10 years since MTV's 'Taking the Stage': Where are the stars now?

To us, it was just a TV show.

But to the young dancers, actors and singers at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, “Taking the Stage” was an epic whirlwind; 21 over-heated episodes packed with romance, cutthroat competition, sizzling performances, jealousy and more lovers’ triangles than a Shakespeare play. Oh, and every so often, there was a reference to the school’s academic life.

After two seasons of so-so ratings, the MTV reality series co-created by Nick Lachey aired its final episode. That was 10 years ago this week.

“It wasn’t a total surprise when the show was canceled,” says Carlton Totten, a member of the second-season cast who transferred from Dixie Heights High School to be a part of the series. “We knew the ratings were down, but still ... "

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Like most of the cast, Totten hoped the show would be a blockbuster and make him a star even before he moved to Los Angeles after graduating.

That didn’t happen.

“My first job when I got out here in 2011 was as a dancing mattress on the street,” says Totten. It’s been all uphill since then. He hasn’t had any major movie gigs, but he has worked. And that, by itself, is an accomplishment in the film and TV business.

Interestingly, Totten feels that his most productive time at SCPA came after the show went off the air. At the time, he still had another year of high school left.

“I was lucky,” he recalls. “One of the directors, Lucas Kenna Mertes, saw where my head was going with the show and ... it wasn’t good. ‘Narcissistic’ is too strong a word. But not much. He changed my life.”

The dreams of stardom weren’t gone. But by the time he got to L.A., he had a much more level head. He understood that professional acting gigs would have to be balanced with work as a waiter. Or as a DoorDash driver. Or any of the other “survival jobs” he has had along the way.

No megastars emerged from “Taking the Stage.” Not yet, anyway. Remember, most of those kids were just 17 when the show aired. Showbiz is fickle. They still have time. But several of the cast members have experienced success in their respective fields, especially Malik Kitchen, one of the five teens who highlighted in the first season. He was with "Company XIV," a Brooklyn-based group whose opulent shows are equal parts Broadway and glitzy burlesque. Then, it was back to the Midwest, where he opened the Chicago company of "Hamilton" in 2016.

Compared to some of her compatriots, Jasmine White-Killins – one of the original cast – took the straight and narrow path, majoring in dance at Southern Methodist University, then going on to become a member of Dallas Black Dance Theatre.

It wasn’t what she’d planned on, though.

“I just wanted to hit the ground running and audition everywhere and be in New York City,” she says. “You know – I wanted to live that artist’s life you always hear about. But my parents guided me in another direction. ‘We are a family that goes to college and gets degrees,’ is how they put it.”

She loved all the dancing in the show. It’s why she was at SCPA, after all. But the other stuff?

“All the relationship things on the show were ... " she pauses for a moment. It’s been a long time, but clearly, the non-dance drama still rattles her. “I remember thinking ‘Why did this have to be me? Why did I have to be the one in the love triangle?' It was all so embarrassing. We thought we knew everything. But we were so young.”

At the outset of the series, White-Killins was in a relationship with Tyler Nelson. But soon, Tyler started ignoring her in favor of singer/songwriter and co-star Mia Carruthers.

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Relationships are hard enough when you’re 16 or 17 years old. But the stress of having all the emotional bumps played out on national TV is unimaginable.

“It was mortifying,” says Carruthers, who still lives and performs in Cincinnati, but has also become a successful record producer and engineer. “It was like my senior picture was a TV show.”

But like the others, Carruthers says the show was a mixed blessing.

“I loved working on the show,” she says. “It was a total blast. And I learned so much that I have been able to incorporate into my career. But there was a lot of backlash, too. A lot of cyberbullying, horrible things that were said about my physical appearance and my singing voice. That left a lasting impact on me.”

She has found her way, though. As a female record producer, she is a rarity in the industry. And she continues to record her own music as part of a four-person electropop band called Passeport.

“It’s a little bit business as usual for us,” says Carruthers, explaining that much of their music is created remotely long before they move into a recording studio. “I’m just so grateful to have the balance I have today. I live in my dream neighborhood – Liberty Hill – with my partner and my two cats. I am living the life I want.”

So is Emily Silber, who left St. Ursula Academy after her junior year to join the show’s second season. But unlike many of the show’s other cast members, Silber is no longer committed to a life as a performer.

She moved to L.A. and, for several years, was a member of Entity Contemporary Dance, which specializes in an amalgam of modern, jazz and urban dance techniques. And then she stopped.

“I was burned out,” she says. “I’d been dancing since I was two-and-a-half years old. I still loved it. But I was tired and I wanted to try something else.”

She’d always had an interest in fashion. So she entered the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and within a few years was a working public relations professional. She’s done PR for celebrities and digital influencers, but has finally settled into working for a major – but unnamed – fashion brand.

“Unlike a lot of the others, I didn’t really have any expectation of what the show would do for me,” she says. ”I was a senior when I got there, so I just thought of it as a one-year thing. I’d get done with it and continue with my post-high-school life.”

And, for the most part, that is what Silber has done. For her, “Taking the Stage” is a fond, but long-ago memory.

“I know it was only 10 years ago,” she says, “but it feels like it was 25-30 years since it all happened. It’s more like a dream. A mostly pleasant dream.”

Perhaps it helps that she has moved away from show business.

“Overall, I think being able to do the show was an accomplishment in itself,” says Silber. “It was impressive. We were so young. And we didn’t really know as much as we thought we did. But I look at what we did and I’m proud of it. I hope all the others are, too.”

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