It was a Comedy of Errors that put Sofia Ching on the national stage, and it could be a tragedy, or perhaps a comedy, that takes her to the next level.
All in the name of Shakespeare, of course, as the 15-year-old Waimea College student prepares for the Shakespeare Globe Centre NZ National Shakespeare Schools Production in September.
Her selection follows the Shakespeare festival for secondary schools a couple of months ago where the Waimea cast performed A Comedy of Errors, and in September she will be back in Wellington with a national cast of actors.
It means a week of workshops, classes and practising one of three Shakespeare plays – The Tempest, Julius Caesar or As You Like It – before performances at different venues.
“I’m really excited. We will be developing acting skills and doing combat workshops and intimacy workshops and all those exciting sort of things.”
Sofia already has a decade of acting experience, beginning with the Wakefield Country Players theatre group as a five-year-old with her mother, Sarah Ching, that has led to a love for the stage and the characters who tell the stories.
“I love the different stories and love interacting with the audience – which you can do with Country Players. When you’re watching or acting, you’re actually in the story.”
She has always been in musical theatre, but while she can sing, she admits she is “not so much a dancer”, but “can get away with it”.
Her latest role is as the lead, Belle, in the musical Beauty and the Beast with the Wakefield Country Players that takes to the stage later this month.
Shakespeare is a more recent experience on stage, but she has loved it.
“I’ve done Macbeth with my drama class and that introduced me to Shakespeare and inspired me to do more of his plays, and it has just evolved from there. I love the way he writes. It’s a whole new language and I love a tragic romance!”
Though she usually likes to play the comical character, she also enjoys the variety of characters’ shoes she can step into.
“I’ve played the mean girl and I’ve played Lady Macbeth who is an evil mastermind. I just want to see how far I can grow. But I don’t want it as a job because that would take the fun out of it. I just want to escape and have fun.”
