CITY OF NEWBURGH – Lexi Lawson, the Newburgh Free Academy graduate now singing and acting on Broadway as one of the stars in the award-winning “Hamilton,” had the day off from a grueling eight-show-a-week schedule but still found herself onstage Monday.

She sat alone on the stage inside NFA’s black-box theater. And her role was inspiring the high school students who walk the same hallways Lawson walked as an NFA student and who dream of being carried to similar heights by their talents.

“To me it was extraordinary,” said Sabelle Texeira, a sophomore theater student. “I just never thought somebody from Newburgh would actually make it big. … But when I look at that, I see that I can make it. I can be part of something.”

For roughly an hour and a half, Lawson answered questions from excited NFA students during an appearance at the high school’s main campus.

Some wanted to know how she prepared for each show, others about attracting agents. Her most important answers were about surviving naysayers and the rejection that is an inevitable part of auditioning.

“People say these things happen overnight; it doesn’t,” said Lawson, a 2002 NFA graduate. “It’s hard work, time, tears and joy.”

It was just last year that Lawson took over the role of Alexander Hamilton’s wife, “Eliza,” in “Hamilton,” the hit musical whose list of awards includes 11 Tonys and a Pulitzer Prize.

Mandy Clifford, an NFA dance teacher who directs the school’s musicals, taught Lawson before she graduated and achieved stardom. One goal of Lawson's appearance was to inspire students who doubted they could reach Broadway, Clifford said.

“I think it’s the affirmation that it could happen to them,” she said. “Hope is a powerful thing.”

Brianna Bene-Espinal, a senior who just finished starring in NFA's production of “Grease," is primarily a singer but also acts and dances. Already she is traveling to New York City once every two months or so for open calls, where actors, dancers and singers perform before agents and managers.

Espinal, who plans to move to NYC full-time to pursue a theater career after graduation, was especially moved by Lawson’s advice about ignoring doubters.

“She’s given me such good advice, especially because I do have a lot of people in my life who tell me to stop – that’s crazy, go to school, go to college,” Espinal said. “But I know that this is the right path.”

lsparks@th-record.com