Sophomore Miranda Slingluff has been performing for years, and now all her hard work has paid off, landing her the biggest role she has ever played as Velma in the upcoming musical “Chicago.”

Slingluff started doing junior productions when she was six years old, but it wasn’t until she was in middle school that she started treating it seriously.

Slingluff learned that the fall production would be “Chicago” at the end of her freshman year, which meant she had the whole summer to prepare by getting to know the production and its characteristics.

Right after the audition she got an email for a callback for the next day.

“[The callback] was a lot more stressful, but also exciting because at this point you know ‘Ok, I’m being considered,’”  Slingluff said.

Slingluff left one of her classes early to be one of the first people to see the cast list and find that she landed one of the lead roles, Velma.

“[When looking at the cast list] my jaw hit the floor,” Slingluff said. “I felt this huge weight lifted off of me because I had been thinking about this for four months.”  

Fine and Performing Arts teacher and director Maura Morrison, described Slingluff as having positive energy, humility and talent.

“Her audition was bold because she took big risks,” Morrison said. “She has a terrific singing voice; she picks up dance well. She is a triple threat.”

Slingluff said everyone has been extremely supportive of her, especially the upperclassmen involved in the production. They were the first people to text her “congratulations” after hearing the news of her role.

“I am very happy to say that no one has been rude, and I’m sure that some people maybe disagree with the decision, but everyone has been very professional and nice about it,”  Slingluff said.

As she prepares for the musical’s opening, Slingluff is working hard to ensure her constant improvement.

“You can be happy where you are at, but you can always be striving for more, and I think that’s how you get successful,”  Slingluff said.