EAST
CAMPUS -- Singer. Dancer. Actress. Broadway aspirant. Knows sign language. Soft
yet well spoken and appears eerily wise beyond her years. Currently performing
downtown. Rings in at 18-years-old. Humble.
Could this
be a list of talking points on the resume of a theatrical wunderkind? It’s
possible. Though these attributes belong to Tess Carr, who on Wednesday, in the
failing afternoon glow of East Campus’ performing arts building, projected
average teenage girl.
“People
judge me all the time. They make assumptions that because I’m in the theater
world I’m a certain way and it’s not necessarily true,” said Carr. “It’s kind
of a generalization of a group of people. Just because I’m in theater I don’t
act a certain way or am a certain way.”
First time
Valencia student Carr recently landed her second professional theater role with
“Sunday in the Park With George” at the Mad Cow Theatre Company in downtown
Orlando. Her first was with the Orlando Repertory Theatre in Loch Haven Park
with last year’s “A Wrinkle In Time.”
Since
beginning her acting career as a child of 8, Carr has performed in upwards of
25 shows.
“I think I
probably knew that I wanted to be an actress from the time I was about 3 when
my mom would catch me in front of my full length mirror singing,” said Carr.
“Growing up I’ve always performed everywhere I’ve went. It’s always what I
wanted to do.
“I hope to
be on Broadway one day. That’s probably every performer’s dream.”
Currently,
the Sondheim musical is in full swing downtown, allowing Carr to be totally
immersed in the student-performer lifestyle. Having graduated high school just
last May, she intends to attend Valencia in order to remain close to both her
base of contacts and to her family, whom she loves spending time with.
Carr
intends to participate in Valencia’s acting program as soon as her schedule
allows and is currently enrolled in an acting class with Professor John
DiDonna.
“I think
the hardest part about being a student in the world of professional acting is
that you have to balance work and school and your professional life while still
learning about everything,” said Carr.
“I always
bring all of my homework with me and all of my books with me so everytime that
I’m not on stage I’m backstage studying anything I can do with school.”
“Sunday”
follows the creation of painter Georges Seurat’s quintessential park scene, “A
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” Carr cites long nights and
talented players for the success of the production at Mad Cow.
“It’s been
very long nights but it’s been a very condensed and quick process. We put
everything up very fast and then we went back through it working it over and
over and over again until it was perfect,” said Carr.
“I really
didn’t know much about the history of the actual painter himself but I studied
as much about the time period, about how certain people would act during that
time period.”
Carr plans
to finish a degree in acting following completion of a degree in sign language,
which she says is her other great passion alongside theater. In the long
run, she says, “I really do see myself performing.”
When asked
to impart some advice unto her fellow young actors, Tess smiled big and took a
preparatory breath.
“Study
with a lot of professionals in the area. Audition everywhere you can, take
classes as much as you can and definitely do as much studying as you can.”
“Sunday in the Park With George”
opened Mad Cow’s new performance space at 54 W. Church St. downtown. Catch Carr
and her fellow actors through Oct. 28. For more information, visit
www.madcowtheatre.com.
Watch the full interview here.
