This week’s campus celebrity aspires to be, well, a celebrity! Ben Andreae ’13 wants to achieve fame and fortune on the Broadway stage. You may have seen this vocal performance major on a St. Olaf stage recently in “Gender Bent” or as a lead in the fall opera – or singing in Cantorei, or breaking a sweat on the men’s club volleyball team, or performing in Early Music Singers, or chasing in Quidditch, or… yep. Basically anywhere and everywhere.
Her Campus St. Olaf: Do you ever feel like you’re High School Musical reincarnated since you’re involved in tons of music and athletics?
Ben Andreae: Sometimes. The other day I was hanging out with a friend, and she started to introduce me to someone. She was like, “Oh hey! This is Ben…” and the other person was like, “Ben Andreae?” It’s just weird when people know me that I don’t know because they’ve seen me on stage or something.
HC: How do you balance all your activities?
BA: I generally don’t sleep. It’s like, you can have a social life, school, and sleep. Pick two and go. I usually pick the first two, and I always get my work done, even though I don’t start until my primetime for homework, which is at 10 p.m. That’s usually when I’m free. But it works out! It just sucks when I have morning classes.
HC: What is your career goal?
BA: I want to be famous! The ideal would be Broadway. Right now with my vocal performance major, I’m studying opera, which is pretty fun, but Broadway is my goal.
HC: Which show would you most want to be in on Broadway?
BA: Probably Les Misérables. All the roles in it are really good, so if I got any one of those it would be amazing. But the first job I’d like to get is Boq in Wicked. That would be the ideal first on-Broadway appearance.
HC: As a Campus Celebrity and a future Broadway star, who is the famous person you most want to be like?
BA: There are a lot of actresses that I really love. Kirsten Bell is probably my favorite. I first saw her on Veronica Mars, which is a detective show. In that role, she’s kind of spunky. And then in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, she’s kind of … bitchy/slutty. She’s also in Burlesque, which I love since it’s a music movie. I just love watching her switch from one role to another. I want to be like that.
HC: Do you have the triple-threat factor – do you do any acting or dancing on campus in addition to your musical pursuits?
BA: The reason I’ve never auditioned for a theater role on campus is kind of lame: I’ve never done a monologue before. I have no idea how to do them, but I want to learn, so I’m probably going to take an acting class for non-majors next semester so that I can see where I can go. As for dancing, I decided to take ballet this semester, the first dance class of my life, since everyone on Broadway can dance and I should at least not have two left feet. It’s actually going OK – I feel like I get more graceful each time, which is big for me because I’m so uncoordinated. Half the time I’m just running across the floor throwing my arms around. But it’s fun.
HC: Gotta ask: what is the most epic Quidditch moment you’ve had?
BA: It was probably in the tournament this last fall. I’m the chaser, but toward the end of the match, they needed me to step in as the seeker. Toward the end of the match, I dove toward the snitch, and I felt no pain. After the game was over, I looked down and my legs were all bloody and muddy, but at the time I didn’t feel it. I was just like, “I need to get this. I want to win so bad.” But usually the seeker isn’t that exciting in real-life Quidditch.
HC: Finish these sentences:
St. Olaf men are… tall?
St. Olaf women are… pretty and friendly.
HC: Any advice for Ole women?
BA: You are all beautiful, so work it. People say that St. Olaf has prettier people than Carleton, and I think that’s true! Every girl here is really pretty, and I think they all should be aware of that.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at St Olaf chapter.