High School Drama: Davidson Academy's Spotlight Award-Winning ALEXANDRA CHOPSON

As the school year winds down, and students are scattered to the winds this summer, Davidson Academy's Alexandra Chopson closes out the year on a definite high: Last Saturday night, she was presented the Spotlight Award for best supporting actress in a musical at the Nashville High School Musical Theatre Awards for her performance as Wednesday Addams in her school's production of The Addams Family.

It's just the latest achievement for the young actress who spent last summer as part of the AppCo (that's the Apprentice Company for the unitiated) of Nashville Shakespeare Festival, which she credits with giving her the best theatrical opportunity she's ever had, the chance to work with amazing professional actors and to make friends who'll be in her life for years to come. With summer upon her and studying for finals, she somehow found time to actually sit down, consider our High School Drama questions and to give, as you'll find soon enough, some fascinating answers.

Here's your chance to get to know Alexandra Chopson - a very real opportunity to utter the phrase, "I knew her when" - and learn about what inspires her, the people she admires and what she's see ahead in her very bright future...

What's your theatrical goal in life? My theatrical goal in life is to perform in as many cities, languages, and styles as possible. There is absolutely nothing like the feeling of being on stage and exploring what it is to be human, what it is to reach people. I plan to pursue acting as a career for as long as the stage (and maybe even the screen) will have me.

What's your dream role? I would love to someday play Martha from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee. I read the play this year and was amazed by the realism and depth of hostility between the couples. Plays with small casts are my personal favorite because they require so much energy from the actors and audience alike. Albee wrote Martha with such swings in mood and temperament, with such intensity, I think it would be life changing to play her.

What's been your best theatrical experience thus far? My best theatrical experience was being a part of the Nashville Shakespeare Festival Apprentice Company in 2016. I was able to play multiple roles in both The Comedy of Errors and Macbeth and receive incredible training from professionals of the business during a five-week intensive workshop. I met wonderful actors and lifelong friends; I certainly grew more as an artist and person in the three months I was involved with Shakes than any other time in my life.

Who's your theatrical idol? I look up to Bernadette Peters for many reasons, namely her ability to fill a monstrous hall with the smallest of movements, the most graceful of gestures, and her magnificent ability to feel more than most. I admire any actor who began a career on the stage and returns to it after a successful film career; there is simply nothing like a live audience and those who have experienced it know. Patti LuPone is an amazingly talented woman and no one is more versatile then Hugh Jackman. I admire them both.

What show that you haven't seen yet would you most like to see onstage? Currently I would most like to see Blackbird by David Harrower. Jeff Daniels' time on Broadway with the show is over but I would thoroughly enjoy his doing the show again so I could see one of my childhood actor-heroes in such a compelling setting. The show intrigues me for the same reasons Sylvia Plath's Three Women and Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf intrigue me: the plot is a conversation between two people. That's it. Postmodern, uncomfortable, tragic shows do something almost no other form of art can manage: they force you to truly live while in their presence.

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