Base youth prepares for lead role in Navy, Air Force youth conference play

A local girl is walking “a pathway to my dream” as she prepares for the lead role in a play to be performed in front of 600 people.

Patricia Romero, the 14-year-old daughter of Cannon Air Force Base Forces Support Squadron Marketing Director Yolanda Romero, is portraying Robin Hood in the play by the same name at the Joint Air Force and Navy Youth Conference, for people who work with youth, in Dallas. The rehearsals began Monday, and the performance is scheduled for Thursday.

“Just the fact that I got chosen is really amazing,” said Patricia Romero, who wants to become a professional actress.

For the play, Yolanda Romero said, Missoula Children’s Theatre, which is based in Montana and produces plays with children around the world, hand-picked 16 youth who had worked with the organization in the past. Patricia Romero, who attends the Clovis High School Freshman Campus, has been performing with Missoula since fourth grade.

“There’s a lot of pressure going into this because of the fact there’s 600 people watching me, and I’m the main character, and the short time,” Patricia Romero said.

In preparation, she has been learning her lines and working with the director and other children. To learn all her lines in three days, the young actress said she takes it day by day, goes through the lines and practices.

Patricia Romero said she feels both confident and nervous as the night of the play approaches, but she expects the nervousness will disappear once she’s on stage.

Yolanda Romero said her daughter is usually quiet around new people, but on stage she becomes a different person and “reaches deep inside of her and brings out that character.”