We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kylie Buckles-Hall a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kylie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

Murder Mystery Theater with SanZman productions in Glendora!! It was during the Holiday season so an added layer of fun and chaos! I’ve always loved singing holiday music and the show was beauty pageant themed so it was fun to sing them like it was a part of the competition.

Kylie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi, Im Kylie Buckles-Hall I’m 5’1/2 based in Los Angeles, Ca. The people who do know me probably got a good chuckle out of that intro because if you know me, you know me love for slaying! I’m a major astrology girly and hoping to be an iconic Broadway Baby one day! People who I met after I was 19 are always shocked to find out I used to think musical theater was so annoying and I kind of hated it! It’s shocking because my love of musical theater is now one of my biggest personality traits lmao. I make theater references to people who do not know or care what I am referring to and cheerfully explain the jokes to them. I get into fights with strangers at bars who hate on Stephen Sondheim. I grew up (and still listen) to primarily rap so I also love to cast Drake in musicals he will likely never be in!
Performing and creating just make me feel so alive, to the point where I don’t even care how cheesy of a statement that is lol! I don’t believe in measuring in my success as a performer by the pay rate, so if I come across a project that feels like my truth I do it. Maybe I’m just delulu but I have a faith that if I keep doing it out of love that eventually I’ll be able to make a living performing. I don’t really share it but I also write a lot and I hope one day to write a musical sitcom. I also think I’d be a good director but at this point in my life I’d always rather be in the show!
My favorite part of being a performer meeting people! I think there is something so beautiful about meeting someone through a shared love through creating. Everyone I have ever crossed paths with in a creative project lives in such a special pocket of my heart!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

So funny enough my dream in life has nothing to do with being a performer. I want to open foster homes across the country with art therapy programs as a part of housing situation somehow! The thought of sad kids makes me want to be physically ill lmao. I LOVE children and I love making kids feel heard. Maybe delulu thinking again but I think empowered the community of foster children that the state of the world would improve. I, obviously, do not know (yet) how to do this! So the reason I want to become an established high caliber performer is because I hope that one day I’ll have a platform where people who ✨do✨ know essentially how to revamp the foster care system will help me do it!

What are we without big dreams, ya know?

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I really struggle with perfectionism. I forget that performing is supposed to be fun because I know how good at it I want to be. It’s been really hard for me to grasp that just because I want to continue to grow and improve doesn’t mean that I suck right now! Saying it out loud sounds so silly! I take voice lessons with Joslynn Cortes (@vocallovexoxo ig) who is the kindest, most supportive, angel of a human I have ever met! She’s always reminding me to get out of my head and reminding me to give myself grace! I’m very much a try as hard as you can and eventually it’ll work kind of a gal which heartbreakingly is not at all the truth when it comes to your voice. About a year ago in voice lessons I went in one day thinking “I’m just not gunna try today, whatever comes out of me is what she gets.” Of course it was the best I had sang in my life up to that point lol but the not worrying about being perfect in that lesson really opened up my voice! I still have to remind myself that there will be more to learn and how lucky I am to live something that I will always be able to discover knew things in. I just have to remind myself that I’m still slaying right now, as I learn!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: _kylaaaaaaaay
• Other: TikTok: _kylaaaaaaaay Upcoming performances: Urinetown: Broadwater MainStage Conundrum Theater Co. March 15-17 March 22-23 Spring Awakening Broadwater MainStage Mouth Bone Productions April 26-28 May 2-5 May 9-11

Image Credits
Caroline Rose