The lights fade, and the curtain rises. Not many would vote for long travel days, 13 hour workdays, and up to eight performances in over 40 cities. But then again, not a lot of people spend about three years auditioning for the lead role in the musical Billy Elliot.

Sophomore Ben Cook began auditioning for the role of Billy when he was 9.

“For the first audition, I was 9 in New York,” Ben said. “There were about 100 boys auditioning and I didn’t hear from [the results from the audition] for about six months, so I kind of forgot about it. Six months later, I was called back, and there were around 15-20 guys there. Then I was on Broadway, and they said, ‘Congrats you’re on tour.’”

In the past three years he has performed on Broadway, traveled the country and traveled to Canada and Brazil while on tour. Only recently has he taken a break from his show life to continue high school with the aid of his sister, sophomore Emma Cook.

“Ben started dancing when my sister and I danced…and a lot of boys don’t dance,” Emma said. “My teacher saw something in him and got him an agent. That’s when he started to love dance, so he kept auditioning and grew passionate about it.”

For Ben’s first audition as Billy, the audition took quite an extensive period of time.

After he won the character of Billy Elliot, his mom was nervous about him moving to New York; however, everyone was really happy for him.

“My sister Emma, well…we’re twins and we have that sort of connection and now we had to get separated,” Ben said. “I don’t know; she was sad that we were being separated.”

Emma had to get used to the fact that her brother and one of her parents would not be around for a while.

“I was definitely happy, but I was a little mad because one of our parents had to go with him. But, in the end, I got used to it,” Emma said.

However, now being back at school, relying on his sister has become a critical part of surviving high school at Lake Braddock.

“I’m adjusting to school kind of well,” Ben said, “My sister here helps me with the schedule, but I’m still getting used to how big it is and how many people go here.”

The size of Lake Braddock contrasts greatly with the small tour group.

“The people were all very nice,” Ben said. “There were around 18 kids on the show, and we got along really well.”

Another new idea that Ben has to get used to about Lake Braddock is the idea of a seven hour school day.

“On tour, we didn’t get a lot of schooling,” Cook said. “There were two tutors, and we had tutoring from around 10-1, but we were ranged from 8-16 so…Everyone tried, but we didn’t get a lot of work done.”

However, life on tour was no cake walk either.

The worst part about being on tour was having a constantly busy schedule, Ben said.

“From 10-1 we had tutoring, and then from 2-5 we had class in acro, ballet, tap or cardio. After that, we had a dinner break. We had to be ready one hour and 30 minutes before call so we did a show from 7-11, and then we just repeat,” Ben said.

Touring also brought with it fans. Ben even received a pair of clogs all the way from Sweden. One of the great things about being on this tour was to be appreciated, he said

“If we weren’t appreciated, it would be pointless,” Cook said.