Theater actress Lorna Courtney is best known for her star-making turn as Juliet in the musical & Juliet. For her performance in this production, the Queens native earned recognition from both theater critics and audiences. She was nominated for Best Actress in a Musical at the 76th Tony Awards. However, the artist’s path to triumph was far from easy. The actress persistently pursued her goal, dreaming of a career on stage and dedicating maximum effort to achieving it. Read more below on queens-trend.
Youth and Education
Lorna Courtney was born on October 12, 1998, in Queens. At an early age, she began singing, performing in gospel choirs. As part of these groups, she performed vocal music with religious themes. Gospel music originates from the solo, monophonic spiritual hymns of African-American Baptists, created with stories from the Gospels. This experience helped Lorna overcome her excessive shyness.
Courtney received her secondary education at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she studied opera. At age 15, she went on a two-month tour in Japan with her gospel choir. She performed in the musical Mama, I Want to Sing! about African-American singer Doris Troy. It was then that Lorna decided she wanted to dedicate her life to musicals rather than opera. After high school, she enrolled at the University of Michigan, where, after three years of study, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater. While her classmates were enjoying spring break, Courtney was going to auditions. She honed her skills during summer courses at Washtenaw Community College.
Career
After graduating from college, 20-year-old Lorna Courtney made her Broadway debut as an understudy in the Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen. The story is about Evan Hansen, a high school senior with social anxiety disorder. As the plot unfolds, he is so desperate to connect with his peers that he invents a friendship with a deceased student to get closer to the boy’s family. After a classmate commits suicide, Evan finds himself at the center of the tragedy and confusion. Trying to console the grieving family, Hansen pretends he was very close friends with the deceased. He creates a fabricated email account to “prove” the friendship and resorts to various lies. Evan is ultimately forced to make a decision: fully commit to the fantasy he created or risk losing everything he ever dreamed of.
In 2019, Courtney began playing the role of Rosalia while also understudying Maria in West Side Story. It is one of the most memorable love-story musicals of all time. The events take place in contemporary New York. The story is inspired by William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. Two young lovers are representatives of warring street gangs. Their struggle for survival in a world of hatred, violence, and prejudice is one of the most innovative, groundbreaking, and relevant musical dramas. The tragic plot, complex music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social issues have secured the musical’s reputation as a vital part of the national creative heritage.
On March 12, 2020, then-New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered the closure of theaters due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Courtney was out of work for two years until May 2022, when she landed her first professional leading role: Juliet in the musical & Juliet. This non-tragic story gives a new life to the main character from Shakespeare’s legendary play. Juliet travels to Paris, makes new friends, and discovers who she is independently of Romeo. & Juliet is a triumphant coming-of-age story about a young woman finding strength in her solitude.
