Disco Balls and Bee Gees songs were the beginning of a dream come true for Heidi Suhr.

“Saturday Night Fever” is the first national tour and post-college job for Suhr, a Knoxville native. She says she has wanted to be onstage professionally since she was young.

“I was eight, and we saw ‘Anything Goes’ at the Civic Center; we had seats that were really close,” Suhr says. “I thought it was the coolest thing in the whole wide world, to act and sing every night and get paid to do it.”

Suhr, who graduated in May from Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., with a degree in musical theater, says she started dance lessons when she was four and performed in theater productions throughout elementary and high school. Suhr says she continued to pursue her love of the stage in college.

“Theater is just something I think is very important,” Suhr says. “It’s a beautiful, honest way of expressing yourself that people can relate to. Performing live night after night is a beautiful way of keeping people open to their emotions.”

Suhr says after graduation, she went to New York and auditioned for the part of Annette in “Saturday Night Fever.” She says she would have been happy with anything, but was particularly attracted to the role she got.

“I knew I’d be moving to New York at some point after graduation,” Suhr says. “I was hoping for something like this to build my resume.” Suhr says so far the tour has been a great learning experience in endurance.

“Performing in different venues every night, you have to monitor yourself and extend yourself in different ways,” Suhr says. “For every audience, it is their first time seeing the production, and it needs to be as fresh and new as the first time we performed it. They deserve that as audience members.”

Suhr says it’s the smaller towns, not the big cities, where she feels the cast has put on its best shows.

“Oddly enough, some of our greatest performances have been in smaller towns,” Suhr says. “The audience is just so excited to have us there because they don’t get shows like this very often. Especially in college towns, all of the theater students studying to do what I do — I love getting to talk to them.”

For the future, Suhr says there isn’t one certain role she wants to have because she is always falling in love with new shows. “I have a new favorite musical every week,” Suhr says. “What I strive for more than a particular show — because I have a new dream role every week — I want to challenge myself to never stop learning or stop growing.”

What: “Saturday Night Fever”

Where: Stephens Auditorium

When: 7:30 p.m., Friday

Cost: $16.50-$20.50 students, $31.50-$39.50 public