Whiz Kid: Morgan Kirner

Patch Whiz Kid of the Week: Morgan Kirner           

Whiz Kid’s Age: 18

Whiz Kid’s Grade: Senior                       

Whiz Kid’s School:

Whiz Kid’s Accomplishment: Morgan Kirner is a professional actress who has starred in a Subway commercial and got her first paying theater job over the summer.

Whiz Kid’s Keys to Awesomeness:

It wasn’t a big role and it didn’t last long, but Absegami High School senior Morgan Kirner has appeared in a Subway commercial.

“I played a school girl, and I held up a sub and a drink,” Kirner said of her role. She didn’t get to eat the sub because it was fake.

Kirner was one of many who auditioned for the part, but was also one of many to appear in the commercial. As she put it, “every experience has to be a learning experience,” and she enjoys every one of them, but the commercial didn’t give her the opportunity to show off her true talent, which is singing.

“I was in the car with my mom and Madonna was on the radio. I was 5 and I started singing, and my mom thought ‘She’s on key, interesting,’” Kirner said. “Then I went to see a Footloose revival on Broadway. I came home and I memorized every word. I was at summer camp, and I was putting on a show. I sang ‘I Need a Hero’ from Footloose. They showed my mom, and I was embarrassed because I thought everyone was making fun of me, but they were saying I should get voice lessons.”

Kirner got those lessons, and has been in plays since she was in the fourth grade. Over the summer, she was in four plays with the Greater Ocean City Theater Company, where she was paid on a stipend.

Both the commercial and the plays are good experience for Kirner as she prepares to go to college next year to major in musical therapy. She isn’t sure where she will be going to college yet.

“I’m pleased there are programs out there,” Kirner said. “It’s pretty competitive, so I hope to end up somewhere.

“Doing this, you’re going to get rejected nine times out of 10 so you have to be able to learn. I’ve learned to be on set with different kinds of people. I can say I take direction well and I work well with other people, and that’s good because there are so many people and many different kinds of people in college.”

Kirner said she’s happiest when working on a show and working with other people. She’s also in the National Honor Society at school, as well as Class Council, Peer Mediation, choir, dance, the drama club the forensics team and the Tribe, a group at Absegami that inspires school spirit. She does a lot, but she knows where her focus is.

“It’s always been my dream to be on Broadway,” said Kirner, who said she’s starting to become more interested in film and TV. “(Film and TV) is a different thing. … If I have the opportunity to jump on it in the future, I will.”