Glass grad winning awards off-Broadway

By Casey Gillis

Published: August 20, 2008

Name: Abby Baum

How you know her: She’s a 2003 E.C. Glass graduate, who was active in Glass’ theater program.

What she’s doing now: Baum recently received a New York Innovative Theatre Award (IT) nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role for her performance as Princess Leonide in the Astoria Performing Arts Center’s “Triumph of Love.” The IT Awards celebrate off-off-Broadway productions.
“There is a lot of off-off-Broadway taking place in New York, and in all these settings, there are heaps of talented people doing interesting, original and contemporary work,” Baum said in a recent interview conducted via e-mail.
“The spectrum of material being done is so wide and, in so many ways, hard to compare within each other, so to be picked … is extremely exciting.”

Back in the day: Baum’s first interest in performing came as a toddler, when she’d run around singing her grandmother’s favorite show tunes. Once she was old enough, she joined Cantate, the Children’s Choir of Central Virginia, and began acting when the group partnered up with the Cherry Tree Players.
“(It) opened the door to community theatre for me, and began to teach me ways in which music and theatre could be combined,” she said.
Baum continued acting in productions for the old Fine Arts Center, the Little Town Players in Bedford, Sweet Briar College and the GO Center at R.S. Payne. But it wasn’t until she entered high school that Baum got serious about acting as a possible career.
“Everything began to click, and (Glass theater director) Jim Ackley helped me realize this could be more than a hobby and could actually hold a future for me,” she said.

From Lynchburg to off-Broadway: After finishing high school, Baum moved to the Big Apple to attend New York University, graduating in May 2007.
Since then, she’s mostly avoided the starving artist life by finding steady work — with the occasional waitress gig thrown in.
“A lot of my interest … lies in new work, which in its early stages doesn’t always pay fantastically,” she said. “But I love the idea of making something out of nothing and am more than willing to have to work a bit in a restaurant in the hopes that a small project I’m working on becomes something great.”
Her credits include roles in Drama Desk Nominees “Queen Esther,” “A New Generation of Song” and “SHOWCHOIR! The Musical,” which was also a winner for outstanding ensemble at the New York Fringe Festival. She’s also appeared in “A Tribute to Alan Menken,” “Broadway’s Rising Stars,” and regional productions of “Almost Heaven: The Songs of John Denver” and Tony nominee Mary Bracken Phillips’ “Silver Dollar.”
“I like the immediacy of performing for a live audience and also the challenges it presents in keeping things fresh for a run of a show,” she said.
“I do have a desire to do a lot of straight play, non-musical work, and I’m currently writing with a friend of mine, so we’ll see where that goes. I’d love to branch out and try new things.”

Now showing: Baum is currently touring abroad with Tony winner Lea Salonga, one of her idols, in “Cinderella.” She was in the Philippines when she participated in our interview and will, unfortunately, be in China next month during the IT Awards ceremony.
“I’m extremely sad to miss it,” she said, “but also extremely grateful and excited for the coming months.”