CORNER BROOK, N.L. — Anna Barrett has the bright lights and glamour of the big city in her sights.
The dream for the ambitious 17-year-old from Corner Brook has always been a career in musical theatre.
Now she’s well on her way.
Since last summer, Barrett has been auditioning to attend several performing arts schools in the United States.
One prestigious school, the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, has already accepted her application.
Getting to live in New York City is an exciting prospect for the Grade 12 student.
“I’d love to live my whole life there,” she told The Western Star.
The American Musical and Dramatic Academy has always been one of her preferred destinations but, for now, she wants to keep her options open.
Barrett highlights New York University or the University of Michigan in Ann Arbour as two other schools she’s always dreamed of attending.
She said she’s been applying to all the best programs she can find.
“It’s been a long process, because where I’m here in Newfoundland and they’re in the U.S., I can’t really travel to do a live audition,” she said.
Barrett has to send in recordings of herself, called “pre-screens”, performing dance routines, songs and monologues requested by the schools.
When she spoke to The Western Star, she had live auditions coming up.
She was scheduled to travel to Chicago on Jan. 31 for a series of auditions at different schools.
Barrett believes she excels in roles she calls quirkier, comedic roles. However, through the audition process, she’s learned more about her capabilities.
“Where I’m auditioning for all these schools, they require specifically a sad monologue, or a funny and upbeat song, or a slow ballad,” she said. “So, I’ve kind of been pushed to try different type things and different roles that I normally wouldn’t take on. I’ve found myself actually really enjoying those types of roles which I didn’t know I could do.”
Taking on the identity of a different person has always been a big part of the thrill of performance for Barrett.
“When you’re in musical theatre, you take on a character and the character could be like you but could be a completely different person that doesn’t make sense to you at all,” she said.
Figuring the character out is both the challenge and a big part of what’s fun.
The other part, for Barrett, is experiencing the audience’s adoration.
“When the audience receives your character in a good way and you get the applause, that’s obviously the best feeling in the world,” she said.
Background
Barrett started taking dance lessons at Dance Studio West when she was four.
She’s done ballet, tap, jazz, point and modern dance at the studio.
When she was five, she started taking voice lessons with Gary Graham.
She believes she was in Grade 5 when she performed in her first-ever musical, a production of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" put on during a Lock and Keynote musical theatre summer camp at the Grenfell Campus.
The experience established her love for musical theatre.
They spent eight hours, every day for two weeks, she said, singing and dancing and making new friends.
“Then at the end of it, you put off this production and get to go on stage and sing for a few hours,” she said. “Since then, I’ve just kept on going. Why would I stop?”
Aspirations
Barrett hopes someday to perform on Broadway. However, she doubts the likelihood of such an ambitious goal.
“Working on Broadway would be the best,” she said. “But obviously that’s a huge goal and kind of unlikely.”
Instead, she’s simply endeavouring to use her schooling as a launching pad to make a career of musical theatre, wherever it takes her.
“The arts community is so large, I feel like I could go anywhere,” she said. “Really, just working anywhere and just being in musicals is the all-time dream.”
Choreographing 'Guys and Dolls'
Anna Barrett’s skills transcend performance. Recently, she’s also proven herself adept at handling choreography for a production of "Guys and Dolls" at Corner Brook Intermediate.
Barrett, a former student of the school, was hired to choreograph the classic musical comedy on the suggestion of Dance Studio West in November.
Both the performers and the director sung her praises.
“She demonstrates and we can all really understand her,” said Katie Colbourne, a Grade 8 student who plays Miss Adelaide. “And she’s really nice as well, she’s not really strict.”
Grade 9 student Alex Hancock, playing Nathan Detroit, said Barrett was easy to learn from while director Mark Bradbury was impressed at her ability to exercise control.
“From my perspective, as director and someone who’s been doing this a long time, I was astounded at her level of control,” he said. “She knows how to control a room. And I was astounded at how quickly things started moving. She’s very good at what she does.”
Barrett has even surprised herself.
"I’ve shocked myself in the sense that I can grab their attention and they can listen to me and I can teach them."
“I’m kind of a shy person and I don’t do really well with talking to other people, I get really anxious,” she said. “But with all these people, I’ve shocked myself in the sense that I can grab their attention and they can listen to me and I can teach them.”
Barrett has been teaching seven-year-olds and 10-year-olds at Dance Studio West for two years, but a production of this size, with teenagers, is a new type of challenge.
The choreography is much more complex and the timing of movements has to be just right.
“You can’t have one person doing the left foot, and everyone else doing the right foot,” she said. “It ruins the whole.”
Nevertheless, Barrett has been impressed by how quickly the students catch on, even those who are not dancers.
“I feel like even the people who have never danced before are catching on,” she said. “They want to get it, they’re working hard and they’re practising a lot.”
Bradbury believes the show is going to take Corner Brook audiences by surprise.
“They’re going to be really surprised when they see how well everything is put together: the music, the costuming and the choreography,” he said. “When put they all that together with the singing, they’re going to be blown away.”
The students, Bradbury, and Barrett all agree one of the highlights will be the choreography for the number, “Havana”.
“The choreography is extremely complex,” said Bradbury. “Things get a little heated and it’s all part of the choreography and it’s spectacular. They’re doing an incredible job of it. I think that’s going to take the audience by surprise.”
Getting to see her own choreography actualized on stage was something Barrett was excitedly anticipating.
“I think to watch a whole musical and all the dance being my choreography will be absolutely insane,” she said.
But she also knows how rewarding performing can be and she was excited to get to see the kids experience it firsthand.
“To be watching it from the audience and get to experience the audience applauding for them, rather than me being on stage and receiving, I think watching the kids experience what I love doing so much will be awesome,” said Barrett.
"Guys and Dolls" will be performed at 7 p.m. from Feb. 13-15 at the Corner Brook Arts and Culture Centre. Tickets for the musical can be purchased at www.artsandculturecentre.com
A few questions with Anna Barrett
Western Star: What’s your favourite performance you’ve done?
Anna Barrett: When I was attending the same (Lock and Keynote) camp a few years later, we did "Legally Blonde" the musical. I played Elle Woods, the lead character. That was definitely one of the most challenging and amazing experiences, because she has a huge role and her vocal range, that character especially, is really huge. Her role is absolutely hilarious and such a comedic role and that’s totally what I’m into.
WS: Is there a specific role you’d like to play?
Anna: "Wicked" is a huge, iconic musical. One of my favourite roles in that is … well, either Elphaba or Galinda. I’ve always seen myself as a Galinda-type character because she’s the comedic character and she’s very bubbly and hilarious. Playing Galinda would be awesome. But, also, Elphaba is the main part of the show and she’s iconic as well.
WS: Is there anyone you take inspiration from?
Anna: Mr. (Gary) Graham has been a huge part of my life. He introduced music to me, basically, when I was five. He introduced me to the whole world and, really, if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have known what musical theatre was and I wouldn’t have picked this career that I’m choosing. So, I’m eternally grateful for him leading me in this musical path.
A celebrity that I’m totally inspired by is Sutton Foster. She’s a huge musical theater Broadway actor and she’s done many TV series now and she’s done lots of musicals on Broadway, like "Anything Goes" and "Shrek" the musical and all of these huge productions that are my favourite. I look up to her so much because her style is very much my style of acting. She’s very quirky and she likes doing comedy, but she’s also a huge dancer. So, she’s really a triple threat and that’s kind of what I strive to be. I try my best to be like her.
