Class of 2024: Rhea Perdue ready to make New York City her stage
Name: Rhea Perdue
College: College of Architecture, Arts, and Design
Major: Theatre arts
Hometown: Rich Creek, Virginia
Plans after graduation: Moving back to New York City at the beginning of 2025 to continue her work as a comedic tour guide on The Ride NYC. While she is working and auditioning for shows, Perdue will be taking classes at the Stella Adler Center for the Arts, an acting conservatory in the city. Her dream is to perform on Broadway.
Favorite Hokie memory: “Every rehearsal room I’ve ever been in. I’ve been in five shows here, and the rehearsal room is where the magic happens. It is my favorite part of the process.”
Setting the scene for success
From the second she sat down in her Introduction to Theatre class, Perdue knew she had only one option for her future: acting. She changed her major from journalism to theatre arts the next day.
“I see myself always acting,” Perdue said. “As cheesy as it sounds, I think I was only supposed to do one thing with my life.”
Since then, Perdue has made significant contributions to multiple areas of theater at Virginia Tech: performing in five shows, crafting in the costume shop, practicing dramaturgy, and working for the Moss Arts Center as an usher leader. This spring, she received the Samuel Robert Cox Memorial Scholarship, endowed to honor the theatre alumnus.
“I’m not everybody’s cup of tea, because I’m coffee,” Perdue said. “So this scholarship meant a lot to me because it showed that my professors see me and see how passionately I love this field.”
Advancing from understudy to under the spotlight
Although Perdue was assigned only one scene in “Describe the Night,” her first play as a student in the School of Performing Arts, she took advantage of the opportunity to study and absorb how the actors worked together.
“It was such a great formative first experience with college theater,” Perdue said. “I was glued to watching this process come together in a way that I’ve never seen before.”
Her second play, “H*tler’s Tasters,” was her first experience at being an understudy. She further developed her acting skills in “Concord Floral” and “This is Not a Scam!!” Most recently, Perdue showed off the results of her hard work and took on a major role in the ensemble comedy “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.”
Learning from the best
Perdue credits her opportunities, motivation, and overall growth as an actor to Susanna Rinehart, associate professor of performance and associate dean for academic and faculty affairs, and former faculty member Sarah Yorke. She admires Rinehart’s ability to command a room and values Yorke as a mentor, friend, and director.
“I just knew that I had to learn from Susanna forever,” Perdue said. “I don’t meet many people that share such a specific love for the background, research, and history of it all. It made me fall back in love with theater.”
Because Perdue does not see herself as someone with a lot of natural talent, the dedication of Rinehart and Yorke to their craft influenced her both behind the curtain and on the stage.
“I have to work really hard,” Perdue said. “The only thing I have natural talent in is Skee-Ball. They took a chance on me, and I am absolutely the actor I am because of them.”
Taking a ride up north
As a Giles County local, Perdue has been living at home and driving to campus every day, saving enough money every month to allow her to live and work in Brooklyn in the summers.
“I’m from such a small town so community is important to me,” Perdue said. “Being at Virginia Tech and living in New York, I’m able to create these small communities in such a big place.”
In New York, Perdue entertains her audience as a comedic tour guide on The Ride NYC, a traveling theater where the streets are the stage. The tour bus winds its way through Midtown Manhattan, while Perdue and her cohost tell jokes and share facts as they pass by other performers sprinkled throughout the city.
This Hokie is ready to get the show on the road.
Written by Ashley Falat, a junior communications major at Virginia Tech
