Submitted photo Alex Pepper, 22, has joined the cast of Broadway's "South Pacific" and will spend the next year touring the country with the show. Pepper is a 2007 graduate of Middletown High School.

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Alex Pepper is about to spend the next year of his life singing, dancing and living on a tour bus. But he’s not part of the next big rock band — he’s touring with a Broadway show.

Though he just graduated from Elon University in May, Pepper, 22, a 2007 graduate of Middletown High School, will be the assistant dance captain, a swing, meaning he can step in for any member of the ensemble cast, and the understudy for the role of Professor on the traveling production of “South Pacific” for the next year. The tour makes 41 stops across the country, which Pepper said would be a completely new experience for him.

“It’s kind of the unknown,” he said. “I’ve never gone on tour for a year. This is what every musical theater kid dreams of — touring and being with a show. The experiences I’m sure will be incredible.”

Pepper said he auditioned for the part in April, and found out he would be part of the traveling company less than a week after he auditioned. He auditioned while still a student and called getting the part fresh out of college “incredible.”

“I flew up [Wednesday], did the audition, flew back Friday night,” he said. “I heard Tuesday that they were going to offer me a position. …I just feel so lucky and just, I’m just shocked still. Just getting out of school and going right into a contract is pretty incredible. I realize how rare it is — a lot of my friends are unemployed right now, and they did a more secure major.”

Though he’s headed out on a national tour, he praised his time spent at Frederick’s Way Off Broadway theater. Pepper said the company was his first professional acting experience, and said the experience helped him learn both as an actor and the business side of theater.

“They give really great acting advice and dance advice,” he said. “It’s so awesome to work with such a well-rounded staff. There’s no weak links over there. I feel like it helped me treating it both as what you love and as a business and a job.”

Justin Kiska, the president and managing director of the Way Off Broadway dinner theater, said Pepper kept things light around the theater with practical jokes.

“He’s one of the biggest practical jokers there is,” he said, laughing. “He has fun with what he does; he’s able to have a good time with the cast, but at the same point he’s one of the most professional people I’ve ever worked with. He knows when to get serious. He’s absolutely wonderful to have around, but you always have to be on your guard. …I actually wrote it into a murder mystery we did here, where his character’s murder motivation was a prank gone wrong.”

Pepper said his favorite prank at Way Off Broadway came as an escalating war with Deb Kiska, the chief financial officer of the theater.

“It’s all kind of situational,” he said, laughing. “One of the owners, Deb, Deb Kiska, would get mad when people would leave pens in the aprons. She was yelling at everyone about that, so I got about 200 pens and stuffed all the aprons. When she found out, she sewed a lacy thong into my jeans. During [a show, when Pepper was changing costumes] I had to cut out the thong and get out there quickly. You don’t mess with Deb.”

Kiska said Pepper’s success was “wonderful” to see.

“It’s nice to see that somebody who started here is able to go on and a further their dreams, but it also goes to show the caliber of talent that Way Off Broadway brings in,” he said. “The theater did start out 20 years ago as a small theater, but we get people from all over the place. Now it’s not just our people going on but New York people coming in.”

“South Pacific” will be at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore from Oct. 4 through 9. For more information about the musical tour, visit www.southpacificontour.com.

tlaino@gazette.net