Son of Lehigh ‘offers whole soul’ to the stage
Staff writer
Vance Klassen knew he was taking a risk.
Having grown up on a ranch near Lehigh, he knew that pursuing a career in musical theater was a bold step.
But his support network in his hometown encouraged him to chase his dream.
“I was OK with taking a risk, knowing that I could always come back if I needed to,” he said.
Klassen was calculated in his pursuit of a career. While attending school in Hillsboro, he thought he might go into musical education.
“I was always singing around the house,” he said.
But he had a love for the stage, and eventually that love shined through.
As a child, he was cast in a production of “Children of Eden” at Tabor College. The next year, he performed again, in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
“I kind of fell in love with the whole process of it,” Klassen said. “The idea of a group of people coming together, putting on a show, and that little bit of magic gets to stay for that weekend, and then it’s gone.”
Without a community theater or middle school theater department in Hillsboro, Klassen’s next opportunity to perform would be in high school, where he acted in “Cinderella,” “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” “The Music Man,” and “Curtains.”
Klassen was accepted to Oklahoma City University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in musical theater.
Only a three-hour drive from Lehigh, Boomtown helped him adapt to a more urban environment.
“I was nervous about driving around in Oklahoma City when I first moved there because it was so foreign,” he said.
He met voice professor Larry Keller, nicknamed “The Wizard.” Keller, he said, improved his singing ability greatly.
“He’s one of the most interesting and unique professors I’ve ever had,” Klassen said. “What he gave to me has given me the career that I have to this day.”
Grit is necessary to become a great singer, just as it is to become a great athlete. One must push his or her voice to the limit each day, driven by an almost competitive desire.
A college environment provided Klassen “a lot of drive in terms of performing,” he said — “how to sing when you’re under the weather, how to sing when these external circumstances that you can’t control are hindering your ability.”
Having thrived in Oklahoma, graduating magna cum laude in 2021, Klassen set his sights on New York City.
His family in Lehigh was not convinced he knew what he was doing.
“There was a lot of trust that had to be built up before that,” he said.
Klassen remained steadfast. As the pandemic eased up in the summer of 2021, he and three college roommates purchased a two-year lease on a New York City apartment.
He lived there for a month before embarking on a new job aboard a cruise liner.
Regent Seven Seas asked Klassen to join the liner’s crew as a singer while the ship toured Europe and the Caribbean.
“I had to join rehearsals a week late and do that whole process, learning five production shows, and then fly over to meet the ship in Italy, where we would board and quarantine,” Klassen said.
Singing on the ship from September until the end of March was a exciting experience for a self-described farm boy who’d only once seen the beach before accepting the position.
Klassen’s favorite days were when he could disembark and explore a new country. He particularly enjoyed Belize and Curaçao.
“I love travel, and I would wake up every day in a new country,” Klassen said. “And I think that that was something that was so special and unique that not a lot of people get the opportunity to do.”
Of course, there also are difficulties with living aboard a cruise liner.
“There were moments where we couldn’t get off the ship for seven weeks at a time due to high COVID cases,” he said.
Eventually, he grew weary of the ocean.
“I know now that I’m more inclined to succeed touring on land,” he said.
Klassen got the opportunity to do just that in his next gig, landing a role in the U.S. tour of “The Book of Mormon.”
He recorded his audition while still on board the cruise liner, using a bed-sheet background and a video camera fixed to a dressing-room mirror.
He’d wait when the boat was in port so noise from engines couldn’t be heard.
A few months after returning to New York, he learned he had received a part as understudy for one of the main missionary characters, Elder Kevin Price.
He abandoned his apartment once again to join the tour in August 2022 and has “been on the road ever since,” he said.
The U.S. tour entails constant traveling.
Klassen spoke to the Record from Fayetteville, Arkansas. At time of publication, he will be performing in Milwaukee.
“We do eight shows a week with one day off, normally Monday, and we’re usually traveling to our next city on that Monday,” he said.
The schedule is changeable. Once, Klassen said, the tour jetted off to three different cities in a week. But performances are constant. He has been in almost 700 shows since joining the cast.
Despite such constant work, acting has not felt repetitive.
“With live theater, nothing is ever really the same,” he said. “The response will always be slightly different. Our cast dynamic will be slightly different with people in and out of the show.”
He performed pieces from “Mormon” in college. To play Elder Price “was a bucket list role.”
He does not mind being an understudy — an ensemble member who fills in for a main role if the lead actor cannot perform.
“It’s kind of the best of both worlds, dancing in the ensemble every night and singing to my heart’s content, and then occasionally getting the call that I’ll be going on for the lead,” he said.
Klassen described the hours of work understudies put in to be able to perform two roles at once.
“I think a lot of people underestimate understudies or think that they were a second choice in the process, but in reality, an understudy requires additional effort that maybe the principal role wouldn’t be able to accomplish,” he said. “That’s not to be inconsiderate. But the skill set of an understudy has to involve a different range.”
Klassen reflected on leaving Marion County with melancholy as well as pride he has been able to achieve his goals.
“I knew that the opportunities that I wanted for my life would be found elsewhere, and so if I ever wanted to live a life of adventure and of thrill, I would have to seek it out,” he said. “I couldn’t wait for that to come to my hometown.”
He sometimes misses the quiet of farm life, sitting on his Lehigh porch and watching the sun set.
Those back home, though, always encouraged him to chase his dreams.
“I know where I come from and I know the people that supported me in my hometown love to see me succeed,” he said. “I know what it means to work hard. They taught me a lot of that back home.”