Dean Leslie (207)-252-9025 CascoBayHardwoodFlooring.com DUSTLESS SANDING. CUSTOM FINISHING. SUPERIOR SERVICE. 26 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine The Arts courtesy Photo family loves music. I remember plunk- ing away on my grandma’s piano in Rum- ford every Christmas. I actually played the Hamilton score on her out-of-tune keys last holidays after I learned I’d landed the job!” Homeschooled until 13, Bagala’s cacopho- ny of influences left its mark on both him- self and his brother, Marcus–a score-writ- er for TV and film. A classically trained pianist, Bagala was regularly playing paid gigs at community theaters, and later professional theaters like MSMT and Ogunquit Playhouse, throughout his young years. “It was a great feeling to be a teen- ager and get paid for playing the piano. I realized I wanted to make a career out of this.” Dur- ing this time, the limelight called out for a moment–“I starred in the ensemble at the Lyric, Port- land Stage, and Hackmatack”– but Bagala ultimately decided his destiny would be below the foot- lights. Unlike Anna Kendrick, his Maine musical theater peer, Ba- gala didn’t shoot off to New York and LA at a young age. By his twenties, he’d become a seasoned veteran of sum- mer stock theater across the state. “I feel so lucky to grow up in such a small and sup- portive community where I had so many opportunities to learn,” he says when asked if he felt he grew up far from stage school. Bagala’s personal bio ballparks around 800 performances with Maine State Music Theater between high school and his early twenties from 2009 to 2015. O n the snatched moments he’s not on the road with Hamil- ton or the shows that preceded it, Rent and Elf: The Musical, Bagala lives in New York City. He tries to escape to Maine whenever he can. “The Hamilton tour comes to Boston in September. I’m hoping to get a week off to come back and see my family in Gray and visit Ogunquit Playhouse and Maine State Music The- ater.” Then it’s back on the highway bound for North Carolina and a new state every week thereafter. Can he conjure a dream beyond touring with the world’s musi- cal-of-the-moment? “It’s funny, someone on the cast said that the other day: ‘What do you do after you’ve done Hamilton?’ It could tour for another 20 years. I’d love to write my own shows and work with other musicians. I spend most of my time at the piano composing. It’s the most rewarding and organic process, and I want to contin- ue to be as creative as I can.” n