“I’m the fifth child out of six children, so all of my siblings were already doing theater. I was kind of just born into an artistic family, so it wasn’t like I was going to do a sport or anything. I would tag along with my siblings productions. One time I was in the audience, but my mom put me on the stage at the end so I was performing with them.”
Elise Bednar is a Senior this year. She has been performing on the stage for most of her life and plans to continue her artistic career throughout college and beyond.
When she was around 3 years old and living in Greensboro, NC, Elise’s first role was as a fairy in Narnia. She says that that was the most fun she has ever had in a role because acting as a child is more free and less stressful.
Elise moved to Boone when she was going into 8th Grade and joined Beanstalk Community Theater. Her first role here was as Ariel in The Little Mermaid. In high school, she played one of the step-sisters in Cinderella with her sister, Emma Bednar playing Cinderella. She says this is one of her favorite roles because she was able to play off of her sister and experience the stage with her. It was a lot of fun.
Elise talks about her impressions of Watauga High when she came, “It’s not an arts school so I’m very impressed with the development of the theater department and just the arts department in general and how close and welcoming everyone is. I didn’t feel like I wasn’t welcomed or anything. They gave us a lot of opportunities.”
In the 2019-2020 school year, the Watauga Playmakers performed Ernest and the Pale Moon. Elise played one of the main characters, Gwendolyn. “It was already a developed script, but in Playmakers Mr. Walker really invited us as a group to develop as much as we can from the ground up. So that group last year, we really just kind of got on our feet and started playing off of each other really well.”
Elise spoke about how her experiences with last year’s and this year's Playmakers productions impacted her. “It was really nice to have that experience because, number 1, I’m capable of doing this! Number 2, I enjoy doing it. Number 3, If we can do that in a high school setting and I can see all these other people who have these artistic abilities no matter where they’re going off to, it’s possible to bring that with me and include it with whatever I choose to do.”
Sharing how she prepares for a role, Elise said, “I think the most important thing to me before doing a show is to interact with people in the show with me. I don’t want to isolate myself from the people I’m gonna be experiencing this piece with. For me my favorite thing about acting is bouncing off of another person and acting with them and feeling it. It’s gonna be different every time you do a scene with somebody. I like to get energy going with other people.”
Elise expressed her appreciation and admiration for her fellow Playmaker’s this year working through COVID-19, “What’s so impressive about this group is being able to adapt and adjust with something as challenging and difficult as a pandemic. It didn’t feel like we were losing opportunities, it felt like we were gaining a new opportunity and a new opportunity to explore something and a new challenge. I think a lot of artists work best when they're trying to develop something new.”
Elise wanted to share how her high school theater experience has shaped her.“I wanna see more people break out of the labels that are given to them, especially in a theater space. What’s so fulfilling is to see people like Ms. Miller and Mr. Walker teaching people not only to be actors but to be artists. Not only to be artists, but to be people.”
The message Elise conveys is that it’s okay to be human. Being an actor is more than just portraying someone on stage. It’s diving into a character and exploring their personality. More than that, she wants to encourage people to be more than just an actor, to be good people and have more than one aspect of their personality.
Elise talked about the people who have influenced and supported her. “Alice Knight was pretty influential to how I think as an artist and the confidence that I’m still working on. Mr. Walker and Ms. Miller 100% have changed the way that I think about going into this career. My siblings are pretty impactful with what I do.”
Phoebe Waller Bridge and Florence Pugh are some of Elise’s celebrity influences. She says that Bridge is an amazing writer and director who strives to bring humanity to her characters, especially females. She is best known, especially to Elise, as the creator, head writer, and star of the tv show Fleabag. Elise looks up to Pugh as an actress. Pugh starred as Amy March in Greta Gerwig’s 2019 film, Little Women.
Inspired by a character of Phoebe Waller Bridge’s, Elise spoke of her dream role. “I’d really love to play a role that’s not the baseline. I want a character that explores the quirks and intricacies that humans have because, especially in high school, everyone tries to stay in their own box that they create. I really hope that whatever work that I can do can help people to want to get out of their boxes and let themselves be human beings. If I could play any character, I’d want to play a human being.”
Elise talks about how she’s not completely sure what her future will look like, whether she will be on TV, in plays, be a director, etc. However, she speaks about how high school theater, both the experience and the lessons she learned will benefit her no matter what she does. She is excited to be attending Montclair State University in New Jersey. Elise is comfortable there because her sister went there and she has been to the campus. She will be in the Bachelor of Fine Arts Acting program there.
Written by: Kylie Broce
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