Actress channels the evil inside of her as Nurse Ratched

Feeling like a celebrity, giddy and excited to just be talking about theater, is the young actress who will portray Nurse Ratched in the upcoming MHCC student-directed production “One F

lew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Describing theater as her “home,” MHCC theater major Sydney Hope will again take the Mt. Hood stage in what will be her fourth MHCC show. She was in last spring’s student-directed show, “The Underpants,” fall term’s children theater production of “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” and most recently in “RENT.”

Hope describes her character, Nurse Ratched, as “probably the meanest character I’ve ever played. She’s very dark, very manipulative, a control freak. In her mind I feel she thinks she is organized and put together and likes order but in reality she’s torturing these people. She’s pretty much humiliating them and finding enjoyment in it and enjoys tormenting people. She’s just an evil, evil person,” Hope said.

“She’s just one of those characters where you try to find something nice about her but you can’t,” she said. “It’s just she’s not nice, she’s not a nice person. She’s very sly and sometimes the patients get control and she can take it back, like that, with just like the look she gives them, or something.

“It’s weird for me because I’m not used to having a character where it’s uncomfortable to be her, but it really is, but in a good way. It’s like it’s challenging me to find my inner ‘rude’ person, to find the queen bee that hides within. She’s pretty much the queen of the castle.”

As for her future, Hope will to return to MHCC in the fall and audition for the winter musical. She has plans to transfer to a four-year university in New York to pursue theater after finishing up her MHCC requirements.

“I just know that I want to be on the East Coast, that’s all that I know.” “I love New York. I’ve been there once for acting,” Hope said.

“I’ve done acting all my life and I love it,” she said, “It’s what I live for, it’s my home.” Hope said.

Hope graduated from Reynolds High School in 2011,  “I had never been any type of lead before in a musical — and finally senior year I got the lead in the school musical, ‘Pajama

Game.’”

Hope said of her lead role as Babe Williams, “It was really, really fun. It was a great experience, it was just fantastic, the feeling of the audience, the energy. Everything about the s

tage I adore and cherish.”

Hope said of the musical, “That was one of the musicals that made me realize I really do want to pursue acting,” she said. “But actually ‘Phantom of the Opera’ (at the Keller Auditorium in 2008) is the one that really made me realize, okay this is what I want to do for my living. So that was the big musical that was eye-opening to me.”

As a child, Hope acted with Portland Center Stage in “Chicago” and “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”

Hope said, “I just love the aspect of performing, it’s amazing to me.” She also sings and plays piano.

Hope is currently doing table readings of “The Beauty and the Beast,” and has been cast as the character Belle, but is still uncertain whether the Black Swan Youth Theater will actually produce the play.

Hope has been taking acting classes with theater instructor Jesse Merz and said, “He’s taught me so much about how to get your name out there and I’m going to be making a website for myself.”

 

Hope also said she has plans with many of her fellow MHCC actors to audition downtown for plays, musicals and showcases during the summer to get their names out, “and just kind of make it a friendly group family thing. All of us theater kids, we’ve grown up together since fall term and we’ve had this family feel ever since then and we’re all very supportive of each other and very there for each other when it comes to careers and whatnot.”

Hope has upcoming auditions with Portland TV shows “Grimm” and “Portlandia.” According to Hope, the “Grimm” role is a speaking role, “and I’m so excited for that one.” The “Portlandia” audition is for an extra.

“It’s the magic of it, the fact that you have actors and producers and directors and the crew that put so much time and effort into it,” she said. “At the end all of our hard work, it comes together and we create a show and I think that’s magical and I will do it until the day that I die. I’ll probably be performing up in heaven for all I know. I just love it. It’s home to me.

“I’d rather be poor and doing what I love than rich and have a different career,” Hope said.