Where are they NOW?

CHRISTOPHER CHEW (Photo: Christopher Chew (left) as Don Quixote in "Man of La Mancha" - 2000)

Christopher Chew began his acting career as a young boy playing Tiny Tim in a local community production of A Christmas Carol but it wasn’t until he was a student at Chelmsford High School that he truly fell in love with theatre. Having played The Wizard in Chelmsford High’s The Wiz, Chris attended a pre-college workshop in musical theatre at Carnegie Mellon University between his junior and senior year. His talent was immediately recognized and he was one of only a handful of students accepted into Carnegie Mellon’s prestigious musical theatre program.

At Carnegie Mellon Chris established an impressive resume appearing as John Wilkes Booth in Assasins, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, and the title role in Sweeney Todd, to name a few.

...he was one of only a handful
of students accepted into Carnegie
Mellon’s prestigious musical theatre
programUpon graduation he re-located to New York City to pursue his dreams of a professional career, meeting with agents, auditioning and appearing in showcase productions. One of his earliest successes came when he was selected to play the role of Willard in the original workshop production of Footloose. While his career showed great promise, Chris found that the big city was “not for him,” and he moved to Ashby and married his wife Nancy who was finishing law school. He completed a master’s degree in teaching at Fitchburg State College and, inspired by the film Mr. Holland’s Opus, returned to Chelmsford High as an English teacher and head of their theatre program.

After teaching for several years, Chris longed to be back on stage and wowed Theatre at the Mount audiences with his performances as Caine/Japeth in Children of Eden in 1999 and in 2000 as Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha.

Shortly thereafter, Chris made the decision to leave his teaching position and to once again pursue a professional acting career. Foothills Theatre in Worcester offered Chris his first Equity* contract to play the role of The Padre in Man of La Mancha. He quickly established a reputation in the Greater Boston theatre world and has been working regularly at such venues as Center Stage, Lyric Stage Company, Stoneham Theatre, Huntington Theatre and North Shore Music Theatre. Chris recently was a soloist at the “Evening of the Hard Hat” concert celebrating the re-opening of the newly renovated Opera House in Boston. This fall he will star as Frederick in Lyric Stage’s production of A Little Night Music.

Having found his niche on the local theatre scene, Chris does not plan to return to New York City. He has the luxury of steady work, doing 6 to 7 productions a year, and is glad to be raising his 2 children Caleb (age 6) and Millie (10 months) away from the hustle and bustle of the big city.

Chris’s advice for aspiring actors and actresses can be summed up in one word – training. “To have any hope of achieving a professional career in theatre, performers must take advantage of professional education opportunities and must develop a work ethic to go along with it.” 80% of aspiring actors are unemployed. The remaining 20% work steadily as a result of their talent, their training and their hard work.

There is no doubt that Chris Chew has talent. But it is his training and his work ethic that have resulted in a stunning professional career.

*Performers become members of Actors Equity in one of two ways. Through the Equity Membership Candidacy program performers can earn 1 point for every week employed by an Equity theatre and after accumulating 50 points may become members of the Union. The second way is to be offered an Equity contract outright as was the case with Chris.