By Grace Zawadzki and Miara Sasdi

This year WHS theater was proud to showcase its newest member, freshman, Carolyn McDermott.  McDermott is a spunky, kind, curly headed, future WHS theater sensation who loves to babysit, be apart of WHS’s own Building Bridges club, binge watch netflix, play with her dog, and listen to her favorite music.

McDermott has been in numerous plays when she was in middle school including “Once on this Island”, “ Cinderella”, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and she even starred in “Wiley and the Hairy Man”.  At WHS she was a part of the fall production “The Tempest” and admits,  “It is definitely a step up from middle school theater, it’s definitely more intense, focused, and a lot more work, but in the end it was a lot of fun and a great experience.”

Yet she still took a role in the spring musical. Not only is McDermott a remarkable actress, she is apparently an impressive multitasker as showcased in Westborough’s latest production of “The Wizard of Oz”, where she wore the hats of a munchkin, a monkey, and an Ozian. If you were lucky enough to catch the production of “The Wizard of Oz” you could vouch for the fact that it was executed flawlessly. However McDermott shares, “We were concerned about it and how it was going to go because it was a little bit of a mess, but it turned out going really well, and we were pleased with how it went, and I was excited with the outcome, everything always comes together no matter what.”

As the only freshman in the fall production of “The Tempest”, McDermott shared her experience and described the atmosphere of the upcoming production saying, “I definitely felt like I was treated differently, but not in a bad way. They (the other actors) thought that I was cute and little because I was the only freshman, but overall was treated the same and everyone was super inclusive, kind, and friendly, which made everything a lot easier”.

McDermott felt welcome and thought it was endearing that the cast jokingly made her feel like the youngin’ of the program.  And with every production comes the dreaded tech week. Although tech week sure sounds stressful (and mostly is) McDermott reassured that it totally has it’s perks. She became very close with her cast mates during the final week of preparations- “We’re not as close during regular rehearsals, but once tech week comes you spend so much time together, in the end it really is like we are one big family; everyone gets to know each other, and backstage we are all laughing and having fun, so we definitely have a good, positive relationship by the end.”

However she then elaborated upon the idea that is best presented by the groaning theater participants during this fatal week at WHS. “Tech week is a very stressful week, we put in a lot of hours, and is quite the experience. We are there for at least 6 hours everyday, you are in full make up and in costume, no scripts, it’s like the real deal, so it can be very intense, but it’s what really makes the show and helps it comes together.”

When McDermott isn’t stressing out over tech week she, much like the award-winning, “J Law” is best known for being in strict character and going with the flow, so it’s only fitting that when she was asked about role models she confessed, “Probably Jennifer Lawrence- I think she does a really good job of getting into character.”

Within Westborough High School, another inspiring actor catches her eye. “In the Wizard of Oz, the girl who played Dorothy, Deirdre Pederson is really good, she has great acting and is an amazing singer, so I really look up to her.”

Despite being very involved in theater and having many admirers, she uncovers the sad truth by stating, “No, I do not intend on pursuing a career in theater, but do enjoy doing it as a fun hobby” However this isn’t the end! McDermott would like to go out with a bang in her last few years of being an actress in the theater community with the production of “Chicago” at WHS. Although McDermott has not witnessed the play for herself yet, she will be attending it for her first time this May.  It’s her dream play, and sounds perfect for McDermott because she claims that she has a lower singing range, and Chicago has a lot of alto songs. Also, “There is a lot of singing and dancing, and it is just different”.

Carolyn McDermott is obviously the freshest frosh in the WHS theater program!