NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A new Nashville-original musical is heading to the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.
One Step at a Time tells the story of a struggling school and how teachers and families can help turn things around. The musical stems from the vision of QuaverEd, which develops curriculum and resources focused on students' success skills in schools.
Michael Gualtieri plays the bully in the production.
"Him and his best friend Booker take out all their anger that they have from home on the other students in the school," Gualtieri said.
The recent Belmont University graduate is no stranger to the stage, but the road to get here wasn't always easy.
"I would work super hard for like everything and it would always go to the same two tall, charismatic guys and I was like I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know what I am doing," Gualtieri said.
"I've always faced like the microaggressions, like other people getting things that I didn't because the way they looked over the way I looked," Gualtieri added.
Even in the face of adversity, Gualtieri used it as motivation to help him get to where he is today.
"So I would just work super, super hard to just go places just always to fall short to somebody that was a different skin tone than me. And it started out in like middle school when I was getting picked on for the way I looked," Gualtieri said.
Those experiences, he says, only strengthened his resolve.
"Every challenge that I've been faced with I've had to overcome. And that has just built my drive more and more and more as I grew up, through Belmont even," Gualtieri said.
Now, he's performing at TPAC — and the show's creators hope it marks the beginning of something bigger for Nashville's arts scene.
"We are a music city, but now we would like to become more on the map as a theatre city and that is what this show is helping to do," said Holly Shepherd, the show's producer.
The show is June 30 and July 1 at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Both shows begin at 7 p.m.
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