Faith in the Future of Broadway: The Rise Collective Women

Source: @risecollectivewomen on Instagram

On Tuesday evenings in an Upper East Side apartment, equipped with a perfect skyline backdrop and enough chairs & floor cushions to go around, is where you can find the Rise Collective Women.

Here, a ranging number of New York women gather for fellowship and high-and-low shares followed by bible lessons and scripture readings, and group prayers.

Originally founded under the name “College Girls for Christ,” Rise Collective Women is “a community of women grounded in the love of God and growing together in faith in Jesus Christ” as is stated on the community website. This female lead bible study group was founded by Laura Leigh Turner, an Arkansas native and transplant New Yorker, a disciple of Jesus, and a performing artist.

Turner’s desire to build a study group of college-aged women stemmed from the impact this sort of organization had on her during her time at Oklahoma City University. Being a performer herself, she, however, unintentionally created a community not only of women living in faith but filled with creatives and Broadway ambitions.

One of these aspiring actresses is Lauren Carlson. Carlson was agnostic for the majority of her life after growing up in a Southern Baptist school but not connecting with the unwelcoming practices she was being taught.

Where she did feel strong though, was in the theater. Carlson began pursuing a career in the arts in middle school after an Olympic swimming dream was derailed by an injury. She “selfishly” (Her words) felt talented and enjoyed the positive attention it granted her.

Carlson was introduced to a fellow-theater performer who was a Pastor’s daughter at a crucial time in her life, having been in a toxic situation with a scene partner. She found a safe space within this friendship to relearn what it means to be a Christian through an understanding of the bible that she connected with and felt supported by.

“I don't think I would have left my abusive situation without the guidance of the lord,” she says, “I left so quickly and I really had nothing– the only thing I had was dependence on God and he delivered me… I left my abuser. I stopped speaking to him and I moved to New York two months later.”

Carlson met Laura Leigh Turner during her first week in the city after connecting on Instagram and was invited to attend her church that Sunday. Being a new believer and in a new city, Carlson was then discipled by Turner, growing her relationship with God and beginning to build the community of Rise Collective Women.

It was early spring of 2020 when the female-focused bible study group was launched (online) and Carlson was there from day one. Assisting with marketing the project as well as acting as an initial group leader, she was able to see firsthand how this community grew in like minds.

This expanding group of women was not only a source of learning and growth in her faith but provided Carlson with companions that she could walk through life as she navigated her musical theater studies and life in New York City.

“During [the COVID-19 pandemic] I had no friends in the city that were believers and none that were actors,” she says, “but then coming back to New York after my sophomore year of college and having a guaranteed kind of community of women that not only were artists but artists who believed in what I believed in was so comforting.”

As she expands her journey in faith, Carlson is finding other outlets to learn and worship aside from this women's worship. But that does not break the bond she has formed with the Rise Collective Women.

Carlson credits this community with rekindling her love for performing and reassuring her that this was the right path for her, bringing balance and joy to her life.

The supportive community based on shared fundamentals has been inspiring to another long-time member of Rise Collective: Haley Keizur.

A non-practicing theater kid at heart, Keizur was always attending the touring productions of shows near her and taking cross-country vacations to Broadway whenever she could.

Still, originally from the Pacific Northwest, Keizur knows that without the support of these women she never would have even dreamed of moving to New York City.

It was during a March 2020 trip to the city that had her unknowingly in the last ever audience for Tina Fey’s Mean Girls on Broadway that Keizur was able to see Turner make her Broadway debut as Karen Smith.

Tickled by her performance and heartbroken over the theater shutdowns, the two connected on Instagram and found comfort in their shared beliefs.

This newfound kinship had Keizur eager to get involved with Christian Girls for Christ (soon to be Rise Collective Women).

Keizur’s reliance on her faith and this community of women gave her the strength to push through a difficult year of mental health struggles and lost paths, and helped to break her open in order to find the right path.

She made the move to New York City in the summer of 2021, making it to the city just as Rise Collective Women began to hold in-person meetings, offering her company as soon as she arrived.

“A lot of people say that the hardest part about moving to New York— especially moving after college— the hardest thing is making friends and I don't feel like that was ever an issue for me,” Keizur says, “I knew so many people going in and every Tuesday I would show up to Laura Leigh’s apartment and there would be new friends.”

Because faith is such an important part of Keizur’s life, she felt especially supported as these women knew how to help and encourage her through prayer and language that is so impactful to her, but it went beyond a shared love of God.

It was immediately clear that Turner’s involvement in Rise Collective Women attracted a like-minded group of people that have so many interests and personal goals in common, Broadway being a huge, overlapping dream.

