Finally tonight, Darian Sanders grew up in Lexington, one of eight kids and not much of a theater person.
Well, that all changed when someone heard him sing the national anthem at a basketball game.
A few years later, he finds himself as king of the Pride lands.
Eight shows a week.
Hear his journey from the bluegrass to Broadway.
And our weekly arts and culture segment we call Tapestry.
Like any other.
Story.
I actually went to the University of Kentucky on a trumpet scholarship when I was there, U.K.
I started singing in a group called the Acoustic Acts, and that's kind of where I found my voice and found my performance aspect of singing.
And it just kind of snowballed from there.
My current manager, Peggy Stamps, saw me singing the national anthem at a basketball game and asked if I would like to join theater and what I thought about it.
And I said, I don't dance, I don't act, and I just sing in church.
And she was like, Perfect.
That's who we are looking for.
And she helped kind of get me started and get my foot in the door with theater and regional theater.
And that's where she connected me to Dr. mcCorvey at the University of Kentucky.
A great night for singing.
Started singing there.
And I met some great people Lindy Franklin Smith and Jeremy Smith with the theater company and helped start that company with them or helped launch that company.
And then from there I decided from doing that the best.
This is what I really wanted to do.
So jumped in the theater world and started auditioning and booked The Lion King for my future in the arts and everything.
Whether people want to believe it or not, they turn on a TV to watch a sporting event.
The music that's playing in the background created by an artist, the visual design, the graphics created by an artist.
And so just to know and understand the heartbeat of music in the heartbeat of artistry in everything is something that we don't want to take lightly.
Also, the creativity, the creativity that comes and allows people to just dream and move forward in life.
It's something that you don't want to throw to the wayside.
You don't know what artistry will do to speak to kids.
You don't know what artistry to do, to speak to adults.
I was a 30 year old that decided that they wanted to do Broadway, and so I started Broadway at 33.
That was that.
That's unheard of.
It's a story that I hear time and time again.
People are like, You started when you're how old?
How in the world did you start so late?
Well, I got the bug when I was 33.
And so that that is something that I love to inspire and instill in any and everybody.
It doesn't matter what the age is, It doesn't matter what time you think that you can't start or can start because the best time to start minus yesterday is today.
So is her hands.
Yeah.
What a talent.
Darian just celebrated two years as Simba in The Lion King and recently signed on for another year.
Congrats to him.