While Bob Martin gravitated to the theatre since he was a child, what’s surprising is that he found a knack for writing at that same young age.

“I think I wrote the Christmas play in Grade 1 in Canada. I played Santa Claus, a role that I created,” he joked in the video above.

Martin won a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical in 2003 for his Broadway debut The Drowsy Chaperone—he was also nominated for his performance in the show as Man in Chair. Now, the writer has racked up his third Tony nomination for his book for The Prom.

“Theatre is an escape, I think, but in the best sense because—we deal with this in the show—it allows you to escape from the mundane goings on of your everyday life into a heightened world that illuminates your life,” he says.

Since Martin does still act, we asked him what role he would want to play in The Prom if he could. Watch the video above for his answer!

Videography and video editing by Roberto Araujo.