Chapel Hill High School alumnus Bosie Holmes returned to North Carolina as part of the cast of Wicked and visited the school to reflect on his start in the performing arts and to inspire students to follow their ambitions.
Holmes is currently on the national tour of Wicked, a musical that debuted in 2003 and that serves a prequel to the famous The Wizard of Oz. The play is about Glinda, the good witch, and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and their unlikely friendship. Holmes plays Doctor Dillamond, an anthropomorphic goat that teaches and advocates for both humans and animals in the show.
Wicked ran from August 23 to September 17 at the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC), allowing Holmes, who graduated from Chapel Hill High School in 1996, to catch up with friends and family and visit his alma mater.
Holmes grew up in the inner-city of Baltimore, Maryland, before he moved to North Carolina with his mom and four sisters and enrolled at Chapel Hill High School, where he played on the football team.
Holmes, along with a friend, decided to audition for the school musical Purlie Victorious his junior year to earn the cultural arts credit he needed to graduate. Unexpectedly, Holmes’s audition was a success, and he ended up getting the lead role in the show.
Holmes proceeded to be a part of all the school’s plays and musicals for the remainder of high school under then drama teacher David Sorrells.
Holmes then represented North Carolina in the National Shakespeare Competition at the Lincoln Center and advanced to the national competition, performing a scene from the popular Shakesphere play Othello. He ended up winning a scholarship to study abroad at the Oxford School of Drama.
After his time at the Oxford School of Drama, Holmes found work doing “drama, theater, TV, film, [and] voiceover[s].” He has worked on a variety of TV and film work, such as Days of Our Lives, Grey’s Anatomy, and even ExxonMobil commercials.
He has also performed with Broadway touring companies in shows such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Once on This Island, and his personal favorite, The Lion King.
Holmes’s love for The Lion King started as a child, when his mother took him and his four sisters to see the Broadway production. He remembers watching the opening scene of the show and realizing that he was meant to perform. “Reaching that place [mentally] was a big deal,” he said, because it sparked his love for the performing arts.
Holmes even got to fulfill his dream of being in a production of The Lion King in Germany, playing the role of Mufasa. “I didn’t know a lick of German,” he admitted, “but we had a teacher that taught us [the language for] the show.”
Holmes said he was surprised when his manager told him he had been chosen to play Doctor Dillamond in Wicked. He recalls that he never saw “anyone of [his] kind” in this role, but he was excited to take this opportunity and challenge himself.
Holmes joined the touring cast in January of 2023 and will stay with the production until February of 2024.
Senior Julia DePinto went to see the show for her mom’s birthday. “I thought it was really good,” DePinto said. “It was my second time seeing it. I saw it on Broadway, but I was a lot younger so it was cool to actually be able to understand the story.”
Senior Addie Gilner saw Wicked the weekend of September 9 at DPAC. “My family and I went to see Wicked for the first time and were blown away by the way the actors brought this play to life,” she said.
Holmes, now based in Los Angeles, took the opportunity to visit Chapel Hill High School several times while Wicked was in Durham, and he spoke to students in the Advancement Via Individual Determination program (AVID), journalism, and theater classes to encourage students to pursue their passions.
“There’s greatness inside of each and every one of you,” he said, urging students to to “dream big.”
Holmes visited the school’s theater classes to share his experiences and insights on the performing arts.
“We had a great visit,” theare teacher Thomas Drago said, praising Holmes for the insightful acting techniques he gave to students.
Next year, after Holmes has concluded performing in Wicked, he will be starring in the film The Truth About the War in Heaven. Pre-production on the film has already begun. Holmes is also planning on writing some of his own material as well in the coming years.
