A 10-year-old Maryland girl is taking the stage at the Metropolitan Opera of New York as baby Jesus in “El Niño,” which tells the story of the Nativity.
Fourth grader Gabby Tennor of Hagerstown has always loved acting and performing, so she decided to audition for the show.
“I don’t understand how, but yeah, I’m playing Jesus,” Gabby said.
Her role is to act out the nativity story being sung in the lyrics.
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She said she feels right at home on the historic stage.
“I normally am really nervous for things, especially when it’s a lot of people, and there were 30,000 people at my first opening night, and I wasn’t nervous for some reason,” she said. “So, I just knew that that was for me.”
Twice a week, Gabby and her mom make the long trip to New York for her shows then drive back the same day.
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“We are super proud of her, my husband and I,” Barbara Tennor said. “I cried, actually. I didn’t expect it, but to see that big stage and that many audience, so many people in that audience, it just brought so much joy to my heart.”
“Both of my parents have had kind of a tough background, kind of, and I am so happy that I can make them proud with all that I’m doing,” Gabby said.
But she doesn’t see show biz as her career. Gabby hopes to become a pediatrician.
“I want to get into a good college because I want to make my parents proud,” she said. “So, I’m doing all of this not only because I love it — because I can put this on my college application and that will open a bunch of opportunities for me.”
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