Junior Tristan Doud and senior Zakky Smith have been best friends for 11 years. This inseparable duo has navigated school, extracurricular activities and life since they became friends. Growing up as neighbors, they have created a strong bond over their personalities and similar interests, with one similar interest being live theater.

“I love performing! It’s such a rush to do and it never gets old,” explains Doud.

During high school, Smith’s first show was Into The Woods, while Doud’s was Les Misérables. The first show they did together was Les Misérables. Doud and Smith have been in shows together all throughout high school. After their first show, they continued to do theater because of the rush performing gives them and their love for the community. Although, they’ve still always had their dream to lead together.

“I think we’ve always wanted to do something like being leads together,” says Doud, “We always thought our chemistry would translate really well.”

When on stage, Doud and Smith take inspiration from each other’s individual qualities and recognize what they respect most about each other. 

“I admire his ability to bring creativeness to the table,” says Smith, “For example, in Newsies our personalities were perfect, but also contrast [one another].”

“I admire his ability to lead others and be inspiring because he’s a trendsetter,” Doud states.

This inspirational friendship has created such an iconic and well-known duo throughout the years for the CYPA community. While acting on stage, the two understand how their friendship affects their performances.

“A lot of the stuff we did on stage was really close and genuine, especially when we were acting as friends because we weren’t really acting, we were just being friends,” Doud explains, “So when he’s stupid, I just want to laugh at that.”

When Doud and Smith found out this year they were going to be leads together they were ecstatic. They were pumped to perform together, while also being extremely proud of each other.

“He always helped me to have fun with [the show] even when it got stressful. He can do that a lot,” explained Doud.

While neither is going to continue with theater as a career, they are grateful for being able to share a dream of performing together in high school.

 “No matter how far we are apart, I know we’ll always be best friends,” said Smith.