Abby Stephens’ favorite actor is Kristen Chenoweth.

Her favorite TV show is “Glee,” and she loves movies – any kind of movie from any era.

Broadway is a long way from Pemberville, Ohio, but Stephens, a junior at Eastwood, appears to have one foot in the door toward a professional singing or acting career.

The 5-foot-2 brunette, a member Eastwood’s Concert Choir and a capella Encore group, auditioned for The Event on June 5 in Cleveland. She did so well at her audition that she was one of 1,500 students from around the world who was chosen to participate in The Event, which will be held at the Dolphin and Swan Resort in Orlando, Fla., from Dec. 16-21.

Abby Stephens

“It’s a national competition and I’ll be competing with kids in my age group – 16-17,” Stephens said. “We’re going to compete in singing and acting. I’ll do a comedic monologue and a commercial, and each of those will be about a minute long. For the commercial, they will give me a script about one month prior to The Event.”

Stephens said The Event is a platform that gives young performers an opportunity to perform in front of agents in the entertainment industry. Only a handful of students were chosen from the Cleveland audition.

“I went in on June 4 for the first audition,” she said. “I got a call back on June 5. They had us sit in this big room with a bunch of people and you met with an agent for about one minute. He asked me why I would be a good candidate, how many things I’ve done acting-wise and if I could sing. He had me sing right on the spot. I did pretty good. I started singing ‘Maybe’ from (the musical) Annie. I also did a dry read of a commercial for facial wipes. I got the script and I read it in the lobby.

“They had a camera person there who was from New York, from Nickelodeon, and she was watching me do the commercial,” Stephens said. “After I was done, she said, ‘How old are you?’ I said 16. She said, ‘How long have you been doing this?’ I said since seventh grade. She said it was great. I said, ‘oh, my gosh, thank you.’ The whole process took five minutes.

“The next day at noon, the agent called us back and said, ‘I’d really like to see you again, can you sing another song for us?” she recalled.

Stephens, who was singing with the choir at Eastwood’s graduation, left the ceremony early to drive to Cleveland. “I sang my song, ‘The Lass From The Low Countree,’ from John Jacob Niles, for my callback,” she said. “That went really well. My brother (Alec) came with me and he said, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard you sing better than that.’ The agent, Drew West, said, ‘I can see you on Broadway.’”

That, Stephens said, would be her dream job.

“I’ve wanted to be a performer since I was little,” she said. “For my 16th birthday, my parents (Laura and John) took me to New York to see ‘Wicked’ on Broadway. That was awesome. I liked everything - the skill of the people, the sets, just everything.”

Stephens said she would use the trip to Orlando to gain experience in the performing arts.

“I’ll get to work with all these different people and get all this knowledge,” she said. “I could potentially end up getting my name out there and have an agent want to work with me in the future. It’s just going to be an awesome experience.”

Representatives from Nickelodeon and The Event will host a fundraiser/dance party on a Friday or Saturday night in mid- to late September. The proceeds of the fundraiser will assist Stephens in participating in the national competition in Orlando.

Pemberville teen Abby Stephens was selected to be one of 1,500 students from around the world to participate in "The Event," a talent showcase held three times a year at Disney World in Florida.

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