| credits |
[Nov. 14th, 2019|10:02 pm] |
BROADWAY
Spring Awakening (August 2007-May 2008) - Wendla
Sweeney Todd (2006) - Johanna
High Society (1998) - Dinah
OFF BROADWAY
Bare (2005) - Ivy
TV
Glee (2009-????) - Rachel Berry
Law and Order: SVU (2005) - Carrie Eldridge
FILM
New York, I Love You (2009) - Mallorie Fish |
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bio | ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) greatwhiteway |
[Nov. 17th, 2009|12:24 pm] |
There was no getting around it. Mara Sawyer was stage bound from the moment she took her first steps. At age three she was adamant that she would be “a famous star.” Rather than tell their daughter that this was an impractical goal, the Sawyer family decided to do just about anything to help make those dreams a reality.
Mara Abigail Sawyer was born December 1, 1985 in Arlington, Virginia. Both of her parents had spent their youth acting on stage off-Broadway and had set up in Virginia after getting pregnant to be closer to Alisa Sawyer’s parents. With their daughter having the same love of theatre and the stage as they had, they began sending her to dance and voice lessons very early on. To Mara, it was all very enjoyable. The local plays she got invested in were seen as very, very important to both her and her parents. They were groundwork on the way to a long and promising career. At the age of ten, her parents finally decided to pack up from Arlington, and the three of them moved to New York City.
The change was drastic, and Mara was no longer a big fish in a small pond. She found she had to work much harder to get roles that she wanted, even in small theatre houses within her community. The challenge provided her a way to not just coast by without trying; it gave her the push she needed to really work for what she wanted. Mara’s parents saw how hard their daughter was working and they set their eyes on Broadway. While they’d never made it to the big stage, they would make sure their daughter did. It would be easy to chalk the Sawyer’s up to stage parents, but their methods were never cruel, and Mara often found herself thriving off their encouragement and, sometimes, their pressure. It was the combined work of the three of them that helped Mara get her first role on Broadway at the age of 12. In August 1998 she starred as Dinah in High Society.
Although the taste of the stage only served to hunger her for more, her grandparents convinced her to slow down, to engage in more local plays, and to finish her schooling before spending all of her life on the stage. She relented, begrudgingly. Mara attended private school and worked hard, but without any of the finesse she gave her work ethic for the stage. If she was involved with anything to do with theatre it came before schoolwork. Mara graduated high school in 2003 and began attending NYU, again at the request of her grandparents. They wanted their granddaughter to have a well-rounded education. Mara’s heart wasn’t in it, and halfway into her second year, Mara dropped out of university when the opportunity to stare in Bare came along in 2005.
In mid-to-late 2006, Mara was on the Broadway stage once more, playing the titular character’s daughter in the revival of Sweeney Todd. With her career hitting its stride, Mara began seeking other avenues within the entertainment industry. After her run as Johanna, she began seeking out roles in film. Her efforts were mostly unsuccessful, and discouraged, Mara returned to the Broadway stage in August 2007 to step into the role of Wendla for the musical Spring Awakening. It was playing Wendla that led to her casting of Rachel Berry in the television series Glee.
When it comes to her career, Mara is all business, and takes things very seriously. She is known for having difficulty lightening up. She puts her heart and soul into her work, and when others don’t follow that routine, she is personally offended. When not involved in her work, Mara is a lot more laid back. She can sit back, relax, and take things in stride, and laugh at just about anything. It’s a very Jekyll/Hyde sort of personality. Those that work with her often can only get along with her because they know she has a much more relaxed side, otherwise, co-stars have found her to be a bit of a pill. Mara is still very close to both her parents and grandparents, and has called New York City home since she was ten. |
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| spam/texts/voicemail/marriage proposals/whatev |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|10:21 pm] |
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