David Tracy

RESUME and BIOGRAPHY

David grew up in lovely East Brunswick, NJ where he and his cousins started The Footloose Band. This complicated name came from the only song they performed, Footloose. Then, he picked one cousin, Nicole, and started a pop duo known as Instant Action. As most children with a performing ambition, they starred in their own plays in the basement and performed various concerts at Easter and Thanksgiving. Not Christmas though, because their normal performance space was taken up by the damn Christmas Tree.

The performing bug started in Kindergarten where he tore up the stage as a little boy from Italy in the well-received production Friendship. This led to his association with Irene Wallman, his Kindergarten teacher who allowed David to come into her classroom at recess and play the piano, even though he didn’t know how to play.

But he perservered. Eventually, by 5th grade, he taught himself how to play by ear. Unfortunately, to this day, he still cannot read music and when he was 5 years old and figuring out how to plunk out the keys, he taught himself how to play anything using only the black keys. So basically, David can play songs in D minor. Only. His grandmother (Grandma Lori) thought this was amazing, and bought David his first piano.

But, he’s in good company as George M. Cohan (the forefather of musical theatre!) also played and composed that way, so it’s ok.

In middle school and junior high, he returned to Mrs. Wallman’s class frequently to play piano for the kindergarteners. They didn’t care.

In 5th grade, he was going to try out for the community theatre’s production of Mary Poppins (probably an unauthorized version) but got scared and didn’t. So, he played basketball. This would only be funny to anyone who knows David personally.

In 10th grade, he changed high schools and began working with Kent and Judy Cottingham, two amazing people who changed his life forever. They were the sponsors and directors of Thespian Troupe 2642 - - The Players, a high school based theatre company that produced over 12 shows in a school year. He acted in Shakespeare, the classics and did one musical – The Wizard of Oz. He was bad. He wanted to be a singer so bad, but couldn’t sing. A recording from age 15 done at the Great Adventure Theme Park Recording Studios proves this.

But onto bigger and better… and more serious:

He has worked on the professional level as an actor, singer, dancer, and stage manager to name a few! A graduate of Allentown College (now DeSales University), he holds a BA in Theatre. As a performer, David lists his favorite roles as Magaldi in Evita and Kodaly in She Loves Me for which he received the Irene Ryan Acting Award from the American College Theatre Festival/Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He has sang onboard SPIRIT CRUISE LINES, toured Germany, Austria, and Italy as a featured soloist in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber (performing at the famed Vienna Concert House), and performed regionally with THE PENNSYLVANIA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL and THE READING SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA among others. A Jersey native, David previously worked for Spirit Cruises as their Director of Entertainment. For DeSales University, he produced The Velveteen Rabbit with their student run theatre company (Act III) and has been a workshop artist for the New Jersey State Thespian Society, a society for secondary-school students to pursue their love of theatre. While he isn’t a huge fan of children, he worked for the city of Philadelphia’s Theatre Arts Department’s Youth Division wherein he directed and produced The Lion King (definitely not an authorized version.) He has lived in Germany, Philadelphia, Allentown, and all over New Jersey. He now resides in New York City. He is a bartender and waiter in Midtown and has waited on a plethora of celebrities from both stage and screen. His mom thinks this is interesting.

He has 4 parents, 1 sister, 1 brother-in-law, 1 niece, 2 nephews, 1 step-brother (and step-sister-in-law - is that a word?? And 1 step-nephew and 2 step-nieces...phew, that's alot of steps!), and then on the other side, 2 step-sisters and 2 more step-brothers. It's like the Brady Bunch. David enjoys traveling, having visited England, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Bermuda, Haiti, Mexico, Jamaica, and the Virgin Islands.