Noblesville Teen, ‘22 Fishers Grad Preparing Well for Career on Stage

I have always been amazed watching Kylee Booher. The Noblesville teen graduated in 2022 from Fishers High School and is among the most talented young people in the performing arts that I know.

The 19-year-old is now in the second semester of her freshman year at Ball State University pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree while performing in the school’s collegiate-level show choir, the University Singers. The choir will present its final concert of the season, Singers Spectacular, on April 14-15 at BSU. Also, Booher will be in her first main stage show, “Taste of Broadway,” a production inspired by the most famous Broadway musicals, April 26-29 at BSU’s University Theatre.

A year ago, she applied for and was awarded The Belfry Theatre’s performing arts scholarship (which is currently taking applications through April 11.)

I first met Booher when she joined The Belfry Theatre’s Apprentice Players, first playing a goon with my daughter in the summer youth musical,  “Sleeping Beauty” at The Belfry Theatre.

She followed up by performing the following summers in Apprentice Players’ productions of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “Aladdin,” as well as being the student director for “Camp Rock” and a dance assistant for “The Little Mermaid.” She also performed in The Belfry’s productions of “A Christmas Carol” and “Nunsense II” as well as serving as stage crew for “Dashing Through the Snow.”

During this time, we became fans of Booher while my daughter was involved in some of the same shows.

We went to see Booher perform as Mae Peterson in “Bye Bye Birdie,” Stone Soup Children’s Musical Theatre’s “Bye Bye Birdie” in Noblesville and the Evil Queen in the “Snow White Variety Show” with Fishers Junior High Theatre. When she was younger, she also performed in the role of Margaret Gormley of the Ballet Corp in “Billy Elliot: The Musical.”

At Fishers High School, performing with Theatre Fishers, Booher was a cast member in “Bring It On,” “Our Town’ (as Mrs. Gibbs), “The Addams Family (a dance captain), “Mamma Mia!” (as Tanya) and “Peter and the Starcatcher (as Grempkin/teacher and choreographer) along with student-directed One Acts and several Coffeehouse performances. And we saw a couple of those shows, including the most recent “Mamma Mia!” Every time, Booher amazed the audience with her singing and dancing.

She also worked with Civic Theatre during high school, was a cast member of “A Chorus Line” and “Saturday Night Fever (as Connie and dance captain).” And my daughter saw the latter.

Performing arts opportunities have been good for Booher.

She has studied dance since kindergarten, most recently at EnPointe Indiana Ballet in Noblesville, to prepare her for a career on the stage. She studied piano with Judi Kidd at Melody Music and voice with Angela Resler at Resler Music. She spent her high school senior year serving as a teacher assistant for her high school’s Dance Performance class.

At FHS, where Booher graduated as a Fishers Tiger in 2022 with honors, Booher, being student body senior class officer, was lucky enough to be involved in planning graduation’s special events, including being on stage to lead the Turning of the Tassel. She also served the community as a Girl Scout for a decade.

At FHS, she was president of Theatre Fishers, the school’s drama club. It was her drama teacher, Anna Nickel, who nominated Booher for the Underclassman of the Year Award for Excellence in Drama, which Booher was awarded, along with the Underclassman of the Year Award for Excellence in Choir, an award for which she was nominated by teacher Tess Tazioli.

Booher was an accomplished high school performer, a four-year member of the FHS Show Choirs, Fishers Sound and Fishers Electrum, and in her senior year, she served as dance captain for both groups.

And when your choir wins the State Championship, which Fishers Sound did in 2022 (and also in 2023), the choir receives a $1,000 scholarship for the director to award whomever they choose from the winning choir. Booher was presented that award — the Indiana Dairy Farmers Winners Drink Milk  ISSMA Unisex State Championship Scholarship — from Ms. Tazioli on Senior Awards Night. Booher was also put in the 2023 program, and got to present the “big check” in March to the 2023 Unisex Grand Champions, which happened to be Fishers Sound. She was also invited back to this year’s FHS Silver Spotlight show choir competition as the Outstanding Performance judge to choose the best performer.

She was awarded a scholarship in memory of lifelong Noblesville resident Nettie Ann Schembra presented by the Hamilton Southeastern Schools Foundation, and a scholarship from HSE’s Durbin Elementary, where she was in the Student Council.

“I didn’t have expectations about specific awards, but I was hopeful,” she said.

“My senior year and graduating year has had so many ups and downs,” Booher told me. “I chose to pursue the performing arts in college, so I had so many auditions and trying to balance auditions, show choir and the musical I was in, and just having a social life, became really stressful.”

She applied to and was academically accepted to 34 colleges her senior year. Why so many? “When you apply for performing arts and are planning for a Bachelor of Fine Arts, there are limited spots, and you never know if you’re going to be the right fit for what they are looking for,” Booher said. “So, I was advised to not get my heart set anywhere until I got accepted, and to apply everywhere that you think is a good fit for you personally.” She didn’t keep track of the number of BFA programs that she was accepted into. Being accepted into a BFA program is completely separate from being accepted to the college.

“Once I finished the audition process and narrowed down my schools, I felt like there was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders,” Booher said. “The last half of my senior year was about making memories and just finally enjoying it.”

The summer before her college freshman year, she had an internship at Civic Theatre and in the evenings was in rehearsals for Civic’s “42nd Street” musical, while also working part time at Kinney Dancewear in Noblesville. Because Booher was so busy, her very supportive parents, Janice and Edd Booher, and younger sister, Abby, who is always busy with FHS band, specifically percussion, were doing most all of Booher’s preparations for college.

Booher, who is thankful for her first performance opportunities, which were at The Belfry, is using Belfry Theatre’s 2022 scholarship for performing arts at BSU, where she is pursuing a degree in Fine Arts with a focus in dance, hoping to, one day, become a professional choreographer.

When she auditioned for the 59th cast of BSU’s University Singers show choir, to no surprise, she got in.  The show choir sang the National Anthem in February at the Indiana Pacers vs. Bulls game. And a reminder, Booher concludes her first year with University Singers during a Singers Spectacular on April 14-15, and her first main stage show, “Taste of Broadway,” April 26-29, at BSU’s University Theatre, and both are open to the public with tickets available.

What else? While in high school, Booher was nominated “Most likely to win a Grammy” and “Most likely to be a movie star.”

I’m not surprised. Can’t wait to hear what she accomplishes next.-Betsy Reason writes about people, places and things in Hamilton County. Contact Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com. (Hamilton County high school seniors may apply for the 2023 Belfry Theatre scholarship at https://thebelfrytheatre.com/. Deadline is April 11.