On September 29, 1983, A CHORUS LINE became thebrlongest-running American musical in Broadway history and held this title for 28bryears from 1983 to 2011 (when it was surpassed by Chicago).