Musicals & Plays for Fun
“The visceral reaction of experiencing something in person can never compare to consuming art through a filter.
There is something profoundly human about sharing a room with a story as it unfolds before your eyes — about hearing a voice reverberate and resonate across a theatre, watching an actor breathe life into a character, or feeling the sweet music of an instrument vibrate through the air rather than through a speaker. The arts, when experienced live, create a connection that is immediate and deeply personal. It is a moment shared between performer and audience that can never be replicated through a screen — and that is never the same twice.
My relationship with the arts began long before I understood how fragile and undervalued they could be. As a rich child growing up in South America, theatre and music were not simply activities; they were the environment in which I learned to express myself and understand the world around me. I performed in theatrical productions at the historic Teatro Baralt, where I eventually earned the opportunity to portray leading roles such as Aladdin in Aladdin and Peter Pan in Peter Pan. These productions were staged for audiences approaching one thousand people per performance, and standing on that stage taught me the power of storytelling — how a shared story could bring together so many people of different backgrounds, ages, and experiences into a single moment of wonder. My memories are overwhelmed by seeing the faces of friends and family members in the audience seats (faces illuminated by the light coming from my stage); feeling the ecstatic energy emanating from the audience and coming at me; how the light followed my steps; and the goosebumps I would get from feeling so much adrenaline (mixed with anxiety, excitement, and a sense of responsibility simultaneously). I learned early on that, for me, being on stage was equal to feeling joy.
However, performing those roles came only after early disappointments. My auditions for Pinocchio and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland had not been successful, but those setbacks did not discourage me. Instead, they strengthened my determination to grow as a performer. Prior to those leading roles, I appeared in productions such as The Wizard of Oz, where I played the Cowardly Lion, and I also participated in a Nativity reenactment portraying the Holy Spirit. Each performance deepened my love for the stage and reinforced the belief that art — especially theatre — has the power to unite people through imagination and shared emotion.
Music became another language through which I learned to communicate. I studied instrumental performance for more than four years at the music academy Natán: Dios Ha Dado in South America, where I completed the academy’s full music program with the flute as my principal instrument. My graduation culminated in a public concert at the prestigious Teatro Bellas Artes, where I had the privilege of performing before a live audience. Music, like theatre, offered a form of expression that transcended words — an emotional vocabulary capable of reaching people directly.
Beyond instrumental music, I also developed a deep connection with vocal performance. As a member of the church choir at Iglesia San Vicente de Paúl, I sang regularly during services and at public events for many years, an experience that would eventually earn me the Award of Excellence for my vocal contributions. Singing within that community reinforced something I would continue to discover throughout my life: Art becomes most powerful and meaningful when it is shared.
My passion for storytelling extended to writing as well. At a young age, I had the honor of winning first place in a literary contest organized by El Centro de Letras D. Rómulo Gallegos, where my short story was selected from more than 950 submissions. Writing, acting, and music began to intertwine in my life as different forms of the same creative impulse — the desire to tell stories and connect with others, the desire to continuously express myself without inhibitions, the desire to put myself in the place of others to gain new experiences (vastly different from the more rigid, formal, and strict culture of being in high class, where everything from my posture to my dialect was closely watched and controlled). The arts became the refuge for my soul, where I could express myself freely without the judgments or prejudices of high society.
When I eventually moved to the United States, I carried all my previous experiences with me and pursued formal training to deepen my craft. At the University of Central Florida, I received classical training in writing for the screen and stage, studying screenwriting for television and film as well as playwriting. The academic environment gave me the tools to develop original works and refine the discipline required to transform an idea into a script.
But the reality I encountered after my education was far more complicated than the dreams that had inspired me.
In South America, I had experienced success on the stage. Yet in the United States, I found doors repeatedly closing in front of me. Audition after audition led to rejection, often accompanied by the explanation that my Hispanic accent made casting me difficult. Theatre companies and production teams frequently expressed hesitation, not because of a lack of passion or preparation, but because I did not fit the narrow expectations they had already imagined for their roles. And no matter what I did, or how much I trained, I was never American-enough in their eyes.
One opportunity did open its doors: I was able to perform as a dancer for the Walt Disney Company in Orlando, Florida. The Disney theme parks became a significant part of my life, and the experience of performing reminded me again of the joy that live performance can create. Even so, outside of that role, I spent countless hours moving from audition to audition, hoping for the chance to return to acting in the way I had once known.
The challenges extended beyond the stage and into writing. Although I had received formal training in screenwriting and playwriting, entering the professional worlds of Hollywood and New York proved extraordinarily difficult. Studios, producers, and theatre companies often wanted a guarantee that a script would be commercially successful before committing to it. Because none of my original works had yet been produced on screen or on stage, there was no existing reference point they could rely upon. Without that proof, many of them simply declined to take the risk. These are the gatekeepers that keep me away from you (the reason why you never saw a play, a musical, or a film based on my imagination). These are the people I still hope will one day give me a chance.
Securing conversations with decision-makers became another challenge entirely. Without industry connections or established representation, the work itself had to speak on my behalf. Yet reaching the people capable of evaluating that work was often the most difficult step of all.
These experiences gradually revealed something that is rarely discussed openly: The arts, particularly theatre, are often treated as expendable. Funding for arts programs is frequently the first to disappear in educational systems, and the cultural value of performance art is sometimes overshadowed by the demand for commercial certainty. In a world increasingly mediated by screens and algorithms, live performance can appear fragile.
And yet, its importance has never diminished.
Theatre, music, and storytelling remain among the most powerful ways we have to understand one another. When we sit together in an audience, we share more than entertainment; we share empathy, imagination, and perspective. A performance invites us to step briefly into another life, another world, another possibility. That is worth the plight.
This is why I continue to believe so deeply in the arts, even after experiencing the many obstacles that can stand in their way. Acting, writing, and creating music have never simply been professional aspirations for me. They are ways of participating in a tradition that stretches across centuries — a tradition of human expression that reminds us who we are and what we share, even if it means most of my works will die in the drawers of my studio, never to be experienced by the world over.
Through this website, I hope to share with you some of the musicals, plays, and artistic works that have inspired me throughout my life. Some may be well known; others may be overlooked treasures waiting to be discovered. My hope is that they will encourage you to seek out live performance whenever you can, wherever you are, to support theatres and artists in your communities, and to experience the magic of art not only through recordings or digital screens but rather in the presence of others — the best way to consume it.
Because no matter how advanced our technology becomes, the truth remains the same: The visceral reaction of experiencing something in person can never compare to consuming art through a filter — and for that reason, we should continue to pursue joy in the arts, even when it is not popular, even when it is not the norm, even when it is rejected by most.”
— Leandro
