At the end of the opening night of Dylan’s first show with Boston Children’s Theatre we loaded the giddy 14-year-old in the car, and as we were driving out of the parking lot she suddenly rolled down her window, thrust her face and hands out into the night air and yelled “Chris!!! WHOOOO!!!” I said, “Who’s Chris?!” and she replied, “Our music director.” That was my first indication of how beloved Chris was by his students and cast members.

Chris went on to music direct Dylan in the wildly successful and all-around grueling double run of “Fancy Nancy,” and we continued to see how he expertly guided the kids through brutal harmonies and highly aerobic belting-while-dancing numbers with unflappable calm and lots of humor. I once remarked to Iain about how organized and hardworking Chris was, and he replied, “Immigrants, we get the job done.”

Chris recently took me to his favorite writing spot, Thinking Cup in Boston’s North End, and shared with me some things you might not know about him:

I am more than my depression.

Since my late teenage years, I’ve lived in at least ten different places. I even served my country, South Korea, as a Navy officer for three and half years and traveled all around the country. My strong desire for fitting in and settling somewhere has never been resolved and I’ve always had to fight to overcome my loneliness. Since I came to U.S. five years ago, I’ve strongly felt like I was losing myself and becoming someone else. I’ve had to fight harder to be my true self, although I don’t really have an answer for who I want to be.

I grew up with many different dreams in my life. I wanted to be a baseball player, astrophysicist, lawyer, and businessman but here I am. I’m just an ordinary guy who loves doing music and theatre. I teach music, direct children’s musical theatre productions, and do musical arrangements for original musical theatre shows.

I feel like facing reality might have turned me into a person who is afraid of breaking through his comfort zone but I still have a big dream in my heart, which I’m too afraid to share with anyone else, but I’m finally working on it.

Life has taught me one lesson which is, “everything passes.” Whether it’s good or bad, nothing lasts forever. All the struggles in my life have shaped me into the person I am now. And I kind of like it. So, I may take things easy from now on and when life gives me another storm, I’m just going to play in the puddle. I know the sun will come back up tomorrow, so I’ll be okay.

You can learn more about Chris at his website.

If you would like to share how you are more than your depression, grief, addiction, anxiety, PTSD, eating disorder or OCD please email me at amykerrdraws@gmail.com for a Writing Guide.