You may recognize Tim Young from roles in musicals such as Bat Boy and most recently, as Bobby Strong in Urinetown. Little did you know that while you watched him perform in Urinetown, it may have been the last time you saw him in the Little Theater.

Young will now be moving on to a slightly larger stage. He has been given the opportunity to become a cast member in the regional production of Next to Normal.

Next to Normal was an Off-Broadway hit earlier this year. It will be featured at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. from November 21 to January 19.

“It is about a family, mostly a mother, who is dealing with post-partum depression. She still has delusions of her son still being alive,” explained Young. “It’s about how her mental illness plays on the rest of the family, and how the parents try to deal with the loss of their son and how the daughter is sort of stuck in the middle.”

After starting at St. John’s in 2005, he was looking for a new niche to fill the void that his music friends had left. In the process he joined groups such as PARE and the Chappell Players. When doing Suessical sophomore year, he realized that he really enjoyed musical theater and decided to stick with it.

“I have always been about music,” he said. Young went to a Christian high school where there was no funding for theater, so he put all of his time into music.

“I was that kid who would walk up in front of class and sing songs,” he said.
Young starred in Bat Boy last year and Urinetown this year. He likes both shows for different reasons.

He likes Urinetown for the pure fact that he relates so well to his character. He credits Bat Boy, however, as the turning point when he realized how much he loved theater and that it was the director of Bat Boy who inspired him to go on auditions.

Young then began doing theatrical workshops on auditioning and decided to put these skills to the test last semester by going on an open call. Young and some of his friends casually decided to go on an open call for Spring Awakening. He got a call back, but ultimately didn’t get the part.
This call back sparked the idea that he could really be successful.

He then decided to start going on any open calls he could find. For example, he did an open call for Spiderman where he sang for Berney Telsey, who is part of Telsey casting,which has cast shows such as Rent, Wicked, South Pacific, In the Heights and
Hairspray.

Although nothing came of Spiderman, Young was personally called to come sing for Next to Normal. For his first audition he sang in a room with only one other person, where he received no feedback.

He got called back for two more auditions. During his third audition, it came down to him and one other performer. Later that day, he got the call that he had been cast. He walked immediately to his dean’s office and withdrew from the University.

Although Young hadn’t heard of the show before his audition, after learning about it, he said that he was extremely moved by the music. “It’s so tragic, but it’s witty. It’s the kind of pain you don’t mind feeling,” he said.

What Young is most excited about for this new phase in his life is to meet the rest of the cast.

“It’s a really great cast: Alice Ripley, J. Robert Spencer, Aaron Tveit,” he said.

“They are all leaving what they were doing to be a part of this, and so am I. Just to be working with them and learning with them is really exciting.”