ARD SU / NEXTGENRADIO
What is the meaning of
home?
Brendan Bryan speaks with Lily Kate Gwin, a theater student at Troy University in Alabama, about her home. However, unlike most people whose home is a private place, Gwin finds home in front of an audience at center stage.
Alabama actress finds home at center stage
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Click here for audio transcript
(Lip trill buzzing noises)
We do a lip trill because it gets your face warmed up. We go and we just try to think about a bee going around and buzzing in all the different little spots and hitting all the little areas.
My name is Lily Kate Gwin. I was born in the year 2002 in Huntsville, Alabama. And I’m currently a senior theater major at Troy University.
When I walk into a theater, the first thing that catches my eye is the stage, of course.
If it’s just open, then usually I’ll put my stuff down and I’ll walk out and just stand and look out amongst the house of seats and just take a deep breath.
(breathing sounds)
I don’t know how to describe it, it’s like a hollow space, but you feel the ghosts of the energy and the stories that have been told. And it gets me excited to fill the seats and to see them with people in them when the lights are out and when the stage lights are on and someone’s giving the performance of a lifetime.
(sound of Gwin performing “Greens, Greens” from Into the Woods.)
I have adoptive parents that brought in anybody that always let people stay in our guest rooms and had people over and had meals shared together with our huge family. And I’m really thankful for the home that I had for 18 years and how supportive they are for me now.
I was in second grade, and we got to take a field trip to go and see our local theater do Mulan at our civic center.
So, I was on the edge of my mom’s knees leaning in and just looking at this girl who was 17 at the time. But she was such a grown, strong, real-life princess to me, and I believed it.
It was the first time it really clicked for me that this was something that I could do
(sound of humming)
My most recent role was the Witch in Into the Woods by Steven Sondheim and James Lapin. And she is one of the most intense characters, if not the most intense I’ve ever played.
The Witch herself, she does have a lot of, she chooses family and she chooses Rapunzel even though she did steal her technically because she had no family of her own and she did not have love in her life, so she had to take it.
And there’s something to be said about that, about not giving love to other people who don’t return it, but in the moments in which the witch has very human experiences of grief and loss of the small bit of love that she does have, it’s devastating to see, because we’ve all experienced grief because every bit of love ends in letting go.
I was never once made to feel like a mistake or made to feel like an accident. It was always impressed upon me that nothing is an accident.
I was not only just planned, I was wanted prayed for and that matters so much to me.
I have parents that love me and it’s not what they make it seem like in movies where people will say, have you ever met your real parents? Have you found your real parents? I know my real parents; they raised me and they’re wonderful.
My mom and I had a conversation about it and she told me that she couldn’t really remember, but she thought that my biological father might have studied theater at Troy.
You would think that knowing that it would make me feel like, of course this is my home.
But really it just showed me that the chosen home was just more meant for me than I thought. It just reinforced that chosen home for me.
Lily Kate Gwin relaxes in an audience chair at Troy University’s Trojan Center Theater on May 6, 2024. Gwin is comfortable and relaxed in her home, the theater.
BRENDAN BRYAN / NEXTGENRADIO
When actress Lily Kate Gwin, 22, first walks into a theater, her eyes are immediately drawn to the stage. If it’s open, she’ll walk out to its center, look out at the empty house seats and take a deep breath.
“I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like a hollow space, but you feel the ghosts of the energy and the stories that have been told,” Gwin says. “It gets me excited to fill the seats and see them with people in them when the stage lights are on and someone’s giving the performance of a lifetime.”
On the stage is where Gwin found her sense of home, belonging, and what she believes to be her purpose — to tell stories. She was born in Huntsville, Alabama, was adopted at birth and grew up in a loving, two-story home in Fairhope, Alabama, that overlooked the bay with her family.
