For some performers, Lakes Region became a haven from COVID

LAKES REGION — It’s not unusual for kids who grow up in small towns to chase their dreams in a big city. What is unusual, though, is when those kids decide to retreat from the big city to the small town – and bring their dreams with them.

Kaleigh Cronin grew up in Manchester, but soon found herself on Broadway, where she found roles in “A Bronx Tale” and “Cabaret,” and was part of the touring cast for “Jersey Boys.” She was preparing to perform as part of the ensemble for “Mrs. Doubtfire” when the stage lights went dark due to the pandemic.

Cronin, along with her husband and their dog, decided to drive up to stay with her parents at their lakeside condo in Gilford. The plan was for them to visit for about a month. That was a year and a half ago.

Cronin had been a lifelong visitor to Winnipesaukee. Her parents had a place in Samoset, also in Gilford, when she was a girl. She has many fond memories of summer visits to the lake, and briefer winter trips to go skiing at Gunstock. This was the first time, though, that she had seen the region through a resident’s eyes.

“In my mind, there is no place better. I absolutely love it here,” she said.

Without a stage to perform on, she decided it was the perfect time for her to explore another career, one that had been in the back of her mind since she was a girl and tagged along with her father, an attorney who specialized in real estate. She found an online course and earned her license to sell real estate.

“My entire life was performing,” she said about the sudden shutdown of theaters. “It was a shift, but a welcome one to explore my other passions.”

Cronin said her time in New Hampshire has been “fulfilling, I really enjoy it.”

In addition to her real estate career, she has earned her safe boater’s certification and become one of Winnipesaukee’s many new boaters, has explored the bars and restaurants around the lake, and has been particularly surprised by the winter activities beyond skiing, such as the Pond Hockey Classic in Meredith and the Alton Bay Ice Runway.

Her husband, John, has also found a new role in New Hampshire. They met during a theatrical production, as he was a musician performing the score, while she was on stage singing. In their new life, he is a self-taught videographer and producer who helps her create videos to market properties.

“We work as a team, and we work really well together,” Cronin said. “It was a natural transition for us.”

Yet, Cronin hasn’t also completely forgotten about her first passion. Now that she has her feet underneath her as a real estate professional, she is starting to think about some of the Lakes Region stages that put on the same shows she auditioned for on Broadway.

“It’s time to merge what I love with living in New Hampshire,” she said.

The move out of the city was something they were thinking about for a while, Cronin said, as they were looking for someplace to start a family. “The pandemic pushed us more quickly down this path.” She has been surprised by how much there is to do and see in the Lakes Region – even some of her favorites from New York City, such as a drag queen show.

“Truly, there’s something for everyone here, right down to a drag brunch,” she said.

The drag show must go on

Zach Berteletti, who grew up in New Jersey and was bit early on by the dream of being a performer in New York City.

“I went to college in New York, after school I moved right to Manhattan, I’ve been there ever since,” until last summer, he said.

Berteletti found his audience as a drag performer, performing under the name “Carlos the Uber Driver.” Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, he was busy as a professional drag performer, producer and director, working drag cabarets at three bars that had regular drag shows. Then the pandemic hit.

“All of those places either closed down or went away. I was completely out of work, and I was too proud to take unemployment.” He left the city and moved back in with his parents, who had relocated to Gilford. They were glad to have him, and he found a job working at Patrick’s Pub.

Berteletti said he’s been taking advantage of what the Lakes Region offers.

“I’ve been really enjoying my time, it’s so much different than the city here. It’s so nice to be back in nature,” he said. “I’m a very active person, I like the outdoors, it’s so nice to breathe fresh air, the views of the lake are so pretty.”

Berteletti said he thinks he will return to New York when the conditions improve. While he’s here, though, he is continuing to do what he does best. He doesn’t just perform in the big city; he has often sold his show to vacation towns across the country, or has been called in to get new shows get established.

“It’s my mission to bring drag to places, and that’s what I do up here,” he said.

Berteletti found a partner with the Tower Hill Tavern, where he hosted a drag brunch on May 23. It was so successful that it turned into a series of drag shows, with the next one scheduled for Aug. 22.

“Drag is transformative. It opens people’s minds, it gets them to think a little more, and it’s fun and entertaining. I’m glad I’ve been able to do that here in the Lakes Region,” Berteletti said.

While the shows have been well-received, he has found it’s a different task to perform drag in the Lakes Region. In New York, he said, “Work advertises itself and asks people to come to it, out here you have to carve your own niche and say, ‘I’m here, come see me.’”

Social interactions are similar, he said. In New York City, he could drop in to one of his usual haunts and expect to see people he knows. “Here’s, it’s difficult. You go to work and come home, it does get a bit lonely,” unless he intentionally plans meetings with friends.

He also found that he has to dial back his personal style – well, when he’s not in drag, that is. Berteletti is gay, and in New York, he could present and carry himself however he wished. When he did that in Gilford, he said he attracted some strange looks. But he didn’t have to dial himself all the way down.

“I have found that the people here are very welcoming and friendly, and I have to say, it’s been so nice to see how accepting and open they are,” Berteletti said. “It was refreshing, I thought I would find a lot more the opposite.”

A couple of weeks ago, Frank Roche said, he was showing a property on Bear Island. “The gal shows up, she’s on a jetski,” said Roche, of Roche Realty. The client was an orthopedic surgeon with a successful practice in New York City who, in the midst of the pandemic, decided to sell the practice and buy a lake home, from which she could work for the FDA – and explore the lakes and mountains before and after work.

Accountants, stock brokers, graphic designers, writers, he said his agents have helped all sorts of professionals who have found that if they can work from anywhere, they want to work from here.

Roche said that anyone considering such a move should tread slowly. First of all, working from home might not be ideal for everyone. “I think you’ve got to be structured, organized, disciplined, for sure,” he said.

Optimistic types might focus too strongly on the benefits of moving to a more rural area, Roche added. Outdoor enthusiasts will be in heaven, but there are also downsides, such as not as many cultural offerings or restaurants. Different towns within the region all have their own sets of pluses and minuses, he added.

“My advice for people would be, rent for a couple of years and decide what you like and what the drawbacks are, not just the positives,” Roche said.

Yet, looking at the license plates on vehicles driving around the central and northern parts of the state, it’s clear to Roche that the pandemic inspired many people to make a big life change.

“With the COVID thing, the biggest word is catalyst. It’s forcing people to make decisions and try something new,” Roche said.