Entrepreneurial Spirit
Sarah Coleman turned graduation anxiety into goal-setting and career-making reality.
Photo by Ken Yotsukura
Entrepreneurial Spirit
Sarah Coleman turned graduation anxiety into a goal-setting and career-making reality
Shortly before graduating from BU in 2024, Sarah Coleman was getting nervous. In a few months, the acting major would step into her career in professional theater—a notoriously difficult industry to crack. And yet, she was determined not to let fear paralyze her.
“I’m really into manifesting, so I sat down one night with these feelings of anxiety and listed out things I wanted to see for myself, that I knew I could accomplish,” says Coleman (’24). “Booking a national tour was at the top.”
Achieving that goal took less than a year. After quickly landing roles in productions at the Forestburgh Playhouse in upstate New York (Rock of Ages, Escape to Margaritaville, Rocky Horror Picture Show) and New Jersey’s Axelrod Theatre (Fiddler on the Roof) in 2024, the New Jersey native spent much of 2025 on the road with the national tour of The Addams Family as the saloon girl and an understudy for Wednesday Addams.
In between near-nightly performances, Coleman finds time to run her photography business, which she started as a teenager, and post viral content for her 300,000 TikTok followers. Recent posts include dispatches from the Addams tour and updates on a family-owned Brooklyn brownstone she’s been restoring. Coleman says her primary motivation is to create an additional stream of income.
“I realized how profitable TikTok was and how I could monetize the thing that’s already so big in my life,” she says. “From there, I took brand deals, I make content, and I make money from that content.”
She adds that an actor’s social media feed has other benefits: it can serve as an extension of their personality, info that’s helpful for casting directors.
CFA asked Coleman about her entrepreneurial spirit, her experiences on the road, and her advice for any young Broadway hopeful.
You’ve got a lot of side hustles!
After I realized that [musical theater] was something I wanted to do, part of the whole stability thing for me was, how can I be a self-starter and make multiple streams of income so I don’t have to rely on theater. I was always told that you just don’t make money being an artist.
What’s your first tour been like?
It’s the hardest thing I’ve done in this industry so far. I’ve seen some cool places, but then I’ve also seen places in the middle of nowhere that no one would ever think to visit unless you’re going there for work. Being able to see those different ways of living and meeting all kinds of people has been very eye-opening and interesting. I’m seeing the whole country with the best people ever.
Dream role?
Katherine Howard in Six.
Advice for a theater kid who wants to be on Broadway?
Take the fear and turn it into fuel. With musical theater, it takes specific drive and motivation, because you are your own boss at the end of the day. You never stop honing your craft. It takes a lot of time, but as long as you’re interested and you keep going, that’s when you really blossom.
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