When she was a student at Seymour High School, Gina Morosey received a standing ovation while performing during a variety show. She went on to win that competition.

“It was so overwhelming. It was so emotional,” she said. “That’s when I knew I had something, I could do something with this.”

After recently trying out for the “Switzerland’s Got Talent” television show, the 24-year-old Seymour native again received a standing ovation. She’s hoping to win that competition, too.

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“It meant so much to me that my peers gave me a standing ovation,” she said. “These people, I didn’t know any of them, so I guess, in a weird way, that makes me more comfortable. It was these experienced judges who are famous in Switzerland all stood up for me, all passed me through without a question. That made me very emotional because I got this ovation from these professionals who know what they are doing.”

For that performance, Morosey was dressed as Elphaba from the Broadway musical “Wicked” and sang “No Good Deed.” She wore a witch’s hat and green skin paint and held a witch’s broom, and smoke from a fog machine hovered along the stage floor.

She’s now preparing for the live-show semifinals, in which she will portray a different character.

“I’m really nervous, but that’s just because it means so much to me, and I want to win,” she said. “I went there to win, and I hope I do win.”

This was Morosey’s second time trying out for the show. Last year, she auditioned as a country music singer.

“Switzerland’s not really ready for country music,” she said. “They don’t have a lot of country singers over there, so I knew I wanted to do the show this year, but I knew I had to do something different.”

She chose to sing again this year, but she went with a musical theater character because it allowed her to also act on stage.

“I also had to fight for respect because I was dressed as a witch, and people want to laugh, people wanted me to do spells, and I’m like, ‘No, I’m this character. This character means a lot to me because she has depth, and that’s why I chose this song,’” she said.

The show started with 47 competitors. Morosey sang in front of the judges and the show’s producers and passed both times.

The next step was to take the stage and sing for the judges again, and that’s when she received a standing ovation, landing her in the top 20.

That performance will air on television in February, and the live semifinals and finals will be in late February or early March.

“It was such a long shot, but my goals were always a long shot. You don’t get anywhere with these small goals,” Morosey said. “It has gotten me this far, so I trust myself a lot more now, and I know I want to do this.”

Morosey’s first taste of being on stage was during her eighth-grade year at Seymour Middle School when she played a part in the “Aladdin” musical. Then at Seymour High School, she participated in musicals and plays and joined a drama club.

She also auditioned for plays at the Jackson County Community Theatre in Brownstown. And when she was 16, she tried out for “American Idol,” the popular singing competition on television, when auditions were conducted in Louisville, Kentucky.

“That was still when I was a kid, and we waited for 10 hours in line,” she said. “It was intimidating. I was young. I was a little too youthful for them is what they told me, and that’s why I didn’t get any further.”

After graduating from Seymour High School in 2009, she headed to Ball State University in Muncie to double major in microbiology and musical theater. She learned that wasn’t for her and returned home to Seymour.

She later enrolled in classes at Ivy Tech Community College. But once again, she didn’t feel that route was for her.

In 2012, Morosey married Attila Tuezuen and moved to his home country, Switzerland. They first met in 2009 when Morosey was working at Long John Silver’s in Seymour and Tuezuen and a friend stopped in the restaurant while traveling across the country on vacation.

Morosey and Tuezuen struck up a conversation and kept in touch for the next few years until deciding to get married.

They settled in Oftringen, Switzerland, and began coordinating a pair of music festivals in the neighboring town of Aarburg.

The Route 66 Old Car Festival features rockabilly music and a car show, while Riverside Aarburg mainly features rock bands. The festivals are conducted on the same weekend and draw nearly 50 bands and more than 50,000 visitors from all over the world, Morosey said.

Her job consists of booking the bands and then working with them during the festival and maintaining backstage operations. She started with smaller local bands but now also is booking acts from the United States and other countries.

Morosey said she and her husband work year-round to prepare for the two festivals, and she also helps book bands for other festivals.

Earlier this year, the couple named their event management business Rock Special Productions.

“If you were to ask me 10 years ago where my life was going to go, I would not have expected this, me as an entrepreneur,” she said. “I had no idea I was even capable of that, but we started from little things and just grew. Now, we have a whole team working with us because we couldn’t just do it alone. We now have other family members involved because it got so big.”

Between helping run the business and performing on the television show, Morosey is getting her name out there.

She hopes that also helps with her biggest dream of becoming an author. She has four books — two fantasy adventure, a thriller and a drama romance — she hopes to get published.

Becoming a mother two years ago inspired her to pursue her dreams, she said.

“After having my son, I just got hit with all of this energy, and time was very important to me,” she said. “Time is very precious when you’re a mom because whatever time you have alone, you have to take advantage of it. I’ve really committed myself to these things, and that’s why I’ve gotten so far.”

While she is finding success in Switzerland, Morosey said she still keeps her hometown in mind. She tries to visit Seymour once or twice a year, and she and her husband are considering having a home in both Switzerland and Seymour.

“I love Seymour, and I miss it so much,” she said. “Coming back (to Seymour) always gives me so much energy. I loved going to school at the high school. I just think it’s a terrific school, and it gave me so many opportunities, and it has really helped me get this far.”

Morosey said she hopes her success story encourages others to pursue their dreams.

“I hope they get inspired,” she said. “I hope they don’t ever hold themselves back to spare other people’s feelings because that doesn’t help anybody. I hope they give everything their all, and I also hope they take from this that if you want something and you believe it’s possible, it can happen, and it will happen. You just have to work hard and go after it.”

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Name: Gina Morosey

Age: 24

Hometown: Seymour

Residence: Oftringen, Switzerland

Education: Seymour High School (2009)

Occupation: Operates an event management business, Rock Special Productions, with her husband

Family: Husband, Attila Tuezuen; one son

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