Student Profile: John DeLisa

When John DeLisa was a kid he was cast in a local production of Annie as Star to Be. "That's what hooked me. I sang about NYC and making it big and I thought to myself, among all the pretty grown up theatre girls, 'this is where I want to be.'"

Now John is playing Moritz in Theatre UCF's Spring Awakening. His busy schedule has been the biggest challenge for this production. John is not only in classes and rehearsals every day but he is also a beginning piano and voice instructor. Spring Awakening director Joshua Chase Gold asks the actors to leave their outside life out of the rehearsal space and John has been striving to do that with great success.

Working with Gold, who is an alumnus of the UCF Theatre Department, has been a treat for John. He has come to admire his director a great deal. Gold asks the actors to pay very close attention to the details in the script. This has led to John digging deeper into the text and analyzing the music more than he ever has before.

John is the oldest of eight children from Palm Harbor, FL and is a senior in the BFA Musical Theatre program. John has been seen on the UCF stage as Younger Brother in Ragtime and Buddy in Sideshow. He has also performed in three productions at Busch Gardens, Tampa Bay. John's favorite part about Theatre UCF is how much the faculty pushes students to be better in a supportive and encouraging way.

By: Elle Sullivan