Ken Romero makes deeply personal connections with every performer he works with, and directly with audience members when he is onstage himself. Emma Burt, one of Romero’s former students, says, “Something I always noticed about Kenny is that he loves making people feel a part of his world. This is always fun, since his world consists of musical numbers, years of experience, and a lexicon of musical knowledge.”
Romero’s joy in the performing arts was born on the Vineyard: “I got bitten by the music bug at a very young age. My grandmother and grandfather used to dance around the kitchen. Music was always around. But I was the only one who decided it was more to me than the rest of the family.”
An important early influence was at the Tisbury School: “Dorothy Bangs was my music teacher, and really got the bug in me for singing. When I was in seventh grade, we did ‘My Fair Lady,’ and I thought doing a musical was just so exciting.” Romero participated in Island Theater Workshop’s (ITW) children’s theater with Lee Fierro for many summers, eventually becoming a junior counselor. In high school, music teacher Bob Nute nurtured his talent in singing and dancing. Romero says, “I was part of the Minnesingers, but in that first year, I was just an apprentice, doing lights and other backup tasks. At the time, they didn’t allow freshmen, but I guess Mr. Nute saw something in me and pulled me in.” Romero performed with the group from his sophomore year on, traveling to Germany during his senior year: “That was my first time out of the country, which was very exciting.”
Having earned a music scholarship to Westfield State, which emphasizes classical music, Romero realized his true tribe was the musical theater crowd, and began doing summer stock. After college, he performed on the Holland America Cruise Line, then got a three-year stint in a German production of “Starlight Express,” which required him to both perform on roller skates and learn the show phonetically, since it was in German. “The connection of being in Germany in high school and going back and living there was wonderful,” Romero recalls.
He returned to the States and, while performing in a Las Vegas production of “Starlight Express,” gained his first experience teaching youth. The Las Vegas High School Academy of Performing Arts hired him to choreograph a production of “Fame,” and it turned out he was a natural: “I didn’t have any experience working with kids, but my best friend owns a dance studio. I have been going to their recitals and studios for years. I feel like I’ve been trained without being [formally] trained. I really learned by watching what they did.”
Romero returned to the Holland America Cruise Line for a decade. “Cruise ship entertainment is fast and furious, like a theme park on the ocean. You did an 8 pm and 10 o’clock seating. In a seven-day cruise, you did three different productions, and an opening- and closing-night show.” But Romero loved the life: “Performing on a ship is so gratifying, because you get to mingle and have dinner with your audience. You become human to them.”
When the economy tanked in 2008, so did the work, and Romero came to take care of his grandmother on the Vineyard. He says, “My intention was to move to New York. But the universe had a different plan. I stayed here, and resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to be in the performing arts anymore.”
As it turned out, that couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Romero was one of the original members of the Wicked Good Musical Revue at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse. The Revue’s creator, Molly Conole, says, “That first season, we did six completely different shows, about four to six weeks apart. It was hugely ambitious, exhausting, but fun, and Kenny always showed up prepared. He was also great fun to work with as a choreographer, coming up with movement ideas that were easily adaptable to the range of abilities in our cast. We encouraged him to show off his dancing skills in our shows, so a tap number became a staple.”
Conole speaks about his generosity as a performer: “He is such a giving performer onstage, right there in the moment. When I sing duets with Kenny, our voices become one, feeling the phrasing and emotion in total sync. We joked, the last time we sang together, that we were so in sync that we were running out of breath on the same phrases.”
Romero is involved in the First Congregational Church’s Bell Choir and Quartet, recently appeared in Circuit Arts’ “Christmas Carol,” and choreographs for and sometimes performs with Island Theatre Workshop. Leandra Seward recalls choreographing an ITW production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” with Romero in the lead: “Ken absolutely knocked it out of the park. It was the first show I choreographed for ITW on my own, and, as the experienced professional he is, Ken was incredibly supportive and encouraging of my vision. One of my favorite memories was during a dress rehearsal, when I was marking the opening number, and Ken came out from backstage and danced alongside me. He knew all the choreography for numbers he wasn’t in.”
Romero’s impact on Island youth can’t be overestimated. For the past 11 years, he has been choreographing the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School musicals and the Minnesingers. Senior Luiz Lacerda first worked with Romero as a freshman in the Minnesingers: “I started not being able to dance at all, and now I’m a dance captain. I just love how he pushes us to be better. He doesn’t give us the easiest choreography, but tries to challenge us. That’s why I was able to get better throughout the years.”
Romero’s ability to connect with every youth comes through again and again. Senior Georgia DeRoche says, “He’s just always there for me. Kenny’s been helping me with some personal things lately. I can always come talk to him.” Brian Weiland, who works with Romero when he directs and choreographs at the Oak Bluffs School, says, “When I watch him interact with all of these students, it really is clear to me that he cares just as deeply about the youngest students with the smallest roles as he does about the oldest students with the largest roles, and everyone in between.” And for Weiland, the impact is personal: “Both of my sons were members of the Minnesingers, and thus they worked extensively with Ken, who went above and beyond to teach them as much as he could, including giving them challenging individual parts and leadership roles which he then worked hard to help them succeed at. And when each of my boys graduated from MVRHS, Ken was among the proudest and most supportive voices encouraging them to continue to be creative, artistic people even after they had graduated, whatever that meant to them. Without a doubt, both of my boys’ lives are better and more creative and more successful for having had Ken as a teacher and mentor.”
Romero’s mentorship has extended some of his students’ experiences beyond high school productions. Burt, now a sophomore at Smith College, says, “Back in 2023, Kenny invited me and my good friend Aiden Weiland to participate in the Playhouse’s Wicked Good Musical Revue. It was fun to learn from him outside the high school, and performing in that show is, to this day, some of the most fun I’ve had on the stage. Talking to my dad after the show, he told me that my grandmother had whispered in reaction to Kenny’s introduction of us, ‘But Emma can’t tap-dance,’ only for us to spring into the number. And it’s true, I couldn’t tap-dance before Kenny’s guidance.”
Romero says, “The question I get all the time is, ‘How did you do that with them?’ Well, you have to give kids a chance. They don’t know what they can do.” When the youth doubt themselves, Romero says, “I tell them, ‘How about you let me decide what you can do instead of limiting yourself?’ It’s always a big plus to watch these kids grow.”
Asked what fuels his enthusiasm, Romero replies, “It’s to be able to give back to the kids. They really want it. Some kids need that connection, and to be able to reach them and give them a space to be their true selves, and to find a tribe, as I did in the theater in high school — it’s a full-circle moment. Starting here, being inspired by music on the Vineyard, then being able to transition into it as a career for so long, and then to come back to the Island and give back to what was given to me.”
