St. Louis didn’t make MSN’s list of top 10 cities in 2013; it’s not the fastest-growing city, or the highest-paying either, according to Forbes. But, it is home to the oldest and largest outdoor musical theatre in the country, the Muny. The Muny, aside from its normal musicals during the Summer Season, has two performing troupes: Muny Kids for children ages nine through eighth grade and Muny Teens for high school students. They perform two short shows before the main show starts.

There were auditions for Muny Teens on Saturday, February 22 at the Orthwein Hall, with around 400 teens auditioning. One of those kids was Matt Howard, freshman.

“We basically came in on a Saturday morning around 8 o’clock. They gave us a dance to learn, and we had to perform it. You have to prepare a song to sing, and you have to mentally prepare as well,” Howard said. “The dances are like 45 seconds to a minute long. They teach it to you in 15 minutes, and you have to remember it all. You have to be mentally there, or it’s not going to work out. You can’t just be unfocused or you’ll forget it. If they wanted us for callbacks, they would email us. I got an email, so I came back on Sunday. We learned another dance, and we sang again. They kept cutting people, and when they narrowed it down, there were forty or fifty kids left.”

Howard was one of only 24 teens to make the troupe. The 2014 season will be his seventh summer performing with the Muny.

“When you try out for the Muny, you’re not just trying out for a specific show. You try out for all the shows, and they decide,” Howard said. “You have to be able to put up with conflicts. I’m only available for the last four shows, so I had to put that down on the conflict sheet.”

He’s done nine different musicals with the Muny since he made Muny Kids in 2008. In two of those shows, he’s had a speaking part. In 2010, he played Kurt in ‘The Sound of Music,’ and in 2011 he played Young Don Lockwood in ‘Singing in the Rain.’

“Usually, practices start around 12 days before the show starts. They give you the script beforehand. They do it so fast. It’s really amazing,” Howard said.

Howard isn’t just involved in theatre at the Muny. His first time onstage was in the first grade when he played one of the mice in ‘Cinderella,’ and he was also in ‘The Music Man’ in 2008 with Stages and played Frederick in ‘The Sound of Music’ in 2012.

“The reason I love it is because when you get on the stage, every night, you can look out at the audience and see there’s so many people there. That’s why I do it. I love that feeling I get when I’m out on the stage,” Howard said.