Melissa Statema

Melissa Statema was born and raised in Central FL. She started taking dance lessons at age 3 and took acting, modeling, singing, and dance classes throughout her childhood years. At age 7, Melissa started working professionally as a performer. One of her first professional jobs was working as a dancer at Disney. She performed in the castle show, Sparkling Christmas Spectacular, as well as in various parades at The Magic Kingdom. She worked at Disney from age 7-10 and, after high school, she was hired full-time as a dancer for the Magic Kingdom Parades Department. 

In between her two experiences at Disney, Melissa did a lot of film, television, commercial, and print work, as well as performing with a children’s group called Children Around the World throughout the Orlando area. In high school, Melissa found her love of theatre. She initially joined the drama club and, quickly thereafter, started auditioning for shows.  Some of her favorite roles in high school include Minnie Fay in Hello, Dolly! and Catherine Simms in The Foreigner. There, Melissa also found a love of choreography. After being asked to co-choreograph Hello, Dolly! with a fellow student, she was hooked.  

Melissa moved to Pennsylvania in the fall of 2000 to work as a performer at Sight and Sound Theatres. While there, she met her now husband, Loren. A year later, Melissa decided to turn down a performance contract to move back to FL. During this time, continuing her education was her priority and she completed her degree in Theatre and Dance from Palm Beach Atlantic University. 

Loren and Melissa welcomed a daughter, Grace, in 2006. Shortly thereafter, they moved across the country to Washington State where they lived for 7 years. Sadly, their work schedules did not allow them to do theatre. During this time, Melissa created Get Your Sillies Out and began teaching theatre and dance to preschoolers. 

The Statema family made the move back to the East coast in 2014, settling in Statesville, NC. After moving, they found local community theatre, Theatre Statesville. Loren and their daughter auditioned for Seussical (Grace’s 1st audition ever!) and, together, they were cast as Horton and JoJo. Since that experience, Melissa’s family has been extremely active in theater in Statesville and surrounding communities. 

Now, Melissa splits her time across multiple professional and volunteer-based theater projects. She is a Creative Works acting and dance teacher at The Green Room in Newton, NC and teaches adult theatre classes with Theatre Statesville. Melissa has also choreographed Seussical, Tom Sawyer, Bright Star, and The Little Mermaid at The Green Room. At Theatre Statesville, Melissa has performed in Rumors (Cassie) and Proof (Claire), as well as choreographed The Fantasticks, Willy Wonka (+ co-directed), Nunsense, and Company. She is also set to choreograph their spring musical, The Secret Garden.In addition to her production work at Theatre Statesville, she also serves on their Marketing and Show Selection Committees respectively. 

In her free time she enjoys adventuring with her family, reading, game nights, yoga, eating delicious food, organizational projects, exercising, and spending time with her pup Jenny, and kitties, Izzy and Max. Melissa is incredibly grateful she is able to use her love of theatre in a variety of ways and is thrilled to try out this new world of podcasting. She would like to thank everyone for their support and encouragement!