Zach Adkins has performed professionally in Broadway/National Tours of Diana, Anastasia, and Kinky Boots. He has performed on regional stages in West Side Story (NCT), Kinky Boots (Sacramento Music Circus), Into the Woods: In Concert (Town Hall NYC), Grease (Pittsburgh CLO), Murder Ballad (Cleveland’s Playhouse Square), Sweeney Todd (Idaho Shakespeare Festival) and Spring Awakening (Beck Arts, Broadway World Award). He has appeared on TV & in film in FBI (CBS) and Diana (Netflix). Zach graduated from Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music with a Bachelor of Music in Music Theatre.
As I return to the place that begin my passion and life long pursuit of an art form, I am excited at the possibility to reconnect with the very spirit of performance that called me to the stage 16 years ago. The journey back to Ashtabula is not just a return to familiar faces and stages; it’s a meaningful reunion with the very core of what has shaped the storytelling throughout my professional career. If you spent your entire childhood in Ashtabula, like I did, you might be inclined to overlook a place like the Ashtabula Arts Center; believing it to be a common occurrence, but in fact its existence is incredibly rare. The Arts Center has been serving our home for the last 70 years in the hopes to enrich and strengthen community through visual and performing arts.
At the center of my residency is inclusivity and community outreach. Theater is for all, dedicating itself to raising up all voices: no matter how diverse and underrepresented, these stories need to be told. A good story knows no boundaries; it lives and dies in a single moment. Theater is something you have to witness in person and that can’t be recreated. It’s a mirror to us as a society, showing all our triumphs and downfalls. At its best, it allows us to look at our own lives through the act of empathy, to evaluate our own choices in a safe and thought-provoking manner. As I step away from the bright lights of Broadway, I’m filled memories and experiences that have led me back to Ashtabula. I’m here as a supplement to an already thriving organization. I look forward to collaborating with the incredible staff, elevating the already wonderful work they have been providing this community.