A local performer’s star is rising as she faces down a busy summer.
Fort native Cassandra Star Armstrong is a well-known singer, dancer and actor across the Rainy River District, having participated in numerous shows, recitals, sporting events and more. Further afield, Armstrong has amassed millions of views on YouTube for an Easter-themed cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” with her older sister Callahan, and has received multiple invitations to major-league sporting events, singing national anthems for the NHL and NBA.
Driven to succeed and keeping an eye on dreams of performing on Broadway, Armstrong is set for a busy season that will see her release her first single, take part in a large-scale music festival and attend prestigious art programs in the United States.
“I’m so excited, I’ve been wanting to release this for so long,” Armstrong said of her first single.
“It’s called ‘Steal My Heart,’ it’s an original single and I love it so much, it’s upbeat, but it’s kind of got a Shania Twain vibe. It’s upbeat and sassy, and those are my favourite songs to sing.”
The single was released earlier this week on major platforms under Cassandra Star, and came to be thanks to notice from Jason Petrick, a musician based in Manitoba.
“I met him through his band Petrick in Winnipeg,” Armstrong said. “They’re great, they’re two brothers and a couple of friends. He heard me on the radio, and he reached out. I sang at the Burton Cummings Theatre with them, I’ve done a few things with them.”
Armstrong said that a friend of Petrick’s wrote the song, and when he presented it to her, she jumped at the chance to record it, citing the quality and content of the lyrics as the deciding factors.
With the song’s release, Armstrong said they plan to work on a music video at some point over the summer so that she can further promote the song. But to do that, she’ll have to work around her next big engagement, which is heading to Dauphin, Man., alongside her manager, to take part in one of Canada’s biggest music festivals.
“I’m singing at Country Fest on Sunday, June 28, so that will be a lot of fun,” Armstrong said. “That’s big for me. I’ve done some songs with Petrick, but that’s big. I love the recording, but my favourite part is performing. My manager from Petrick is going to be my guitarist.”
Armstrong will be taking to the stage for a 90-minute set on the Sunday of the festival, a part of the lineup that includes big-time artists such as Jelly Roll, Aaron Pritchett and Nate Smith, among many others.
Early July will mark an opportunity to head to Duluth to sing the anthem for the Minnesota Monsters, part of the Arena Football One (AF1) league, but she said that month is dominated by her return to an arts camp that has changed her life in more ways than one.
“My next thing is the Oklahoma camp, it’s going to be my third year, and it’s an insane process,” she said.
The camp, film and TV actress Kristen Chenoweth’s Broadway Bootcamp, is an intensive arts program that accepts students from around the world and requires an audition to enter, regardless of how many times a student may have been accepted in the past. For Armstrong, this meant another round of nearly a dozen different audition videos recorded and submitted for consideration, a task she took on with a sense of creativity.
“They give you the same dance combo, and the last two years I went, they really idolized my dancing the last two times I was there,” she said.
“So, for this year’s video, I put on an inflatable ballet sumo wrestler costume, and I got in. It’s hard to try and venture out when it comes to the Broadway songs, because there’s a group of songs I always go back to.”
The Broadway Bootcamp is emblematic of Armstrong’s goal of one day walking the boards on New York’s famous theatre strip, and she said getting to go to the camp has not only given her insight into that life, but also allowed her to connect to a group of people who share the same passion and dream, something that isn’t always readily available in a small town.
“I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t make it back in,” she said.
“It was so eye-opening for me, because there’s really no one here that wants to do what I do, maybe one or two, but it’s not what their passion is, and I’ve always wanted to do Broadway for a job, but I never really saw it as realistic, because it’s not common, but then I go to this camp and there are 50 other kids that want the same thing as me. I felt so at home. I feel like I’m my happiest when I’m there.”
Finally, and by no means the least on an already busy list of things to be done this summer, Armstrong will be heading straight from Oklahoma after the Broadway Bootcamp to Los Angeles for another intensive program, this time focused almost exclusively on dance, something she found out about thanks to Broadway camp friends.
“It’s the biggest dance camp in the United States,” Armstrong said. “I’m so excited because most of the opportunities I get are singing-based, so it’s pretty cool to have one that has nothing to do with my singing, just dance.”
The dance camp will be a week-long affair that will see participants take part in dance and choreography lessons with some of the leading industry professionals, including those who have worked with performing artists such as Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Beyoncé, and more. It will also give them a chance to branch out into different types of dance they may not have as much familiarity with, or access to, in their smaller home bases. The camp will also culminate with the filming of a music video, another valuable item to have in the back pocket when it comes to auditioning for professional productions.
The list Armstrong shares is likely to be incomplete. The performer says she enjoys keeping busy and performing, so it’s likely she will find more opportunities around her larger commitments to do what she loves, and she said it’s all leading to that same dream of being on Broadway.
While Armstrong will be heading into Grade 11 in the next school year, she said she’s already set her sights on attending a Musical Theatre program at the University of Michigan, one of the premier programs for the profession in the country.
After that, the sky is the limit, and Armstrong certainly has the resolve to reach that sky.
You can follow along with Armstrong’s busy itinerary at her social media pages, Cassandra Star. Her debut single, “Steal My Heart,” is available to stream now.
