Less than one year ago, Southwestern Michigan College student Dakota Doberstein was performing on-stage inside the school’s Lyons Theater, for a small audience of local parents, teachers and theater lovers.

Last week, the local student received the opportunity to stand on stage with a much larger group of patrons — inside the world renowned home of the New York Philharmonic, Avery Fisher Hall.

The Eau Claire native, along with six other of his classmates, were part of a chorus of over 200 singers across the country as part of Jason Robert Brown’s one-night only Broadway revival of “Parade,” which took place on Feb. 16.

SMC, which produced its own version of the musical last March, was one of several schools that had students were invited to take part in last week’s show.

“The night of the performance was absolutely incredible,” Doberstein said. “It was definitely the highlight of my life so far. I could never forget something like that.”

Doberstein, along with SMC Theater Director Paul Mow, shared the highlights of their recent trip to New York City with the members of the Dowagiac Rotary Club Thursday afternoon, during their weekly meeting inside the Elk’s Club. The pair was invited to talk to the club by SMC President and Rotarian David Mathews.

Doberstein, a self-confessed “small town guy,” and his classmates received first-class treatment during their visit to the Big Apple, staying at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Times Square. Before the big show on Monday, the students, led by Mow, received a heavy dose of culture, attending a production of “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” and seeing a performance at a nearby opera house.

The highlight of the trip, though, was being able to perform in front of an audience of over 2,500 people, Doberstein said. Despite the intense four-hour rehearsal, the opportunity to participate in a show filled with a cast of Broadway veterans, led by a Tony-award winning composer, made it worth the effort, Doberstein said.

“When Brown came out, everyone started clapping,” Doberstein said. “The sound that you got hit with was incredible. I could understand why people would want there now. The feeling of that applause was absolutely incredible.”

SMC was one of around a dozen schools that were invited to participate in the show, and the only one from Michigan, Mow said. Brown’s production company reached out the director last summer to see if his students would be interested in joining the chorus, following the composer’s trip to college during their Spring production of “Parade.”

“This isn’t just us taking our kids on a bus to see a show in Chicago,” Mow said.

For President Mathews, the trip was a demonstration of the doors that the college’s ever-increasing focus on student activities opens to local students, he said.

“You see that we have opportunity, after opportunity, after opportunity for our students to get involved outside of the classroom,” Mathews said.