Having gained experience in performance-as-ministry, our gifted YSPers take their skills out into the world after high school, a ripple effect we pray has a positive impact on everyone they meet. Many go on to hobbies or careers in performance and creative arts…like Lindsey Trout Hughes.

She’s been on our mind recently, having just grown her personal portfolio from actress, playwright, wife, and mother of a boy, to include mother of a girl! We caught up with her and got a peek into where God and her God-given talents have taken her.

“After my final Youth Sing Praise summer, I went on to pursue degrees in theater, communication, and creative writing from Saint Louis University. I then received my Masters of Fine Arts in acting from The New School.

Now, I’m a stage and film actor and a proud member of Actors Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild. I live in New York City with my husband and our four-year-old son, August, and newborn daughter, Rose. I’m a co-founder of Bonneville Theater Company, a performance ensemble based in Red Hook, Brooklyn. In our recent production of Hamlet in the West Village, I played Ophelia.

I’m also a writer. My play, Chop Your Own Wood, was chosen as one of the best new scripts to emerge from the 2015 New York International Fringe Festival and was published by Indie Theater Now. Upcoming are a new play, Sunshineland, and my first book!

There’s much I appreciate about Youth Sing Praise, but I am most grateful that it introduced me to Jessica (Simendinger) Cohen. Jessica and I were in productions of David: Champion of Israel and Godspell together. We went our separate ways for college and had no contact until we found ourselves in the same room again on the first day of graduate school. I count myself tremendously lucky to have acted in Jessica’s plays all through graduate school. She is now among my closest friends — and she’s also the first reader I have for most of my written work.

I gave the address on behalf of the actors at our MFA graduation ceremony. Jessica spoke on behalf of the playwrights. My speech started like this, ‘When I was a teenager, I spent summers in Belleville, Illinois at Catholic Musical Theatre Camp. There, I met a girl named Jessica. We spent hot days on outdoor stages learning choreography to really good songs about the Old Testament. I spent those nights dreaming about New York City and building a life dedicated to storytelling. A decade later, Jessica and I spotted each other across the theatre on our first day of orientation at The New School for Drama. I remember in that moment, realizing that all that the younger version of myself dreamt about had become reality.’

Thanks, YSP!”

The YSP family sends its thanks and sincere congratulations to Lindsey and her growing family!