Billy Elliot the Forum

Since last summer, Samantha has been an understudy cast member, ready to go on stage at a moment's notice. Her role is called “small swing,” which covers multiple chorus parts. She rehearses and attends every performance and must be able to swing from one part to another whenever she's called upon.

Rehearsals began last August with the tour kicking off last October in Durham, N.C.

Earlier this year, in the middle of a performance in Charlotte, one of the regular cast members suddenly got a nosebleed. Word was sent that Samantha was needed pronto.

Samantha said she literally ran to the dressing room, put on her costume and returned to the stage just in time for “Solidarity,” a complex and stirring scene where ballet girls and policemen fighting with striking miners are singing and dancing.

“I was a little nervous at first because I didn't know it was coming, but it was one of the tracks I had rehearsed so I knew what to do,” said Samantha, whose mother, Dr. Kim Goldman, happened to be in the audience at the time.