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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