From Server to Actor: Amy Hall-Cummings

Most of our guests are familiar with one of our servers, Amy Hall-Cummings but probably don’t know much about her other talent — acting.  She’s been actively and passionately pursuing her acting career since she was a little girl and is now truly living her dream (we are so proud of her!).  From now until December 31st, Amy is playing part of Gateway Theater’s production of The Sound of Music and tickets are still available, so make sure to get them here. We thought we would share with you a few Q&A’s about her journey into acting.

> When did you first know you wanted to become an actor?

I think I’ve always known that I wanted to be an actor. I was that kid who wandered around the house singing and putting on shows for my family to watch. I’m very lucky that my family has always been supportive of my dreams. Acting is really the only thing that I ever saw myself doing.

What was the first show you ever did?

The first “show” I was involved in was a Christmas pageant at the local church. I played an angel in the angel chorus, we sang a few songs. That was my grand acting debut. My first large, serious role came at the end of high school when I played Maria in “West Side Story”. It was one of those special productions that don’t come along very often where everyone truly loves the show and works together beautifully. That was the production that solidified in my mind that I wanted to be an actor.

> Tell me about your role in Sound of Music.

In The Sound of Music I play the role of Elsa Schraeder, the Baroness. She’s the millionairess from Vienna who is set to marry the Captain until he meets and falls in love with Maria. It’s an interesting character to play. She acts as a kind of foil in the play against the Captain and Maria’s relationship. She’s also not the most loveable character, but interestingly enough she’s not as nasty as she is in the movie. In the movie she’s the one who drives Maria away from the house, she also mentions sending the kids to boarding school. None of that happens in the play. She’s not the most likeable character and as an audience member you know that the Captain and Maria should end up together, but I think the audience genuinely feels for Elsa when she leaves at the end brokenhearted and alone. It’s been an interesting journey to discover who this woman is.

> What do you love about theatre work?

There is something truly amazing about standing out vulnerable in front of an audience with no cameras or cuts or editing rooms in between you and having that pure connection. If you screw something up onstage you have to deal with it, there are no take-backs. I love that the audience is just as much a part of the performance as you are and every night the show is a new living breathing organism. It’s an incredible feeling sharing that intimacy.

> What would be your dream role?

That is a really hard question. I’m lucky enough to have played one of them already, which is Maria in West Side Story. I would love to play her again though being a little older and with more training under my belt. Other roles I would love to play would be Portia in “Julius Caesar”. Her monologue “is Brutus sick” crushes me. I love it to pieces, I sincerely hope that someday I’ll be able to play her. Also, I would love to play Ophelia or Gertrude in “Hamlet”, mostly because I love that play incredibly and if I lived my life as an actor without being in it I would feel unfulfilled. And other than that I’m just excited to explore the characters that lie in wait for someone to pick them up off the page and bring them to life.