If you were lucky enough to catch BU on Broadway’s performance of Chicago this weekend, then you already know Janette Martinez (CFA ’13). But you might recognize her as Matron “Mama” Morton, head of the women’s block at the Cook County Jail, and a part she worked hard to be comfortable with.
“I’ve been practicing my walk, because I have a very feminine walk and in the play I get called ‘butch’ and ‘diesel’ quite a few times,” Martinez laughs a few weeks before the show. “It’s been a huge challenge but I’ve had a lot of fun doing it.”
Martinez is used to challenges, balancing an astonishing number of activities even in her final semester at BU. Aside from participating in the show, Martinez is also the President of BU on Broadway, a member of the a capella group The BosTones, an ASB coordinator, and a manager at the Student Activities Office. But theater and the performing arts have always been an important part of her life.
“I started dancing when I was six [years old] but I was nine was when I started competing,” Martinez says. “And then I started to do theater at camp. Then I went to a performing arts high school and I started to do some theater there and then when I came here I just was fully immersed.”
This is Martinez’s fourth year participating in BU on Broadway, noting her favorite thing about the group is watching people grow as full theater-lovers.
“Everyone just really comes out of their shell. I started as just a performer and then I really wanted to branch out from there,” said Martinez. “I’ve taken part in every part of the group.”
A vocal major, Martinez will be graduating in just a few weeks and is already building up a busy schedule post-BU. After moving back home to New York for the summer to teach music and dance, she has a job at Disney World in the fall working with children in the recreation department.
“My mom is not pleased,” she says jokingly of her future plans.
Martinez is also looking beyond the next year or so, talking about going to grad school and getting into staging and choreography for musical theater and opera.
“That’s the endgame,” Martinez says. “The steps in between are not in a book on how to do this. I’m trying to figure that out as I go.”
And with all of her passion, it’s not hard to imagine Martinez reaching that ultimate goal. She notes how her time at BU and working with BU on Broadway has been a bit of a roller coaster.
“But it’s always been worth it in the end,” Martinez says. “It’s very special to me.”