Broadway Star Likes Teaching During Trips Back Home
Christine Cornish is living her dream as a Broadway actress, with career performances that include such classics as Cats, My Fair Lady, and Kiss Me, Kate.
But nothing compares to a few days at home in Highland Park.
(ABOVE: Christine Cornish returned home to Dallas for a show at The Majestic in November. Photos by Shane Peterman)
Cornish returned in mid-November for a performance at The Majestic Theater. The Majestic Unplugged show featured numbers that harkened back to the classics performed at the theater decades ago. What made the show unique, Cornish said, was the absence of amplification and microphones; hence, the “unplugged” feeling of the performance.
“It was meant to bring the audience back to a time when there wasn’t a lot of sound, and you were just using the lyrics of the theater,” she said. “We wanted to do songs from the ‘20s, ‘30’, and ‘40s, when the theater was really in its prime.”
Being able to perform minutes from her home with ample family in attendance made the show that much more special, she added.
“I still draw on a lot of the life lessons I learned from going to Highland Park high school, and I know that’s always going to be a really important part of my life.” -Christine Cornish
“As much as I love being up in New York, it’s so very special to be in Dallas,” she said. “It’s different to perform at home. It has a special quality down here, because up there, as great as it is, it’s also a job. Down here, I was able to have my family in town and watch me perform. A lot of them can’t travel up to New York, and they haven’t seen me act since high school. So, it was really special for me.”
While home, Cornish also got to engage in another one of her passions: teaching.
Whenever she is in Dallas, Cornish makes as many appearances as she can at Preston Center Dance, a local studio for children interested in acting and dancing.
“I love the owners there and I love teaching and working with kids,” Cornish said. “I think that’s the most important thing anyone can do, in any vocation.”
Her love for teaching children dancing and acting comes from her childhood, one filled with “every opportunity to succeed,” she said, thanks to her parents and the Highland Park community.
“I had old-school training growing up – show up on time, be polite, no leniency,” she said. “I feel like I have thicker skin now, after what I went through growing up.
“I went to a normal high school, Highland Park High, and had a great education. I remember I told my parents I wanted to quit public school and go to a private art school, but now, I’m so glad I went to a public school. I still draw on a lot of the life lessons I learned from going to Highland Park high school, and I know that’s always going to be a really important part of my life. I never really had a backup plan – this is what I was going to do, and I had super supportive parents. If I didn’t have them, it would have been a lot harder to do what I love.”