Her earliest memory of the theater involves her adoptive parents. In second grade, Gwin and her class visited their local civic center for a production of Mulan. That production changed her life, Gwin says. Sitting on the edge of her mother’s knees, she was entranced by the songs, costumes and general spectacle.
“It was the first time it really clicked for me that this was something that I could do,” she says.
Sparks went off inside Gwin, and before she knew it, she was enrolled in an acting summer camp. Soon, she was spending almost every free moment at her local theater. There, she honed her skills and found a second home on the stage with her fellow actors.
Gwin describes her young experiences as “electrifying,” as she and other kids would come together to act, dance, sing and tell stories.
A young Lily Kate stands singing center stage surrounded by other kids performing Seussical. This was one of her first shows which furthered her passion for theater.
PHOTO COURTESY OF LILY KATE GWIN / BETH GLISSON
Lily Kate sings and dances alongside her fellow actors in a production of The Last Five Years. This was her first two-person show where only she and one other actor performed alongside a non-speaking ensemble.
PHOTO COURTESY OF LILY KATE GWIN / ANNA GRACE WILLIS
It was the first time it really clicked for me that this was something that I could do.
Gwin performed in an array of plays and musicals throughout grade school, becoming more entwined with the stage each time. Shows such as Once on This Island by Lynn Aarons and Stephen Flaherty furthered her love for storytelling. Gwin says she connected with the play’s themes of continuing the story — something she seeks to do every day — through love and growth. Watching other actors, such as Carol Burnett in Annie, taught her comedic timing. When she enrolled at Troy University, majoring in theater was a no-brainer.
The difficulty of transitioning from high school to college acting was not lost on Gwin. She says it was like moving from a microscopic version of theater to the real world. Roles became more specific and the demands on her as an actor dramatically increased.
Competition for roles also increased, straining relationships within her adopted home, the theater. Instead of backing down, Gwin doubled down on her commitment to the stage and grew as a person. She took advice from one of her directors, who advised her that after the cast list was posted, she had one day to either celebrate or be sad. After that, it was back to work.
In her most recent role, Gwin played the witch from Stephen Sondheim’s and James Lapin’s Into the Woods. To date, it’s been her most intensive role. Like the witch who makes a complete physical transformation, Gwin morphs from a haggard old woman in the first act and becomes beautiful through magic in the second. All of this is done to win the love of Rapunzel, who was stolen by the witch as an infant. The witch is rejected by Rapunzel, and her character’s grief, in Gwin’s opinion, makes her more human.
Lily Kate and her adopted parents share an embrace following a production of James and the Giant Peach. Gwin’s parents have always encouraged her from a young age to pursue her dreams of acting.
PHOTO COURTESY OF LILY KATE GWIN
Gwin has never met or known her biological parents, but an interesting connection exists between them. While moving to Troy University, her adoptive mother informed her that she believed her biological father went to Troy also to study theater.
Gwin sees this connection as confirmation that she chose the right life path. She doesn’t hold any ill will toward her biological parents, and she hopes that through her storytelling, she is making them proud — wherever they are.
“I have parents that love me and it’s not what they make it seem like in movies where people will say, ‘Have you ever met your real parents?’” Gwin said. “I know my real parents. They raised me and they’re wonderful.”
Gwin graduated from Troy on May 10 and leaving the theater department made her emotional.
“I mean, it’s going to break my heart a little bit,” she says. “I feel like it’s like any goodbye. It’s just a very grateful feeling.”
She describes acting as a job that invites goodbyes. However, as she also describes, wherever she goes, the theater will always be her home.
Gwin is already ready for her next step. She has an upcoming callback in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 22.
I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like a hollow space, but you feel the ghosts of the energy and the stories that have been told. It gets me excited to fill the seats and see them with people in them…
Lily Kate Gwin sits cross-legged at the edge of Troy University’s Trojan Center Theater on May 6, 2024. This is the same theater where she played the role of the witch in Into the Woods.
BRENDAN BRYAN / NEXTGENRADIO