Hamlet is one of the most coveted roles in all theater because of its in-betweens: the thin line between madness and sanity, horror and humor, love and the darker aspects of devotion. In PV’s production of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” junior Sarah Thomas bridged these gaps especially well: her Hamlet was the perfect combination of emotional intensity and savage comicality, leaving the audience questioning the anti-hero’s true motives long after they went home. Thomas’s character was so true-to-heart because she, too, works in the spaces between things: the gap between character and personality, the interplay of fact and fiction, and the tangible impact imaginary worlds have on this one.
As both visual artist and actor, Thomas has been interested in the consumption and creation of fiction for a very long time. She says she has been drawing for as long as she can remember; she first became interested in voice acting in junior high. “I even have surprisingly good finger paintings from when I was a year old hung up in my house,” she said, laughing. The realization of why it was so important to her – and the ability to work around the shame associated with it – didn’t come to her until later in life. “In elementary school, I was looked down upon by my peers for having those ‘immature’ interests which caused me to isolate myself and become ashamed of something so core to my personal identity,” she said. “It took a long time, but eventually I learned not to be ashamed of what I liked and I began opening up about my interests again. Art, to me, is being able to express that love of stories and characters that is so deeply ingrained in my personal identity, and if I was not able to spend time drawing and thinking of stories, I would not be able to self-actualize.”
In high school, Thomas brought that love of stories to the theater stage, where she played a hotel clerk in her debut, “Leaving Iowa,” Ed the hyena in “The Lion King Jr.,” Old Mother Hubbard in “Little Red Robin Hood,” and of course Hamlet in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.” She also participated in PV Improv. She is excited about drama next year, but as of now, her favorite role by far has been Hamlet. “I was able to play a destructive yet emotionally complicated person,” she said. “Hamlet has many ‘good’ and ‘bad’ sides to him, and I had to think deeply about how to portray his complexity as a character and his moral grayness, which was a challenge, but a thoroughly enjoyable one.”
After high school, Thomas hopes to study animation in college. “Animation is the career path I want to follow because if I’m able to have a job animating for a cartoon series or movie, I’m able to follow my dream of getting involved in important characters and stories,” she said. She is also studying animation for a hopeful and deeply personal reason. “Watching cartoons as a child and seeing situations happen on TV helped me realize my own ideals based on the rights and wrongdoings of certain characters, and being able to relate to characters on TV helped me realize what kind of person I wanna be,” she said. “If I can tell stories and have characters that help people be more confident and accepting in themselves and help them perceive the world in a way that’s constructive, I can change the world.”
Whether creating on or off the screen, Thomas will undoubtedly bring the same humor, depth and emotional complexity to her future characters – and luckily for her audiences, the rest of the world.
