FEATURE
Theatre Star
Sid Willoughby inspires with their performances Written by Georgia Cox
8
RED&BLACK / Spring 2022
M
usical theater is an art that often ly Flynn. Their performances wowed audiences, and goes underappreciated. The peo- it’s clear that Sid has tremendous theatrical talent, to ple putting on these productions- both students and teachers. whether it’s the performers or “The dancing really stood out to me,” Gracie the people working behind the McNally (‘24), who worked backstage and created scenes- work extremely hard to present breathtakcostumes for the show, said. “They have a really good ing productions. They put in hours of practice after singing voice, too. They brought life to the role of school, working to make sure everything is perfect. Velma.” Sid Willougby is one of these people. “Sid was incredible,” Beth Swann, journalism Sid Willoughby is a performer teacher, said. “I’ve seen perforcommitted to their craft. They’ve mances on Broadway that have “On stage, been in numerous productions, been equal to theirs. On stage, Sid both in and out of school, and has such confidence in addition to Sid has such reached the top six finalists for best the talent, so it really makes it feel confidence in addition professional. I was just wowed.” actress at the Blumey Awards in Charlotte for the 2021-2022 school Their performances in school to the talent. ” year. Sid has been a proud thespian have stood out to many people, but for a majority of their life. they don’t just limit their talents to “I think it’s been about 6-7 years high school theater. of theater but I’ve been dancing “On stage, Sid has such confiforever,” Sid said. “I started doing theater because dence in addition to the talent,” Swann added. dancing was horrible, and I sang one time time in “Right now I’m in a production of ‘Grease’ in Rock those little school musicals they forced us to do in Hill, and ‘Freaky Friday the Musical’ in Charlotte, elementary school.” performing at Carowinds,” Willoughby said. Their first role? The Tin-Man, from ‘the Wizard These aren’t the first productions they’ve done of Oz’, a role that inspired them to continue acting outside of school, and they certainly won’t be the throughout middle and high school. last. Sid recently played Velma Kelly in NFHS’s proThough Willoughby isn’t certain about the role duction of “Chicago”, alongside Cailtin O’Reilly who musical theater will play in their future, it has irreportrayed Roxie Hart and Ryan Ellis who played Bil- futably been an important part of their past.
