Junior Luke Reimer has had a passion for music since before he could remember. He started theater productions at six, voice lessons at 11, joined orchestra in fifth grade and began piano lessons in eighth grade.
Reimer is very involved in music at West High School and beyond. He started acting at just six years old and now he’s one of the stars of the school musical. He is also in the highest orchestra, Symphony Strings and the highest choir, West Singers. Reimer is also in the Good Time Company, the highest show choir at West and even made the All-State choir. Now that Reimer is shifting his focus to his Broadway dreams, he has had to pare down his activities.
Reimer has had a talent for music and theater since he was little. “I have always sang. The first movie I ever watched was a musical,” Reimer said.
He started his journey doing different shows at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts at six years old. He also started taking voice lessons with Evan Hilsabeck at the CCPA.
While theater is Reimer’s main musical involvement, he also plays two instruments. Reimer began playing viola in fifth grade and began taking piano lessons when he was in eighth grade. Reimer has been expanding his musical skills through voice, acting and playing instruments.
When asked what advice he would give his younger self, Reimer replied, “You‘re gonna get a lot of ‘you’re in the ensemble, you’re a mouse, you’re a fox’, but pretty soon, in like 10 years, you’re gonna be in a show where you never leave the stage and you have all these big songs.”
Reimer describes his theater journey as a rollercoaster. It isn’t all up and filled with the roles he auditioned for. He has gone between lead and ensemble his entire musical career. “You’re going to get lead roles along the way, and then you’re going to go back to ensemble, and then you get another lead role, and then you’re going to go back to a small part, and then that’s never going to change,” Reimer said.
Now, Reimer is working on his college auditions. He hopes to go to a musical theater college with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts program. For this, Reimer has to submit different sets of auditions including pre-screens. Pre-screen auditions are before the rest of the normal vocal videos and acting videos, where you have to do an application before the second set of essays and videos. Reimer has been working on these pre-screens two years in advance.
The show choir season is in the middle of Reimer’s college auditions. Because of this, he has chosen to perform in the band for the show choir instead of being a dancer to take on a smaller role.
“I was sad that I wouldn’t be finishing [the season] off, but at the same time, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to do it,” Reimer said.
Another aspect of his auditions is Unified auditions in Chicago. These auditions take place from February second to the fifth. The Unified auditions are auditions and interviews for administration into the different universities under Unified.
Now that Reimer is approaching senior year, one of the biggest questions has arisen in his life. Where does he want to go to college? While many Broadway-seeking actors desperately want to go to New York University, as it was recently named the most-represented college on Broadway, though Reimer has a different view.
Reimer knows that he will pursue his dreams through his talent, not his college choice. Reimer knows he will end up where he is meant to be, to him it doesn’t matter what college he gets into. “The one thing that I’ve been told is that you will get into a place that wants you, you are meant to be at that place. And if that place is not Juilliard or NYU, so be it,” he said.
While Reimer has faced many challenges throughout his theater career, he shares the impact of theater on his life. Reimer knows that he will face challenges and he may not get the roles he wants or end up where he wants to be, but no matter what he wants theater in his life. “But theater is really my life. So when I quit theater, it means I quit my life. And I don’t want to quit my life,” Reimer said.
