All it took was one campus visit for Zach Sullivan to know Viterbo University was the school for him.

“I had an overwhelming sense of connection and of being at home,” said Sullivan, a senior music theatre major from Excelsior, Minn. “And it seemed the theatre faculty really wanted me to come here.”

Four years later, Sullivan has been cast in the lead role in Footloose, and in Carrie: The Musical, Significant Other, Hello Girls, and Tar Beach.

“I’ve been very lucky to have many opportunities to perform,” he said. “The faculty really have helped me make progress as a performer each time.”

Sullivan also landed the title role in this month’s Conservatory for the Performing Arts production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He credits his experience in the play Tar Beach for helping him develop the necessary acting skills needed to play Sweeney Todd.

“I really gave portraying a psycho my all and I guess it stuck,” he joked in the week leading up to the production. “It’s Stephen Sondheim, so the music is difficult, but we’re getting ready and making exponential progress each day. The stage is beautiful, and the cast is getting more and more confident.”

Off the stage, Sullivan works at Viterbo’s Amie L. Mathy Center for Recreation and Education and spends a lot of time in the practice room. He enjoys hanging out with his friends, attending other Viterbo productions, and downtown La Crosse.

His performance in Sweeney Todd will be Sullivan’s last before graduating in May. He will spend the spring semester finishing his degree requirements and submitting audition materials.

“I’m keeping my options open,” he said of his post-graduation employment plans. “I would like to be part of national touring production of some sort. Maybe I’ll be part of a Broadway show one day. I’ll be happy with whatever I’m given.”