Sevryn Michael, a 27-year-old theatre arts major, stands center platform, shoulders lifted, breath controlled as the final note of “I’ll Cover You (Reprise)” hangs in the air at the Black Box Theatre long after the music stops in his portrayal of Tom Collins in the rock musical “RENT.”

The audience and cast silently join in the mourning of the character Angel’s death onstage in Cosumnes River College’s fall semester production. No one moves.

Then, from somewhere in the dark, a soft sniffle. And then another. For Michael, that is the moment that matters.

“Theater means everything,” Michael said. “It gives me a place that’s safe enough to be myself and be as creative as I want to be.”

Michael said theater is more than a hobby. He describes it as a place where he can “exist fully, creatively and honestly.”

“Onstage, real life quiets,” Michael said. “There is no room to dwell on outside stress when you are tracking and blocking choreography, entrances, costume changes and emotional beats. The precision demands presence.”

He said he has to completely immerse himself into the production.

“When I’m doing a show, I don’t have time to think about my day-to-day stressors,” Michael said. “You’re living in that world as that character.”

He said that immersion is what keeps him showing up, even when rehearsals are long and physically draining.

“What keeps me going is the chance to perform,” Michael said. “That’s why you do it.

Michael said rehearsal is where the real work happens. He said not every day feels triumphant.

“There are moments when the choreography doesn’t settle right or when a director’s note challenges a choice I fully believed in,” Michael said. “You open yourself up to a lot of critique — constructive criticism, but criticism nonetheless. Sometimes it’s hard.”

Theater professor and director Anthony D’Juan, who worked with Michael on “Fences” and “Water by the Spoonful,” said what stands out is how Michael processes those challenges.

“He sleeps on it and returns the next day with a clear sense of what to do,” D’Juan said. “The outcome is often visceral rather than cerebral.”

During rehearsals for “Water by the Spoonful,” D’Juan recalls a shift that came without fanfare.

“One day the character just snapped into place,” said D’Juan. “He made a seemingly bland character into a three-dimensional human.”

That ability to internalize and then transform is something Michael said he carried into “RENT.” Midway through the show’s run, life and art intersected in an unexpected way.

Michael’s grandfather passed away during rehearsals.

“I was able to visit him a few days before he died,” Michael said. “He was 92, in hospice at home, and even then, he was still the kindest, funniest man.”

A few days later, Michael returned to rehearsal, where he was asked to perform scenes that mirrored his own grief.

In “RENT,” Angel’s death is followed by a hospital-bed scene and then a funeral. The cast sings along with Michael’s character, Collins, and embraces him center stage for a moment of mourning and remembrance.

It’s then, under the spotlight in the otherwise dark theater, that Michael delivered the soulful “I’ll Cover You (Reprise).” For him, it was in those moments where separating character from reality became difficult.

“There’s a thing in acting called ‘sense memory.’ You’re supposed to remember how something felt—but not relive it” Michael said. “That was hard when the memory was something I was actively going through.”

Unlike Angel, Michael’s grandfather would not have a formal funeral. His grandmother wanted to remember him with happiness rather than sorrow. Michael said he struggled to respect his grandmother’s wishes, but needed another way to say goodbye. He said the stage became that space.

“Instead of running away from those emotions, theater gave me an outlet,” Michael said. “I was surrounded by my closest friends. They knew what I was going through, and they had my back.”

During performances, moments of grief onstage blurred into something real. When his character broke down, cast mates embraced him, not only as part of the scene, but as support.

“They were really hugging me,” said Michael.

Singing “I’ll Cover You (Reprise)” became a way for Michael to process loss and connect with his grandfather, he said.

“I felt grateful that I had that,” Michael said. “I don’t think people always realize how much of ourselves we bring into this work.”

He said that the balance of intensity onstage and camaraderie offstage is part of what makes theater sustainable for him. It’s that sense of belonging Michael now tries to pass on to younger performers.

Outside of CRC, he works as an after-school theatre instructor for NorCal Arts at Will C. Wood Middle School, where he introduces students to acting and performance. Michael says many of the students who find their way into theater feel like outsiders at first.

“I love bringing theater to young artists,” Michael said. “It becomes a safe space — kind of like a home for misfit toys like me.”

Teaching, he said, reminds him why theater mattered to him in the first place: giving people a place to express themselves without judgment.

Michael’s mom, Jennifer Lopez, said she recognized that expression and commitment early.

In sixth grade, he auditioned for his second musical with a professional adult company. He aimed for the lead role and nailed his audition song, “Say Goodbye” by Chris Brown. Although he impressed the directors, Lopez said he was ultimately cast in the ensemble due to his age.

“He has always known he belonged on stage in leading roles” she said.

Over time, she said she has watched theater shape not only his confidence, but his character.

“He has learned that vulnerability in life and on stage allows for healing and rejoicing,” she said.

From the director’s chair, D’Juan said that he would see that vulnerability translate into presence.

“He already has the makings of a professional actor and when Michael is in a scene, the audience’s response is unmistakable. They’re listening to him,” D’Juan said.

For Michael, that shared listening is what makes live theater irreplaceable.

“When you tell the joke and get the laugh, when you hit the big note and hear the applause or when you deliver an emotional scene and hear sniffles — that’s when you’re like, ‘yes!,’” he exclaimed. “You’re all experiencing it together.”

Michael’s current role is Santiago in “Anna in the Tropics” directed by theatre arts professor Ryan Perez Adame, playing now until March 14 in the Black Box Theatre.