A young Chloe Byars lingers behind a group of students, all of them taking their bows in front,  while the audience stands and cheers for them, in January of 2015.

She takes a deep breath and walks out into the roar of the audience, side by side with Maddy Sparks and Paige Bradbury, all playing the lead, Evita. Family, friends, and strangers all cheer for her performance.

It was in that moment that she knew she wanted to act for the rest of her life.

A group of five seniors, Byars, Jackson Walker, Shane Scandurra, Hunter Fransisco, and Elizabeth Delgado-Savage all came to a similar conclusion during their time in Bowie’s theater company. All of them decided to pursue an acting major in college.

“Being 15, I mean I was literally 15, and seeing everybody in the audience just clapping for something I was a part of was like, ‘yeah this feels good. I want to do this forever’,”  Byars said.

However, the acceptance process for potential theater and musical theater majors is very different than a typical college application.

“[College auditions are] still the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,”  Delgado-Savage said. “It’s stressful, but when you’re actually auditioning; it’s still stressful but kind of fun, but still terrifying… it was fun, but definitely not for the weak of heart. It’s a lot of working, and the worst part, I guess, is waiting to hear back.”

To be a theater or musical theater major, students have to audition for the school’s program as well as get academically accepted into the university. Students have to prepare monologues and music for their auditions, and every school’s requirements are different.

“It is a grueling process to get prepared for the audition beyond what anyone can ever imagine, especially for college auditions,” Elizabeth’s mother Veronica Delgado-Savage said.  “She has to get all her music and songs, monologues, and dance audition pieces selected to best match up with her as a person, skill set, and what colleges are looking for, and then cut the pieces down to meet the time requirements for each college.”

Sometimes students travel to the school’s campus for auditions, other times they have huge national conventions with dozens of schools represented.

One of the conventions Bowie students went to was Unifieds in Chicago. Bowie students often travel together for college auditions.

“It’s nice to talk to someone who’s going through the same exact stress as you, because for me and Jackson, every audition that we’ve had, he’s basically been there,” Byars said. “Having someone from the same town, the same environment that you’re from, and having that person with you there is really nice because you can just bond over all the stress, and the craziness that happens.”

Many students are encouraged daily by their family to pursue this career.

“I think I would have to say that my mom is my biggest encourager because without her support I would not even have been able to attempt to make my dreams come true,” Walker said.

Most students say that parents are usually the largest supporters of their theater dreams.

“Jackson wouldn’t be where he is today without the encouragement and support from so many directors, coaches, teachers and friends,” Jackson’s mother Patti-Lynn Walker said.

The audition process can be very difficult for students.

“Honestly, Jackson Walker has to be my biggest cheerleader ever… because throughout all of our audition process we’re always texting each other or snap-chatting each other like, ‘good job, good luck’,” Francisco said. “If either of us gets down, we’ll have our little pep talks with each other, and it’s so nice having someone you’re so close to being so supportive of you.”

Going through the same experience, in such a small group of people, has bonded these theater students.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say that this process has been one of the most stressful and overwhelming times of my life,” Jackson said. “We have had to create a family because without each other’s support I think we would have all gone insane by now.”

Over the course of just a few years, these students have made a life-changing decision to go into this competitive field, many of whom had no idea they would embark upon until recent years.

“My freshman year, I had never truly allowed myself to sing in front of people that weren’t my family,” Jackson said. “I didn’t really think that I could sing very well and had no idea how to dance either. So at the time I had absolutely no idea I would be pursuing a degree in musical theatre.”

For some, the realization for their passion for theater came as a happy mistake.

“I was supposed to be doing Tech Theater II, but I accidentally got put into a Theater II class,” Francisco said. “It was the biggest shell shock I had ever experienced, I freaked out, and I had no idea what anything was, I had no idea what a monologue was. But yeah, the reason I got into theater was actually an accident.”

Despite the challenges, stress, and the uncertainties of pursuing a future in theater, students press through it all to embark on a career path they have true passion for.

“If I don’t go for it, then I know I’ll regret it later, and it’s something that I really love to do,” Byars said. “I would rather do something that I love and possibly fail, rather than do something that I don’t like and be miserable for the rest of my life.”