As Kate Moore was living out her Broadway dream by taking center stage as the baker's wife in Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods," her mother was playing the waiting game.
It lasted one excruciating week.
Fortunately, Sue Moore is scheduled to be in New York on Oct. 1 to see Kate perform. This time, it's a scheduled leave for legendary leading lady Sarah Bareilles, which made it simple to plan.
"I can't wait to get there," Sue said. "I'm so excited."
However, there is one tiny hiccup. She has been summoned on that day to the Lancaster County Courthouse for jury duty.
Faced with a bench warrant or missing her daughter perform on Broadway, she'd take the former. In other words, not even a band of Lincoln's Finest — or the threat of, say, 30 days in the can — will stop her from getting on that flight.
Sue has sent a letter to the courthouse with copies of her travel itinerary to explain her predicament. She's hoping for a sympathetic ear.Â
Then again, it doesn't really matter. She's not missing that flight, no matter what the decisionmakers at the courthouse say.
All of this makes Kate laugh.
"It’s got to be a big story that we can tell later on down the line," said the 31-year-old, who graduated from Lincoln Pius X High School in 2009. "She might have to commit some kind of felony before seeing me on stage for the first time."
In Sue's defense, skipping out on jury duty is a misdemeanor. A slap on the wrist. That makes the decision easy, especially when you consider the last few weeks.
It all started in late July, when Bareilles came down with what was thought to be COVID-19. With her availability in question, Kate, the production's understudy, faced the real prospect of getting her chance to perform.
Kate wanted nothing more than for her parents to be in the audience. But protocol called for Bareilles to be tested late in the afternoon each day, which didn't allow enough time for them to fly from Lincoln to New York City.
So for seven straight days, Sue and Kevin Moore waited by the phone only to find out at the 11th hour that their daughter would be performing that night. It drove Sue bonkers.
"She was all ready to go, but there wasn't enough time to get here," Kate said. "I was thinking about her the entire week I was on. I was like, 'This is such a dream. The only thing that would make this better is if my mom and my dad were able to be here."
The baker's wife is one of the few pragmatic characters in a story that is heavy on fairy tales. "Into the Woods" has been described as a mashup of some of the greatest hits by the Brothers Grimm, which means it's pretty whimsical.
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"What I relate to most with this particular character is the way she stays determined in the face of the unknown," Kate said. "I think there is a determination to protect and a determination to see things through."
And there's only one person in her life who embodies all of that: her mother.
"My mom was always thinking through every step of a problem and getting to a solution before a problem ever occurred," Kate said. "She always knew what was happening. She always had everything scheduled. She was the first person to remind you to do something. Everything was in order.
"I feel like there is a lot of that in this character. She gets things done when the people around her are living their fairy tale storyline."
Sue has been Kate's inspiration in crafting her character, but her role in Kate's career goes much deeper. It was also Sue who stressed patience after Kate moved to New York City directly after graduating from Oklahoma City University in 2013.
She's worked on a couple of traveling tours, including playing Fontine in "Les Miserables," but it's taken her nine years to get to Broadway, the stage world's epicenter.
"Everyone’s journey is different," Kate said. "… This happened when it was supposed to happen for me."
Everybody graduates from college with a conquer-the-world attitude. Kate Moore was no different, but nine years has given her perspective. She didn't know it then, but she wasn't ready for what she's currently experiencing.
"I'm very different now," she said. "When I was 22 or 23, there is no way that I would have been able to perform a role like the baker’s wife."
Life — with its tiny rewards that soften the bumps and bruises that come from learning how things work — has a way of preparing you for what's ahead.
"You do well and you do poorly in auditions," she said. "All of that is a learning experience. I needed to have all of those things happen in order to step confidently onto a Broadway stage."
Every now and then, she comes across an old video of one of her high school performances. They often make her smile — and sometimes cringe.
"I would really hope that a lot of things have changed from when I was 18," she said. "Mostly, I watch and say to that person on the screen, ‘Ah, just you wait. There are a lot of cool things you get to do.’"
Finally sharing one of those experiences with her mother is at the top of the list.
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