Senior Brigid Clary took DPAC by storm last weekend as Sally Bowles, the cabaret performer at the center of Cabaret – ND’s first department-produced musical since 1966. HCND talked with her about Cabaret, her role on stage, and her role offstage as a campus celeb (almost every performance of Cabaret was sold out!) & collegiette.
Brigid (left) with Cabaret director Nathan Halvorson (center) and co-star Chris Siemann (right)
Year: Senior
Major: Anthropology
Hometown: Skaneateles, New York
Dorm: Walsh
Dream job: Mother/Novelist/Actress
Now for the good stuff…
We’ll start easy. What is your favorite memory from the production of Cabaret? Getting to see my family’s faces in the audience. They drove hundreds of miles to see me in my first show at Notre Dame, and I am so grateful they were able to experience the product of all of our hard work.
What was your biggest Cabaret challenge? Giving myself over to Sally Bowles, the sleazy nightclub singer, was a challenge in itself. [In particular, though,] Sally and I both have a lot of insecurities, but we deal with them in very different ways. When confronted with insecurities, I [naturally] want to hide, but Sally wanted to dance. It is always a challenge as an actor to resist your own natural urges in order to be true to your character. This case was just particularly difficult.
How have you dealt with the off-stage sex symbol status – NDCrushes shout-outs and all – that accompanies a character like Sally? First off, the whole cast was getting NDCrushes tweets throughout the run and it was so much fun for us. It became a competition almost immediately between the boys and girls (the boys won). I have to say, though, that one tweet and a few slinky costumes hardly qualify me as a sex symbol.
Even if you don’t see yourself as an off-stage sex symbol, how have you dealt with playing an onstage sex symbol while in the strait-laced community of Notre Dame? We knew going into Cabaret that we were going to rock the boat. There is a lot that happens in Cabaret that doesn’t really jive with Notre Dame values – the intense sexual content being the most obvious. As our amazing director, Nathan Halvorson, said in an interview with the South Bend Tribune, the sexuality isn’t gratuitous. I felt that it was part of the tragedy of Sally and the rest of the characters. The bottom line is: we knew many people were going to be shocked by Cabaret, but everything we did on that stage had a greater purpose. The stories told in Cabaret are beautiful and tragic. And the sex is a necessary part of both the beauty and the tragedy. I hope that those who were shocked by it were also able to see through it to the lives the characters were living.
What do you think is the power of theatre? Why is it important to you? Why should it be important to ND? Theatre can do things that other art forms can’t. In theatre, the audience gets to see the artist creating the art. They get handed the final product right as it is created, in its raw form. The product of theatre is also different from any other art: theatre deals in emotion. Nathan often said that acting is about ‘eliciting an emotional response in the other.’ It is a shared experience: a communal giving. It is intensely intimate, and therefore it has to be willingly approached by all parties. While we were surprised Cabaret was the one chosen to bring musical theatre back to Notre Dame, I think it shows that we can learn a great deal from each other through theatre. I hope that as the FTT department continues to explore musical theatre they choose musicals that will push the envelope and start conversations on this campus that need to be had.
Any time management tips for our readers, Miss I’m Starring in a Musical And Taking a Full Course Load and Serving as a Hall Council Commissioner and Being a Senior? This includes both those you actually follow and those that you wish you followed. My personal policy? Figure out what the most important thing is and then do only what is necessary. One thing I had to learn how to do was ask for help. My professors were very understanding when I told them I needed more time. Oh. And breaking up with Netflix always helps.
Speaking of tips, got any for ladies looking to break into a new activity at ND? I know you’re a relative newcomer to the ND theatre scene in an onstage capacity. Be brave. Don’t take no for an answer. I love theatre, and I had let other people tell me for the first three years of college that I couldn’t do it. This year, I set my sights on this show and I didn’t let myself, or anyone else, tell me not to do it. If there is something you have always loved or something new you want to try, surround yourself with positive energy and do it. Don’t let fear of striking out keep you from succeeding. Being able to look back and be amazed at the things you have accomplished is worth a few frightening leaps of faith.
Women have become a central part of the Notre Dame family in the 40 years since coeducation. What would you like to see women at ND accomplish in the next 40? I hope that women will continue to fight for the things they believe in. Father Hesburgh invited us here, and we have just as much to add to this University as the men. And when a woman steps up and wants to change the world for the better, I hope she doesn’t let anything stand in her way.
Cover photo by Peter Ringenberg, body photo from Brigid Clary