We didn’t have movies in this little mining town. When I was 12 my mom took me to New York and I saw Bye Bye Birdie, with people singing and dancing, and that was it.

Kidder recalls a formative moment when exposure to live musical theatre—after growing up in a remote mining town with little access to films—sparked her desire for performance. The contrast she draws between cultural scarcity and the sensory abundance of Broadway (singing, dancing, spectacle) frames the experience as a personal “origin story”: one encounter with professional theatre crystallized an ambition that might otherwise have remained dormant. The quote also gestures toward the mid‑century power of touring and Broadway hits like Bye Bye Birdie to shape young audiences’ imaginations, suggesting how a single, vivid cultural event can redirect a life’s trajectory.