While it might seem strange that a promising actor who just received a Young Artist Awards nomination for her work in a Hallmark movie is working backstage on a local musical, it makes perfect sense to Rowan Rycroft.
The Westshore teenager couldn’t resist working behind the scenes on Oliver!, the Four Seasons Musical Theatre production opening Friday at Isabelle Reader Theatre. It’s for the same reason she’s been involved with the company for years.
“Since I’ve been doing a lot of TV work recently, I really wanted to feel what it’s like on the other side,” said Rowan, 14. “A lot of people don’t give credit to the backstage crew. I’m trying to get people to realize how much they work.”
While Four Seasons no longer exclusively produces shorter, kid-friendly shows, the theatre company founded in 1976 also offers a volunteer-driven theatrical experience that is a family affair.
For the Spencer Middle School ninth-grader, it provides a mother-and-daughter experience she treasures.
Her supportive mother, Mirella Standbridge, is costume and set designer for the production, featuring a large cast headlined by brother and sister Jordan McDonald and Mariah McDonald as Oliver and the Artful Dodger.
“Oliver! has a larger cast than The Sound of Music, and almost half of them can’t drive,” said board member Heather Senkler, who has worked offstage and on (as Charlie’s mom in Willy Wonka and pirate George Merry in Treasure Island).
“Rowan was my lackey in that, and she played a tree in Narnia,” recalled Senkler, who is similarly seduced by Four Seasons.
Senkler is assistant to the producer and helping with hair and costumes for Oliver!, which also features Klaus Benker (Fagin), Fran Bitonti (Nancy), Cam Culham (Bill Sykes), Graham Roebuck (Mr. Bumble) and Rob Jennings (Mr. Sowerberry).
“I got sucked in,” said Senkler, who joined in 2009. “I feel my home is at Four Seasons. It’s such a nurturing place.”
Rowan concurs, happy to just be one of the gang putting on a show, free of the star treatment she got when she arrived in Studio City, where she traded her jeans and T-shirt for a chic evening gown.
“It was a big deal just to be nominated,” said Rowan, who was singled out in the supporting young-actress category for best performance in a TV production for her role in Duke as Alice, the pre-teen daughter of Steven Weber’s character, a traumatized U.S. marine sergeant.
It was initially nerve-racking being interviewed by the Hollywood press, she admitted.
“They were shoving us. I was shaking and stumbled over my words during the first interview,” she recalled, laughing. “I’m such a klutz. I dropped my bag and tripped because I was in heels.”
Although Rowan was in impressive company — nominees included Beasts of the Southern Wild’s Quvenzhané Wallis and Moonrise Kingdom’s Jared Gilman — she was just as happy catching up with old friends from a Los Angeles acting camp and hanging out with mom at the hotel pool.
“Of course, me being so pale, I got sunburn,” she said, wincing as she recalled the after-effects on-camera.
Her natural klutziness might explain why she has often been up for roles as “nerdy girls,” theorizes Rowan, who recently played one in Lovecraft Woods, an episode of R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour.
That was the first time she got to work with actors her own age on set, she said. “Before, I was only working with adults and a dog,” she said. “It helped me grow so much. Working with adults, you really want to impress these people. But with kids, I felt they thought I really knew what I was doing.”
She says her options are expanding now that she’s older.
“When I started, I was a young 12, going for younger cute little girls, then moving into the nerdy awkward girl,” she said. “Now I’m moving into ‘pretty teenage girl.’ ”
No matter what role Rowan tackles, she says she’ll never forget the profound influence of actor Julie Patzwald, her inspiring late acting coach, whose sudden death last year affected her so much, she stopped auditioning for a while.
“My first audition I did after she died, I got the part,” she recalled. “I got my confidence back, and I feel like I did it for her.”
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Details at: fourseasonsmusicaltheatre.com
