By Wayne Doyle
Sometimes in an actor’s life, a part comes along that resonates with their inner core.
There’s something innately familiar about the character, something that allows the actor to not only inhabit the character but actually become the character.
For Sophia Vacca, an actor from Vaughan starring in Shadowpath Theatre’s The Dream – May 28 in a forest at the Kortright Centre for Conservation – her character Agnes is one such part.
“Agnes and I have some similarities,” Sophia said over coffee recently. “Agnes is definitely the comedic relief in this more gothic dark piece and I can relate to that because I’m like that too.
“I get to lighten the mood of the play, which I love. I love being the mischievous character. I’m really excited about this role.”The Dream is Joanna Baillie’s gothic meditation on fear, guilt, and the prophetic power of dreams. In the confines of a Swiss monastery, a small group of monks share the same prophetic dream: a forlorn apparition reaches out to them with a mysterious and potentially life-threatening ultimatum. The dream comes every night, and yet its true intent remains hazy and unknown. When these dreams lead to a buried corpse, the monastery tumbles down a blood-spattered path of vengeance, betrayal, and unbridled terror.
In her third performance with Shadowpath, Sophia is being thrown into a situation that she’s never encountered before – she’s performing outside where the boundaries between actors and audience have dissolved.
“This is immersive theatre that we are performing,” Sophia said. “It’s very different from what most people think of when they think theatre.
“In most theatres, most audiences are sitting in their seats. With this one the audience is right with you and I love that. My character is actually going to be guiding the audience around which is going to be very exciting for me because I’ve never done anything like that before and it should be fun.”
The Dream, May 28, Kortright Centre for Conservation (rain date – May 29). For tickets and more information, please click here.
Main photo: Vaughan actor Sophia Vacca will be Agnes in The Dream.
Photo row: Shadowpath Theatre Artistic Director Alex Karolyi.
