On the Road with Kerrie O’Donnell, Doctor of Physical Therapy ’17
This article was originally published in the Spring 2022 edition of the Chatham Recorder Alumni Magazine. To view the full magazine, click here.
Kerrie O’Donnell, Doctor of Physical Therapy ’17, didn’t set out to listen to the musical CATS 400 times, or Hamilton 200 times. But life can take surprising turns. And some of those turns land you as a traveling physical therapist working on cast members of musicals.
After attending Penn State University and majoring in accounting, O’Donnell worked for accounting firms for seven or eight years, including a stint in the Grand Cayman Islands. She was working in Philadelphia when she went to the Nutcracker with a friend who was in school for physical therapy (PT). “She was talking about her school, and that’s when it clicked,” says O’Donnell. “I spend all my spare time making exercise programs and I’m really into nutrition and wellness, but I couldn’t really find what I would do with that. When she was talking about PT, it just made perfect sense to me.”
O’Donnell started taking night classes to fulfill her science pre-requisites and scoping out potential PT schools. “I’m from Pittsburgh, so I knew of Chatham. I went to visit, and they had what looked like a great program and gorgeous facilities,” she says. “I heard about the emphasis on problem-based learning and wasn’t sure if it was for me, but I applied. I thought their interview and pre-entry program was the best I’ve ever seen. I got a really good feel from the faculty and everyone that I talked to. And it helped that it was two and a half years instead of three—that’s a plus when you’re on the second-career timeline!”
O’Donnell enrolled at Chatham and found problem-based learning to be a pleasant surprise. “It was great. It really makes you talk through your cases in small group settings, and working through that understanding is super helpful for PTs and the rehab sciences, because you get a lot more comfortable talking about issues, and learning how to communicate about them with patients or other colleagues.”
After graduation, O’Donnell looked for a position that would grant her some freedom. She started working for a travel PT company and took two contracts at skilled nursing facilities. “It was a very eye-opening experience,” she says. “I realized during the first one that I liked the traveling aspect of it, but that skilled nursing probably isn’t for me long-term.”
O’Donnell started looking for other things she could do. A friend from Chatham was working for a company called Neuro Tour, doing PT work for a company on Broadway, and told O’Donnell that with her love of travel and her performing arts background, she’d be a natural fit. “It didn’t take too long for me to send my resume and start connecting with them,” she says. “It took about six months between when I started to interview with them and getting a position offered. I started with them in August of 2018.”
O’Donnell’s first gig with Neuro Tour was a musical called Bat Out of Hell. “I was like, ‘What is that? I’ve never heard of that musical in my life!’” says O’Donnell. “But it’s a really fun show, and I went up to Toronto to meet up with them for their previews and tech rehearsals. They opened the show in Toronto with this big tour itinerary that was all set to go. We were supposed to load out of Toronto and there was a company meeting and they said ‘We’re sorry to inform you, the tour has been canceled’. I was new to the whole touring thing, so I was looking around like Is this normal at all?”
Still under contract with Neuro Tour, O’Donnell went back to their headquarters in Atlanta for a couple of weeks, and then was offered a tour with CATS. “I stayed with them until everything was shut down in March of 2020 because of COVID,” she says. “Then there was pandemic craziness and tour and show stuff was not going to get started anytime soon, so I came back to Pittsburgh and found some work at another PT company and covered some maternity leaves, and was like, well, is it time to take a full-time job? Then my boss from Neuro Tour called and was like, ‘We’re starting up again! Do you want to work on Hamilton, Wicked, or go back to CATS?’ And I felt ready to try something else. I got put on Hamilton in July of last year, and I’ve been with them since.”
Hamilton is scheduled to run through 2023, so O’Donnell could stay on that tour “if I’m happy with it, and they’re happy with me,” she laughs.
I asked O’Donnell how performing arts PT differs from other forms of PT. “It’s more of an acute focus,” she says. “I do a lot of pre-show preventative management, making sure that they’re in good shape to do eight shows per week. It’s a lot more education than a traditional heavy exercise-based outpatient PT environment. I watch a lot of young people who may not have problems now, but if mechanics aren’t the best, I can teach them how to prevent injury further on down the road.”
Drawing on whiteboards is one of the ways that O’Donnell livens up education. “That’s something I enjoy doing—providing education through whiteboard art! People love pictures and drawings, and I try to incorporate where we are on tour, like city-specific things, or different factors that might affect their performance in different cities, like heat, coldness, altitude. It’s become a weekly thing that I update.”
On a typical weekday, O’Donnell works from 5:30-10:30 p.m. That gives her the day to explore a new city, or watch a big rehearsal with new performers, but don’t be fooled: It’s a lot of work. On weekends, there are two shows per day, so O’Donnell is at the theater for most of the day. It’s an eight-show week in six days, with Mondays off, often used for traveling to the next city. “My schedule is that I have PT appointments two hours before the show, and then all during the show anyone can come to see me. If I don’t have appointments, I’ll be watching the show to track people and see how they’re doing or do quick little tape jobs or find some way to help them out. If there’s anything emergent after the show, people can always see me then.”
Still, as much work as it is, O’Donnell finds her surroundings inspirational, both on and off the stage. “It’s like oh, Hamilton must be the dream, or the end goal for a lot of these performers, and not that it isn’t, but they also do their own personal projects outside the show. Like last night, one of the women that is a standby is doing her own music project, so she had rented out an open-mic night at a place, and we all went to see her perform. Even on the nights that we’re off, everyone will rally together and find fun things to do in the different cities. There are a lot of people who are up for adventure and ready to explore. The Hamilton tour has been a little different because of COVID safety and trying to stay in our little bubble, so we’re not doing quite as many company things outside of the show, but it’s a good group. We have lots of fun.”
O’Donnell credits Chatham with preparing her for tour life, citing problem-based learning, clinicals, and interprofessional education as being particularly helpful. “Getting used to talking to different people and being able to be autonomous but also interacting with all these other groups is a huge part of this tour life. Chatham prepares you to be a generalist PT, but they really covered a lot in our time there, preparing you to go into anything and specialize in whatever you want to pursue.”
As to what the future holds, O’Donnell says “I really love working with performing arts people so I’d like to continue to do that, either staying on tour or working in a clinic that stays in one place,” she says. Moulin Rouge is a show that holds particular allure, but she doesn’t need to be put on a tour in order to expand her exposure to musicals. “When I had some time off from Hamilton, I got to go cover my friend’s PT job on Wicked, so I got to see Wicked for a week,” she says. “It’s fun to see the little things that are different across shows. For example, there may be more vocal strain on Hamilton, but Wicked sees more weird neck injuries and things because there’s flying monkeys and they’re doing all this different choreography. The show that you’re on becomes endearing to you too, and Hamilton is just amazing. I’m very lucky to be able to hear it every day.”
And, she would say, lucky overall: “It is a job, and maybe I don’t always want to get there, but it’s so fun to go to work once you’re there,” O’Donnell says. “It’s different than any other PT job. It’s an experience that’s like nothing else and I’m very lucky to have it.”