Interview: Theatre Life with Sabrina Lynne Sawyer

Today’s subject Sabrina Lynne Sawyer is currently living her theatre life onstage at Folger Theatre playing Ophelia in the World co-Premiere of A Room in The Castle. The show is a product of the company’s Reading Room Series and runs through April 6th.

Sabrina returns to Folger Theatre having previously appeared in The Winter’s Tale and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other area credits include Exception to the Rule at Studio Theatre, The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Inside Out and Backwards at Imagination Stage

Regional credits include The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, and Henry IV, Part 2 at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, and Chicken & Biscuits at Front Porch Arts Collective.

Sabrina Lynne Sawyer in under five years of professional performance, has already performed at some of our best DC area venues in a variety of roles. This is a true testament of her talents to be sure.

I strongly urge you to grab some tickets to A Room in The Castle at Folger Theatre for many reasons. First off, Lauren M. Gunderson is one of our best modern day playwrights. Secondly, Folger Theatre always puts out a great product. Last but definitely not least, the show features a terrific cast which includes the incredibly talented Sabrina Lynne Sawyer. What other reason would you need to see this fine artist live her theatre life to the absolute fullest.

At what age did it become apparent to you that you were going to do something in the performing arts?

I have been interested in acting since I was seven years old, but it wasn’t until high school that I discovered a specific canon of films from the late 1980s through the early 2000s—such as Love Jones, The Best Man, and anything by Spike Lee—that gave me a newfound way to articulate the feelings of discomfort I experienced living in this world. These movies introduced me to a genre where people were simply being themselves, “relating to one another, instead of a hypothetical white audience” (Ebert, Reviews: School Daze). There was something radical, for me, in the idea that people could just be, and I knew then that I wanted to be a part of that.

Where did you receive your training?

I began training in dance during my junior year of high school and my first paying jobs were programs in which I studied and performed modern, jazz, hip-hop, and other styles of dance. As an actor who understands the form through movement first, I attribute this as the foundation of my artistry. Throughout the end of high school, I was part of programs at The Goodman Theatre and the city of Chicago’s After School Matters program, Gallery 37, that gave me tastes of dance, theatre, and musical theatre. I began my formal theatre training at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where I studied theatre, dance, and law.

What was your first professional job as a performer?

My first professional job was as a member of Olney Theatre Center’s National Players Tour 72, America’s oldest classical national touring company. We did A Raisin in the Sun and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in repertory in venues across the country. It was very exciting to have a job lined up right out of college—and a national tour at that!

Can you please tell us a little something about A Room in The Castle as well as something about the character you play in the show?

A Room in the Castle is an expansion of Hamlet. Through this version, we get an exploration of the women who inhabit that play, allowing them a world in which they have their own fully fleshed-out personas and autonomy, including a newly invented character, Anna, Ophelia’s lady-in-waiting. In Hamlet, my character, Ophelia, is obedient, youthful, and shows up primarily through the lens of circumstances created for her by the men in the play. In A Room in the Castle, Ophelia is still true to Shakespeare’s original character…until she is not. Throughout the course of the play, we watch her find her legs. The visceral imagery of a newborn giraffe learning to stand on its own legs strikes me as, I think, a suitable metaphor for her journey throughout the play. We also get to see extrapolations of characteristics rooted in her lines and behavior in Hamlet. She is a teenager who is musical, curious, has a caring heart in an overwhelming world, and a super smart girl (with a sometimes daringly smart mouth).

What were your impressions of Lauren M. Gunderson’s script after your first read?

I loved the concept of expanding the story of Hamlet. In my opinion, the most successful version of this play means that the audience can never look at a production of Hamlet quite the same - that new questions, new entendres, and new inside jokes with the characters arise. There is a sense of “being” that the women are allowed in this story, instead of just having to exist in consequence to others. That has been where my excitement about this show has lived since the very beginning.

You were part of A Room in The Castle when Folger Theatre presented it as part of their Reading Room Series. What would you say are some of the biggest changes in the script from then to now?

When I first was introduced to this script at the start of 2023, Lauren was still writing about Ophelia…but what I walked away most curious about was the mystery of Gertrude. She had this wit and depth that made her, in my opinion, the most interesting character, even in that earlier version of the play. Returning to the show, it felt right to see that Lauren shifted the heart of the story to the Queen.

Also, Anna, who previously went by another name, gets more added to her own backstory and has a pretty significant moment revealing why she shows up as the steadfast and loving maid that she has become. In all versions, Anna has always been a character that draws you to her, but with some new additions, her wholeness endears us even more.

What do you enjoy the most about doing theatre here in DC?

Though I came here by way of being on stage as a performer, DC continues to capture me first and foremost as an audience and community member. The artistic content produced here is challenging, robust and interesting—and the artists that make it come together and collaborate brilliantly. Despite various levels of money invested in each type of theater in the region, each company is doing incredible, forward-thinking productions worthy of conversation, praise, and all of our attention. I feel so lucky to be a part of a community that in real time shows me theater’s impact, and constantly makes me go, “Oooh, I want to do that! And that! And that too!”

After A Room in The Castle finishes, what else does 2025 hold in store for you workwise?

I am feeling the push to try out some other things. This has been the only professional career I have ever known, and it might be time for me to reevaluate my values. Separately, I’m looking at the chance to expand my work to mediums beyond the stage, including a return to on-camera and voice-over work.

Special thanks to Folger Theatre's outgoing Events Publicity & Marketing Manager Peter Eramo Jr. and Senior Communications Manager Colleen Kennedy for their assistance in coordinating this interview.

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