entertainment
SHE’S ARRIVED Schwartz smiles
in front of the St. James Theatre,
where she plays young Elsa in the
Broadway production of Frozen.
30
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and she
many months
nabbed that
would elapse
one. “I was
before it
in first grade,
opened —
and there
she audi-
were a lot of
tioned for
adults in the
the role
11, SIXTH-GRADE STUDENT AT GLENFIELD MIDDLE SCHOOL
show,” she
of Helen
AYLA.SCHWARTZ
OFFICIALAYLASCHWARTZ.COM
says. “Being
Keller in
cast together,
the Queens
though, makes it like you’re in a
Theater production of The Miracle
family.” More community theater fol-
Worker, and was cast a few weeks
lowed, including stints at Kids of the
later; it was the first show for which
Arts, where she and other aspiring
she was paid.
Broadway performers worked along-
Though the stage play didn’t allow
side kids with Broadway experience.
for singing, “It taught me a lot play-
In November, 2016, Schwartz
ing Helen Keller,” she says. “I had
went to an open call for the roles of
to work with a big dinner table and
young Elsa and young Anna in the
chairs, and learn to eat and climb
Broadway version of Frozen. While
over Annie Sullivan. It was fun to do
waiting for Frozen to take shape —
that every night.”
AYLA
SCHWARTZ
A
s a young actress,
Ayla Schwartz has
had her share of
rejections and tri-
umphs — which is a
tribute to her persis-
tence, since she recently graduated
from elementary school.
Voice lessons and classes at the
Performers Theater Workshop in
Maplewood helped her prepare for
her first Off-Broadway audition
when, at age 7, she tried out for A
Little Princess, produced by the non-
profit Kids of the Arts in New York
City. “The director was one of the
nicest people I’ve ever known,” she
says. “But I was very inexperienced.”
Next up was an audition for the
role of the young Fiona in Montville’s
Barn Theater production of Shrek,