Unexpected Theater Roles Reverberate
Surprises resulted when Chris Webb and daughter Freya, 14, took roles in Orange County Short Play Festival.
Freya Webb, 14, arrived at her meeting with Paul Ellis, founder of the Orange County Short Play Festival, in black “Goth” garb, wearing boots, fishnet stockings and chains, Ellis recalled. “She was quiet.”
“She was reluctant,” said her father, Christopher Webb, who brought her. Their friend Beverly Braxton had urged her to try out after Ellis told her that a teen girl actor was needed for one of seven short plays about climate change in the festival, this year titled, “You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows.” From 220 submissions sent from around the world, seven plays had been chosen, and many of the actors were experienced, Ellis said, but a few others were needed.
“It wasn’t my thing. It wasn’t something I would ever do,” said Freya. “We went to talk to Paul. Then there was a surprise audition. I was handed a bunch of scripts. I had a panic attack. I was terrified.”
The only performing experience she had was playing the violin in concerts and Irish dancing, she said.
“She was terrible,” said Ellis. “She didn’t know why she was here. She was very shy. But I knew she could do it. I wanted to work with her.”
He also took her father by surprise, asking him to read for a part in “The Warehouse at the End of the World.”
“The villain locks him into a warehouse to steal food. The guy deludes himself that things are fine despite catastrophe,” Webb explained. “I’m the deluded guy. I goofed around and the director said, ‘You’re the guy. You’re Otto!’”
“I’m Otto,” Webb laughed, attributing the character fit to his own unflappably optimistic personality. “I got an email saying, ‘You’re in the play, and Freya’s in.’ But I’m not acting. I’m playing myself, aware of pending catastrophe. Despite temperatures in the hundreds, I’m optimistic and cheerful. The director calls me Otto.”
The climate theme was expressed in other plays in other ways, Webb said, whether with slam poetry or painting without paint.
“My play is a spinoff of ‘Our Town,’” Freya said of “Weather, Weather Wait Wait What.” “Emily and George are in an apocalypse. The planet is being ruined by a giant storm. My character is a normal teen girl in an apocalyptic situation.”
After several weeks of rehearsals twice a week, two to three hours each, Freya said, “I liked it a lot. I wouldn’t have done this on my own, but it was a good experience. I don’t think theater is my thing. Before this I thought it was goofy, but after being directed on how to do it, I understand how much work goes into it.”
Why did she do it?
“Dad didn’t want me sitting on the couch all summer,” she said.
Ellis identified a pivotal point for Freya in rehearsals.
“One day she said, ‘I like Em but not Emily.’ I realized she understood the roles. If she wanted to, she could go into the business. I would love to work with her again, but I don’t think she’ll do it. She’s an artist.”
Meanwhile, the experience generated other realizations for her father.
“Since covid, I realized I’d lived here for over a decade as part but not part of the community. I didn’t feel connected to the community. But I wanted to help and met people along the way. I realized the skills I have, and now making the skills available, reward by connecting. So I found myself part of a community theater group. I was reacting to coming out of isolation through volunteer work. I realized my isolation preceded covid.”
He had involved himself with various community groups—We the People Warwick, Warwick Historical Society and others.
“So I told Freya, when you have the potential to do something, take the chance and get out of your comfort zone. Don’t say no to new experiences. Then when I was asked to take a theater role, Freya said, ‘You have to do it.’ And I couldn’t not do it.”
Orange County Short Play Festival: 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 18 and 19, Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center, 1351 Kings Hwy, Sugar Loaf, NY 10918. Buy tickets at this link: PepProductions.org or at the door. $15
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