Patch: Plainfield Actress Makes Professional Debut In Chicago Theater
By Dave Byrnes
Recent Plainfield North graduate Sydney Swanson is playing her first professional role in the Chicago theater circuit this December.
PLAINFIELD, IL — In the holiday production of Eleanor's Very Merry Christmas Wish, now playing in Lincoln Park's Greenhouse Theater, Plainfiled North alum Sydney Swanson plays a six-year-old girl with big hopes for friends and the future. It's a fitting first professional gig for the young actress, considering she said she's wanted to act on the stage since she was almost six years old herself.
"I got into theater when I was around eight years old," Swanson said. "I had just switched schools and the school that I switched into was doing theater, which was something I had never experienced before. I watched their show the year that I transferred in, and I just knew at that point; I was like 'I have to do this!'"
Since that time first experiencing theater at St. Ann Catholic School in Lansing, Swanson has been in a number of community and amateur productions around the Chicagoland area. She got this first professional break after impressing the Eleanor playwright and producer, Denise McGowan Tracy, with her acting and singing chops.
"When Sydney walked in, she read for us and I just had this very good sense... that, 'yeah, I want to hear more from her,'" Tracy said. "Of course then we called her back with our script and with our songs, and she did it so beautifully that it was a completely unanimous decision by myself, the director and our musical director, as well as... the composer."
The show is, in Tracy's words, a story about holiday cheer and the fundamental human desire for connection. Prior to its stage adaption, Tracy first wrote the story as a children's book in 2015. It tells the story a young girl named Noelle, recently moved to Chicago with her mother. Noelle has not many friends but a Christmas wish to make more; her wish connects her with a magical rag doll called Eleanor who shares it.
Swanson plays the young Noelle, and being a decade and change removed from her character's age, she said she took to watching old home movies of herself to prepare for the role.
"It took a lot of soul-digging to kind of remember what [being six] felt like," Swanson said. "Bringing out my inner child was the probably the most difficult part of it, but that's what family videos are for."
Tracy said she hopes this is only the first of many years that Eleanor finds its way onto Chicago stages, with plans already underway for a 2020 production season. She added that the play is designed with families and children in mind, with special seating for little ones and an opportunity for them to meet Santa right there in the theater.
"We've already started our planning for 2020, and we've had some great discussions with some other venues and some other people... I hope you'll see Eleanor playing in many theaters beginning in 2020" Tracy said.
As for Swanson, she said Eleanor is just the beginning. She plans to continue pursuing her acting career in the new decade, with a special eye to live theater.
"I wouldn't be opposed to [screen acting], but theater is first and foremost my first love and I would love to continue just doing theater forever," she said.
Eleanor's Very Merry Christmas Wish is playing now through Dec. 29. Tickets for all individuals are a flat $29.50, except for a "family four pack" where a group of four can get tickets for $100 total. Tickets are available at the Greenhouse Theater box office. For more information about show times, upcoming events and the theater itself, please visit the show's website or call (773) 404-7336.