34 | JULY 29 • 2021

a hard song to sing since
it’s almost a tongue twister.
Because the show is ensem-
ble-focused, we sing most of
the songs together, but each
character gets a song to detail
reasons for wanting to win the
bee.
”
Landman built her musical
theater experience by appearing
in school productions, first in
the Walled Lake system and
then at Detroit Country Day
School. Summers were divid-
ed between Interlochen Arts
Camp and Blue Lake Fine Arts
Camp in Twin Lake, Mich.
While studying theater at
Kalamazoo College, Landman
was able to appear in summer
stock productions at the Barn
Theatre in Augusta, Farmers
Alley Theatre in Kalamazoo
and the Dio in Pinckney.
New York instructional
opportunities included enroll-
ment at the Stella Adler Studio
of Acting and the Broadway
Dance Center. She also par-
ticipated in educational pro-
gramming at the Stratford
Festival in Ontario. Through
those experiences, Landman
was able to take master classes
with popular stage stars, such
as Joanna Gleason, a Tony
Award-winner who had the
lead in Stephen Sondheim’s
Into the Woods.
A month after moving to
New York in 2019, Landman
was cast into her first national
tour, a children’s theater pro-

duction about the Holocaust.
The drama My Heart in a
Suitcase, presented through
ArtsPower National Touring
Theatre, placed Landman in
the role of Anne Lehmann, the
lead character.
“It’s based on a memoir
by Anne Lehmann Fox,
whose parents made the
decision to send her on the
Kindertransport so that she
would hopefully survive as
things were getting worse and
worse for Jewish people in
Germany,
” said Landman, who
attended services and religious
classes at Temple Israel. “She
was ultimately the only mem-
ber of her family to survive.
“The play was focused on
her at age 12, and I look much
younger than I am. It is a beau-
tiful, emotional and powerful
play, and I was so grateful to
be part of it. I was supposed go
out on another leg of the tour,
but that’s when COVID hit.
The tour was canceled.
”
Landman was asked to
be in the spelling bee musi-
cal by Mitch Master, who
had worked with her in a
Bloomfield Players production
of Fiddler on the Roof.
“I hope I eventually will
perform fulltime, but I under-
stand the importance of having
a backup plan,
” said Landman,
who has been working in
social media to help support
herself. “In the meantime, this
musical is such a great time.
”

continued from page 33

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