Between packing, rehearsing, and opening her home to fellow cast members, Sarah Pelzer – Luiza from last season’s The Fantasticks – took the time to tell me a little bit about what she is up to these days.
Sarah is a local talent, and through her 24 years in Victoria she has worked with a number of local companies in a variety of capacities. In addition to her work with Kaleidoscope, Theatre Bombus, and Theatre SKAM, Sarah adds, “I’ve acted, done sound design, created/written work for Atomic Vaudeville and Snafu Dance Theatre, and sung with local bands. I sang backups for Hank and Lily and created a character and costume for that. I do a lot of music. I’ve always been a singer and have trained as a classical singer for many years.”
Sarah most recently put her years of vocal training to work for Pacific Opera Victoria’s production of Cosi Fan Tutti, which leads nicely into her next local production, Englebert Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel as part of Capital Festival Productions BC Days Celebrations (more information at http://www.capitalfestival.com/hansel-gretel). “It’s my first full opera production, and quite a demanding piece vocally and as an actor ( I play a little boy, but have to sing like a huge, mature woman.)”
Following that, Sarah will jet off to Toronto for the third production of local playwright and Blue Bridge artist Jacob Richmond’s smash hit musical, Ride the Cyclone, at the annual Summerworks Festival in August.
A musical timeline to be sure, and Sarah reflects fondly on her time last summer with Blue Bridge’s first musical offering The Fantasticks: “Doing a professional musical with Blue Bridge gave me the chance to test out what it’s like to perform musically on a big stage, a big scale, what it’s like to have to bring the energy to have to fill that huge space. Having the chance to see old hands like Wes Tritter and Fran Gebhard bring their chops to work in rehearsal, and then to the stage was invaluable. I got to see exactly what it’s like to have a technique that’s been honed over years, and how it can serve you and make communication on such a large scale more effective.”
Communication, Pelzer says, is key to performing great musical theatre. “The ability to communicate clearly and think dramatically is so important in classical song and opera because the scale and the emotion are so huge,” she says, “and you as a performer have to be able to do justice to the beautiful music and figure out what’s going on and communicate it sensitively to the audience. It’s just acting in a different language. But singing at the same time.”
Sarah continues to hone her skills through performance and education. After Ride the Cyclone, she will enter the Glenn Gould School to study singing.
Sarah understands the value of learning in every situation. She described her experience with Blue Bridge this way: “Working as a young actor with young actors is incredibly fun, but we’re fortunate to have Blue Bridge to show us what more experienced actors consider the standards of professionalism to be. That’s what the apprenticeship program really meant to me.”
Moving forward, Sarah has this advice for young actors, “Love acting, but never forget all the other interesting things you love that make you happy. Create your own work. We are going to be the keepers of art tomorrow.”
Sarah Pelzer will take her Victoria experience to Toronto for Summerworks in August and Glenn Gould in the Fall
Ride the Cyclone opens at Summerworks on August the 5th and features Blue Bridge Alumni Jacob Richmond & Britt Small (directors), Treena Stubel (choregraphy), Kelly Hudson (performer) and young artists Kholby Wardell, Elliott Loran, Rielle Braid, and Carey Wass (performers). More information can be found at http://www.summerworks.ca/2010/festival-theatre.php
