There’ll be no rest for one of the younger cast members after the curtain closes on Maine State Music Theatre’s production of “Footloose” this weekend.

Blair Best, 18, of Boothbay Harbor, will be heading to her freshman year at New York University Tisch School for the Arts soon after the final curtain closes on Saturday, where she’ll be studying drama as part of the Meisner Studio.

NYU Tisch has been her “dream school since I started doing theater here,” Best said. “I believe that Maine State Music Theatre has helped me with my audition there, greatly. I’ve gotten a lot of professional experience ever since I was little.”

Tisch alumni

Notable Tisch alumni include writers/directors/ producers Martin Scorsese, M. Night Shyamalan, Morgan Spurlock, Oliver Stone, Joel Cohen, Charles Kaufman and Chris Columbus, and actors John Fugelsang, Bridget Fonda, Jerry O’Connell and Andy Samberg.

Best has spent her last high school year studying at the University of North Carolina

School of the Arts’ drama conservatory program. She said she is looking forward to life in New York.

“I’ve always wanted to move there, and I’m so blessed that I get to go there for college,” said Best. “I’m from a very small coastal town, so it is going to be a culture shock.”

MSMT start

Best started at MSMT in 2008 when she was 12 as part of the children’s choir in the theater’s production of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” She continued her early career with MSMT, appearing in productions of “42nd Street” and “A Chorus Line,” where she was the understudy for the character Cassie, an experience Best said was the most challenging and most rewarding part of her MSMT experience.

Best said she was grateful for MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark, with whom she performed in her first show at MSMT for his support, and to all the members of the organization for their friendship and encouragement.

“I am blessed to be embraced by such an enthusiastic audience and will always consider MSMT my home theater,” Best said.

Best can be seen in “Footloose” as a dancer in the ensemble. “Cowgirl No. 1, technically,” Best said.

“I basically grew up with this theater,” Best said, adding that the actors and directors at MSMT “have really shaped my life as an actress in many ways.”

Stealing a line from “Billy Elliot,” Best said acting was “like electricity.”

“At the end, when you have the lights on you, and you’re in your final pose, and the audience is cheering — it’s the most exciting, rewarding feeling. You feel every emotion you could possibly feel before the lights black out,” Best said.

jswinconeck@timesrecord.com