This was a most inspiring environment for Keizur who graduated with a journalism degree from the University of San Francisco and has pivoted, now working in social media marketing.

She aspires of becoming a graphic designer for Broadway productions, whether that be designing merchandise, theater marquees, or creating content for production-specific social channels. Additionally, Keizur runs a blog titled Sunlight and Honey which features her digital artwork, selling merchandise of some of her most popular pieces.

“Having people that understand creative professions, people understand finding a job that you love over money and having to move across the country to be in this artistic space…” she starts, “they’re encouraging of having a small business, of putting your work out there, and of sharing your talent.”

A fellow artist who joined Keizur in making it to in-person study groups for Rise Collective Women was Macey Buckman, an Institute for American Musical Theater student and follower in Christ.

Buckman has felt the call of the stage since she was in the fifth grade, always feeling her best when singing and dancing on stage.

And though she grew up attending church with her family, it wasn’t until middle school that Buckman felt compelled to attend for herself and began building her own relationship with God.

Buckman believes that she is able to better herself as a performer due to her strength in faith. In fostering that connection she was able to relinquish herself as a performer to Him. Able to focus solely on her craft, Buckman knows that she will succeed.

“I am the daughter of God and He has a plan for me,” she says.

When Buckman planned her move to New York, she ensured a faith-based community when she joined Rise Collective Women in June of 2021, a decision she is grateful to have made.

“This is the best group of women because they love and encourage me. They pray on me and pour out their cup on me,” Buckman says. “[Rise Collective Women] creates a beautiful environment to not only grow spiritually together in the word but also together as performers, as sisters in the world.”

As the youngest member of Rise Collective Women Ryann Katherine Perkins has loved having this group of big sisters to help guide her in faith and in life.

Growing up in a strong Christian household, Perkins was always connected to the church, but it wasn’t until attending a private school where she was able to take classes on theology did she feel like a true believer.

This high school also offered students the chance to study theater through classes like comedic acting and stage combat, a perfect opportunity for Perkins, who had known she was meant to be an actress at age eight when she was cast in her first-ever musical. (Alice in Wonderland. Merigold flower.)

Perkins began working professionally in the Temple Theatre, a regional theater house in her hometown of Sanford, North Carolina at age eleven in a production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, but she still had a difficult time convincing her parents this was the right path for her.

During her high school career, Perkins was studying her craft and participated in two-to-three productions each year as well as playing soccer to fulfill a participation requirement set by her sport-enthusiast parents.

To ensure them that this career she was choosing was not just an extracurricular, but had substance, she turned to a language both parties most believed in: The Bible.

The Parable of Talents is a story in which three men are given talents (coins) according to their abilities. The first two men took their talents and shared them with the Kingdom, helping others and gaining even more talents in the process. The last man buried his talent out of fear of losing it. God praised the first two men but took the talents away from the third, teaching not to live in fear but to take risks to share the talents God gifts to his children.

Perkins relies on this story to not only defend her affinity to perform to her parents but also to herself when the journey feels impossible.

“I applied this scripture to what I believe is my God-given talent. Being able to sing and act and having a passion for being on stage,” she says, “I perform as a way to share the gifts that I have been given and to be the communicator of a story that will hopefully bring compassion and make the audience feel good.”

With Broadway as her end goal, Perkins was eager to move to New York in the summer of 2021 and study musical theater at the Manhattan School of Music (MSM). And, having joined the community a few months prior, to continue working on her faith with the Rise Collective Women.

Unfortunately, the environment being fostered at MSM was not a healthy one and Perkins found herself feeling stuck. Disconnected from the passion which brought her to the city and seemingly unable to break out of destructive habits, she turned to the Rise Collective girls to help her through.

“My last month at MSM I was so sick, just neglecting my body and feeling super isolated and sad,” Perkins says, “but every week I could look forward to attending Bible study, seeing my friends, and just being covered in prayer by them… it was solely this community that was able to pull me through.”

Beyond keeping her grounded in her faith, the weekly meetings provided Perkins with a safe space to share these low points. Instead of judgment, she was showered with grace and guidance from members who have been in her position and came out of that darkness.

They lifted her up and reminded Perkins of the good things that God had given her. They held her hands and prayed with her as she auditioned for new musical theater programs because they too knew her talent was meant to be shared. They supported her when it came time to find a new city to call home, knowing that God (and Instagram) would keep them in each others’ lives no matter what.

It was shown in that low moment that, above all else, the Rise Collective Women bible study community is one that leads with love and compassion for each other, for others, and for themselves. And regardless of beliefs, this is something we can all strive for.