When Gabriel Armitage was cast as a replacement in the hit musical Spring Awakening, he had already seen it fourteen times - which, frankly, was a little embarrassing. Had he any inkling that his normal college boy theatre major life was going to be put on hold for a Broadway premiere, maybe he would have found a different show to take every friend and family member who came to visit him at school to. Maybe he wouldn't have tweeted the original cast so much, or snapped a few less photos at the stagedoor, or not friended the swings on facebook after one conversation. Maybe he would have tried a little harder to not have been on a first name basis with the girls running the ticket raffle. But wanting to be an actor in the city meant going to every audition that would see you, even if you thought your chances of getting cast were one in a million in a sea of blonde, screlting twinks just like yourself; even if you secretly may have thought your best chances of getting cast in Spring Awakening would involve blowing the director at your local community theatre once licensing rights were out, and for Gabe, what had started as a long morning laughing in the non-eq line about how maybe he and his friends would see someone famous in the waiting room ended a few days later with him staring in disbelief at his phone, not sure whether or not he should be screaming in excitement or horror before quickly changing his facebook profile picture to something other than his latest stagedoor selfie.

Luckily for him, the gentle teasing he received from cast was (relatively) brief, and even if it hadn't been, it was well worth it to be joining the cast of one of his all time favorite shows, despite spending 98% of his time wondering if he was truly fit to be there. When the show closed, he was encouraged by his friends to find a proper agent and keep seeking work, and he did, finishing up school between roles in off-broadway productions that usually lasted a month at most - not exactly what high profile careers are made of, but between the steady stream of jobs, his willingness to appear for free in concerts featuring his costars or emerging composers, and later, his participation in youtube turned Hulu-streamed series It Could Be Worse, he managed to stay on the radar, at least for the tumblr-connected Young Broadway set.

No matter how arguably successful his career might be doing, however, Gabriel approaches every project in a haze of disbelief that he's good enough and not just lucky enough to have gotten where he is. Exceptionally sweet but almost debilitatingly self-conscious and self-deprecating, even after seven years of performing he remains convinced that he's waiting for a second shoe to drop.