Meet Taylor Toms

Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Toms.

Taylor, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When you’re little, it’s normal to want to be a superstar or a singer or be on the TV, but most kids grow out of it, but I didn’t. I blame part of it on Grease and Britney Spears. I always loved performing. There’s a warm feeling you get when you manage to entertain someone; either to make them laugh or smile…there are very few moments in life where you feel like all eyes are on you. When that happens, you feel powerful and important and like you’re the one in control. As the youngest of three girls I kind of always felt like all the adults around me were ruling the world and I was fighting for my place. Not in a sad way, but in a way that happens when you’re the baby amongst a grown up world. I loved singing. I lived for it. And I learned early on that I was pretty good at it. Finding something that you’re good at that you also love doing (I have found) is in fact hard to find. Initially, I wanted to be a singer. I have notebooks upon notebooks filled with songs I’ve written–some that I wrote as like a young child that somehow make a lot of sense. I was in choir throughout grade school and took some voice lessons, impatiently waiting the day I turned 16 to be able to audition for American Idol! When I got to high school, I went from having the greatest choir teacher to one who could barely plunk out a few notes on the piano–importance on art education anybody? A good friend of mine had been begging me to join the Drama Club, but aside from my 4th grade play, I had no experience with theatre. I wanted to be a singer, and I never really put 2 and 2 together that there was a world where singing existed not on my radio. If my Choir had gone to shit, I really only had one option if I wanted to satisfy the performing need…so I bit the bullet and joined the Drama Club. A decision that ultimately shaped my entire future–a big decision for a 15 year old girl. I auditioned for a play (yuck) and I wasn’t cast. Rather, I was offered the understudy/assistant director role. For a girl who desperately needed to get knocked off her high horse, it was insulting. I didn’t see the value in it, until my mom continuously reminded me that this could open up doors for me. Everyone starts somewhere and you need to put in your time. “FINE!” I said…I’ll do it! And I did it! And it was my first glimpse into one of my favorite pieces of advice that I will stand by till the day I die–”Be somebody people love to work with.” I was thrown right in the deep end and I didn’t even know it. I learned so much about the theatre and the behind the scenes work and about Shakespeare and how to read it and make it make sense. This was critical to the path that I didn’t even know I was going down. From here I went on to be a part of every play and musical for the rest of my high school career. I was even Drama Club President my senior year. That year I played the Waitress, Delores, in working the musical, and it all clicked into place for me. Embarrassingly enough, my parents to this day still rave about my performance as The Waitress in Working. I chickened out hardcore when applying to colleges, but secretly I was only seriously considering schools that had a theatre program. I took a couple classes and then in my Theatre 101 class, JW Morrissette–the very reason I was a Theatre major–made an announcement after class letting us know that if we were interested in getting a theatre minor to come to his office hours. “OH!” thought I. I went to those office hours with questions prepared. And by the time that meeting was over, I had decided to audition to be a theatre major…in 2 weeks…the last audition for the upcoming Fall semester. A couple of things, if I were to have been accepted I would have to stay a 5th year as I would start with the incoming freshman class as a sophomore.

Which meant my tuition wouldn’t be locked in for my 5th year which inevitably messed with my financial aid and student loans. Also, I needed 2 prepared monologues. I didn’t even really know what a monologue was. Luckily, I had help from one of my professors teaching my non-actor acting class. The audition was a hot mess, but they saw something in me and thank the theatre gods because that’s where I needed to be. If anyone looks at you and goes “Oh you were a theatre major?” and scoffs, tell them to eff off because those were the hardest four years of my life.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Acting school, and acting in general really, breaks you down and takes one of those melon scoopers and scoops out all of your insides and emotions and feelings and insecurities and makes you dance a romantic waltz with them. Then it shoves them back inside, tosses you out the door, tells you “hey btw, you’re just like everybody else so figure out what makes you different, and….yeah good luck to you!” I still however, hold onto my very first pieces of advice in Acting, “You are enough.” You. Are. Enough. Sounds easy, right? Wrong! I am still trying to learn this. A lesson that is literally 3 words long. But hey, sometimes “three little words” can eat you alive. In college, I felt like I was constantly being shut down and given “small roles” and basically told I wasn’t good enough, I didn’t want it enough, I wasn’t special. My problem was that I believed them and let it hold me back. I was constantly trying to do everything “right” which when you’re creating art is the wrong thing to do. There were messy artists all around me, my teachers and my classmates, and I didn’t know how to do it. I came across this quote one day from one of my FAVORITE poets, Tyler Scott Gregson that said, “Promise me you will not spend so much time treading water and trying to keep your head above the waves that you forget, truly forget, how much you have always loved to swim.” I said that to myself (and everyone around me, oops) every time I went to an audition or went on stage. I do this because I love it, so ignore the other noise. I graduated college, something changed in me. I immediately moved to Chicago, started working in a bar, I started temping and taking improv classes and starring in student films and sketch shows and plays and musicals and a web series. I met the most wonderful theatre company Death & Pretzels who cast me in their musical and changed my world. The minute I started believing that I was good enough, everyone else seemed to see it too. I was trying so hard not to be “just another pretty white girl”, rather than being like “okay hey guys, I’m another pretty white girl, but GUESS WHAT ELSE I HAVE TO OFFER.”

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I love comedy. So much. Once I discovered I was able to make people laugh, I was like omg I think I just found the way into my soul and other people’s souls. Throughout college, we weren’t trained in a whole lot of contemporary comedic material. We did Chekov and Shakespeare (who was THE best comedic writer) and we were always working on “comedic pieces”, but we did mostly “serious” stuff. Which is incredible! Those stories are important and beautiful and I learned so much from plays like 1984 and The Grapes of Wrath. Also, to be fair, most tragic stories have a lot of comedy in them. I think I’m rambling, but the point is this: When you can figure out what makes someone laugh, you got them. You got them! Yes a sad story is always sad and everyone can appreciate that, but not everyone finds the same things funny. Tina Fey, one of the greats, once said “You can tell how smart people are by what they laugh at”. I would go further and say you can tell more than just intelligence. I have great comedic timing, and I know how to find the funny in things that maybe aren’t so laugh out loud funny. I appreciate the hell out of people who can make me laugh, and I think that goes for most people. I work hard, I am always prepared, and I am good to work with. (Toot, toot!) There’s not a whole lot you can control in this industry, but you can control how prepared you are, and damn it, you better be the most prepared person in that room. I learned that in college too!

What were you like growing up?
Oh god, I grew up the youngest of 3 girls, so naturally I wanted to be the center of attention. I was always singing and dancing in the bed of my dad’s truck in the driveway— In the words of the great William Shakespeare, “All the world’s a stage”. I took that very seriously. It was not a surprise by any means that I grew up to be an actor. My older sister even wrote about it in an essay in grade school predicting such a career for me. (PICTURE OF PAPER). My sisters are quite a bit older than me so when they would have all of their friends over, I saw it as my time to shine. My first real part was the once in a lifetime role of “Mother Nature” in my 4th grade play. My mom made my costume, and I felt like I was on top of the world (no pun intended). My sisters’ favorite story to tell of my dramatic nature growing up was one fateful day at The Lansing Public Library. I was three. My sister’s took their eyes off me for one second and there I was, on the small stage–meant for when adults would read books to groups of kids—not using my library voice. I started sobbing and singing an original (morbid) song about my family being dead and me being all alone—a real dramatic piece of pure art. (Disclaimer: my family was not and is not dead).

Contact Info:

• Website: www.taylortoms.com
• Email: taylorntoms@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylorntoms/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/taylor.toms
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taylorntoms

Image Credit:
Steve Bryant took final photo

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