Colby Howell, 17, has been a member of the Center for Creative Arts’ elite musical theater company, Choo Choo Kids, for two years.CLAIM TO FAMEColby Howell, 17, has been a member of Center for Creative Arts’ elite musical theater company, Choo Choo Kids, for two years. He was selected to take part in Pace University’s Summer Scholars program for musical theater in 2011. The same year, he was selected as one of 25 finalists, the only one from Tennessee, to be an All-Star Cast member at the Southeast Theater Conference in Atlanta.ABOUT HIM• School: 12th-grader at Center for Creative Arts.• Siblings: Brother, Kyle, 19.• Hobbies: Singing, dancing, acting, writing and composing music and playing paintball.TALENT SHOWDo you know a child age 17 or younger with a precocious talent in academics, athletics or the arts? The Times Free Press is searching for children to feature in “Talent Show,” which appears in the Life section on Tuesdays. To nominate a child as a possible subject of a future feature article, e-mail staff writer Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or call him at 423-757-6205.
The moment Colby Howell heard the boos coming from the audience during the curtain call for “Tarzan,” he knew he’d done his job well.
As the cruel, power-hungry English hunter John Clayton in Center for Creative Arts’ production of the musical based on the Disney animated film, Colby never expected to win popularity contests.
But the 17-year-old senior hoped their negative reaction was directed at the character, not the actor.
“That just let me know that, ‘Hey, these people must not like me, so I must have done something well because no one should like [Clayton],'” he said, laughing.