Name: Sayer Roberts
Occupation: Actor
If New Westminster had such a thing as theatre “royalty,” then Sayer Roberts would be its prince.
Roberts is the son of two well-known veteran performers, Colleen Winton and Russell Roberts – and, following in his parents’ footsteps, he’s been making headlines in the New Westminster Record for a decade.
Roberts, a graduate of New Westminster Secondary School and Capilano University’s musical theatre program, is currently onstage in two productions at the internationally renowned Stratford Festival in Ontario.
It’s Roberts’ second year with the festival. Last year he was part of the cast for Guys and Dolls and HMS Pinafore. This year, he returns for two more musicals, this time in featured roles: he’s Brad in The Rocky Horror Show, and Oliver Hix (and part of the barbershop quartet) in The Music Man. Rocky Horror officially opens June 2, while The Music Man opens May 29.
Finding his place among some of the nation’s top musical theatre performers isn’t entirely unexpected for the local talent, whose resumé includes featured roles with Theatre Under the Stars, Royal City Musical Theatre, Gateway Theatre and Arts Club (with whom he played Marius in Les Misérables in 2015).
He recently corresponded with the Record’s Janaya Fuller-Evans, sharing his thoughts about his second Stratford season and what it means to be a working actor. The interview is below.
For Stratford Festival tickets and information, check out www.stratfordfestival.ca.
How are you finding your second season with Stratford? What has changed for you, since last season?
I think the biggest change is just knowing what's in store! The scale of it all, the calibre of everyone I get to work with, how much growth and change I'll see in the shows and my performance over the course of the run. As a theatre actor, it's not very often you find yourself in a long contract like this; most shows are a few months at the most, but Stratford (we start in winter and finish in winter) affords us the opportunity to really settle down and get into a routine and lifestyle, and dig in to the work. Knowing that, I've been able to look ahead into this year and how best to use all that time.
You're playing two very different roles this season - Oliver Hix and Brad Majors. How do you keep the two characters unique, and are there any similarities that you've found?
I've actually found that relationship really interesting, because while the shows themselves could not be more different, Brad and Oliver (in the quartet) are extremely similar. Brad's a very strait-laced ’50s all-American aw-shucks kind of guy, and Oliver doesn't fall far from that tree either, he and his fellow River City neighbours are very upstanding family-values folk. More than that, both characters go through huge change because of pivotal introductions to something and someone new - the citizens of River City are brought out of their stubborn ways after meeting Harold Hill, and Brad and Janet go through radical transformations of identity after meeting Frank N. Furter.
How do the roles differ musically?
This is where they really do differ a lot for me, because of the style and writing. The Music Man could not be more traditional musical theatre, and being in the barbershop quartet adds another layer of "old school" to it for me, which is just the most fun. Rocky Horror was written in the early ’70s, it's definitely the most rock-and-roll show I've done, with all kinds of rock influences from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. I really enjoy having that contrast; it stretches my voice in two directions at once and keeps the work fresh and challenging.
What's the most interesting aspect of playing Brad? Do you see him as more of a strait-laced character, or one who is ready to cast off his own repression?
He's definitely a man of his time, very much stuck in the sexual repression and gender role stereotypes of the ’50s - he's got the girl-next-door fiancé, a good job, plans for the white picket fence, sleeping in separate beds, never talks about feelings, the whole shebang. He's drinking the Kool-Aid and doesn't know what else there could possibly be, so when he meets Frank, it's a whole new world of uncertainty for him that he fights hard against, because it's new and strange. But he absolutely starts to run with it, gives in to his desires as he discovers the joy of freedom, to be whoever he wants to be.
What I love most about playing Brad is that he's the audience. They also start their journey as fresh and innocent, and gradually get pulled into a weird and wild new world they didn't expect. So many people love the film and the stage show so much, it's gained such a dedicated following around the world, but I think of Brad as the audiences watching it for the very first time in 1975, before any of them knew what Rocky was. Entering the theatre as one person, and leaving as someone else, having discovered something brand new and exciting, about themselves or the world. There's a reason people who've never seen Rocky are called "virgins.”
Tell me about performing as Hix in The Music Man - is it musically challenging, being part of the barbershop quartet?
I have always adored barbershop, so Music Man is just the perfect opportunity to play around. It's very challenging material but the payoff of those harmonies when they're tight is like nothing else. There were times in rehearsal when we really nailed a song or phrase for the first time, and I could barely stop myself from laughing I was so giddy. I don't know who'd remember in New West, but in 2008 I was in a quartet, that Daniel White, Thomas Lamont, Stefan Barrett, and I put together. We called ourselves "The Barberflops.” I think the Record might have even done a story about us!
