Kitchener dancer goes Ballroom
Ten-year-old Evlyn O’Toole lands major role in Mirvish musical production
KITCHENER — Evlyn O’Toole is only 10 years old, but she has already landed a major role in the Mirvish production “Strictly Ballroom The Musical” at the Princess of Wales Theatre, in Toronto until June 25.
“I had three call backs,” said O’Toole, an effervescent child with flowing brown hair and a lot of bouncy energy.
When the confirmation finally came following all those callbacks, O’Toole was hardly in the best condition.
O’Toole had been suffering from a nose bleed when her mother, Michele Arnal, learned she was being offered the part. The dilemma was whether to document her reaction to the good news on video, given she had a vapour rub and tissues stuffed up her nose.
Michele couldn’t hold her excitement and blurted out that she “got in.”
“I said ‘got into what?’” O’Toole recalls.
After that, it was a whirl of excitement and hard work as she prepared to take on the role of Kylie Hastings, little sister of the lead character Scott Hasting, played by Sam Lips.
In Canada, Mirvish is the biggest name in musical theatre, so to have landed a role at only 10 years old was a major achievement for O’Toole, who has trained at In. Motion School of the Performing Arts in Kitchener since she was six.
O’Toole has always been told how she’d light up whenever she saw a dance performance from the time she was just a toddler. The
music, the stage, the lights, it all excited her and now she is part of that action.
When O’Toole auditioned for the role of Kylie, she was unfamiliar with the original 1992 Australian film and her mom wanted to keep it that way.
This stage performance is an adaptation of the romantic comedy with music by contemporary pop stars.
“I didn’t let her watch it because I knew the stage performance would be very different,” said Arnal.
O’Toole is one of two children alternating as Kylie and she came to the role well prepared, hungry for a chance to perform on the big stage.
She has studied piano, takes private vocal lessons and at the studio she is learning jazz, ballet, tap, acro (dance and acrobatic combo), hip hop, lyrical and contemporary dance. As if that wasn’t enough, she is also studying acting and somehow finds time for all of it, without a lot of stress.
Her mom said that though leisure time is important, television is restricted to no more than one hour a day. O’Toole prefers enjoying her playroom instead. And the Grade five student keeps her marks up at the Waterloo French school, Mère-ÉlisabethBruyère. Is it all too much? “No, not at all,” said O’Toole. “I’ve loved to work and dance since I was young, anything artistic.” Says her mom: “She’s pretty structured. She knows how to get her homework done, she knows when to eat and when to sleep. “She’s like a little professional.”