tread the boards
To be a stage actor; to act in a stage play. I've been treading the boards for nearly 30 years, and while I haven't grown rich from it, I've always loved it. He always yearned to tread the boards on Broadway.
tread the boards
Act on the stage, as in Her main ambition was to tread the boards in a big city. This idiom uses boards in the sense of "a theatrical stage," a usage dating from the mid-1700s. It dates from the mid-1800s but was preceded by the idiom tread the stage, first recorded in 1691.
tread (or walk) the boards
appear on stage as an actor. informalˌtread the ˈboards
(humorous) be an actor: He has recently been treading the boards in a new play at the National.The boards refers to the stage of a theatre.
tread the boards
To act on the stage: "We who tread the boards are not the only players of parts in this world" (John Fowles).