Ever since she was a child, Hannah Nguyen has loved to dance. Now a sophomore at Northwest High School, Nguyen is heavily involved in multiple theater groups. Many of her peers view Nguyen as a “triple threat” for her talents in singing, dancing and acting.
“What inspired me to do theater was the art of dancing, acting and singing put all together,” Nguyen said. “Dancing was stepping through my comfort zone which helped me enhance my skills and allowed me to find out what I truly love doing.”
Nguyen found her passion for performance as a young child, simply dancing for enjoyment. However, it wasn’t until relatively recently that she began her acting career.
“My earliest memory of theater was in 6th grade when they were hosting auditions for a show at my middle school. I was interested, but everyone around me told me not to do it. It wasn’t until 8th grade that I decided to do what I wanted and to audition,” Nguyen said.
Since then, she has found her calling within Northwest’s drama department. In last year’s spring musical, “Bring it On,” she took her dancing abilities to the stage and was featured as a first-row dancer, and this year she will star as Jasmine in the school’s upcoming fall musical, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.
“Stage life behind the scenes at Northwest is beyond amazing. I love it here with the people that I would almost consider my family. We get along and the directors and choreographers are like my second family. I owe so much to them. The students all play with each other and mess around but we take the work seriously and hope to deliver an amazing show to the audience,” Nguyen said.
Yet once she had discovered her love for theater, Nguyen wasn’t content to limit her opportunities to just within her school’s program. Earlier this year, she joined The Free Theatre, a student run theater group. She is playing Iris Kelly in the company’s December production of Fame.
“My experience with them is so amazing,” Nguyen said. “I’m relatively new to the company but they welcomed me with open arms into their ‘free family’.”
Although Nguyen sometimes gets nervous on stage, she says that the adrenaline and passion is what allows her to perform to the best of her ability. She loves that acting gives her the freedom to bring something truly unique to the stage.
“My favorite part about acting is getting a role, and putting it into my own interpretation, and making it my own and owning it on stage as another character,” Nguyen said.
Article by MoCo Student staff writer Amanda Capiton of Northwest High School
Photo Courtesy of Hannah Nguyen