After leading a lively dance workshop in the West Gym—teaching a group of seventh- and eighth-graders how to Ease on Down the Road—visiting Broadway star D. Jerome transformed the Middle School Garage into the scene of a Broadway-style talkback.

Currently touring as the Tin Man in The Wiz, D. Jerome stood before the students not as an unapproachable star, but as an inspiration for what’s possible.

“As cliche as it sounds, all you have to do is believe in yourself and your wildest dreams can come true,” he said, before breaking into a song from his first-ever role in Annie.

D. Jerome invited the entire Middle School along for his journey from sixth grade—pretending his church shoes were tap shoes—to now—receiving his first invitation to audition for a leading role on Broadway. His stories reflected resilience, not overnight success. He shared the reality of the “hustle”: delivering Amazon packages in upstate New York to booking his Broadway debut in MJ the Musical in a single day.

The essence of his message was that success is where “opportunity meets preparation.” He told the students about the heartbreak of finally booking a starring role in Aladdin after six years of auditions, only to have to turn it down because Hamilton offered him a contract in the ensemble two days earlier. “You never know what’s going to happen. You just take the bits and pieces and you keep them as they come.”

When the floor opened for questions, the students were eager to dive into the details of his day-to-day. One student asked about the grueling schedule of a touring actor, as D. Jerome described the “crazy” routine of traveling to a new city every Monday and performing eight shows a week before doing it all over again.

Another asked quietly, “What advice do you have for students to work through performance anxiety?”

Jerome took a deep breath as he led the entire auditorium through his nightly mindfulness exercise: inhaling self-compassion and exhaling hope; inhaling confidence and exhaling peace. And he encouraged students to “put yourself in the position to be uncomfortable,” because that is where growth happens.

As the assembly was coming to an end, D. Jerome had time for one last question. He spotted a sixth-grade girl who had raised her hand repeatedly throughout the session, patiently waiting her turn. Her eyes lit up when he called on her.

“What was your biggest motivation throughout your journey?” she asked eagerly.

“Oh, they trying to make me tear up,” laughed the actor, before reflecting more seriously on his younger self. He talked about “Little Devonte” using his shadow from the streetlights in North Carolina to teach himself new dance moves, and performing for the stars in the sky. “I just always felt like I had more to give, and I didn’t think that what I had to give was special, I just knew that it was special to me,” he shared. 

Jerome closed with a verse from The Wiz, which aligned poignantly with the messages he shared throughout his visit to Menlo’s Middle School. “Believe in yourself right from the start. Believe in the magic that’s inside your heart. Believe all these things not because I told you to, but believe in yourself as I believe in you.”

Here are a few highlights from D. Jerome’s visit: