Senior Silas Ward has only been at Reynolds for a year, but has used her love of performance to make her mark on the school through performances like her solo in the song Reflections during the 2015 Follies, or as Velma in this spring’s musical Hairspray. Her love for acting started at a young age.
In kindergarten, Ward remembers being forced to do a play, which founded her affection for theater. She then moved on to community productions.
“(Doing plays) was really fun so I just kept on doing it, but didn’t get big roles,” Ward said. “I thought I was always going to be in chorus.”
Ward found that acting here in Winston-Salem was less stressful then the acting scene in Albany, New York where she is originally from.
“There are more opportunities in New York, more plays going on and it’s just easier to get around but the performances here are just as good. The plays here are more conservative but I think that’s because it’s high school,” Ward said.
Ward is known around Reynolds not only for her acting, but for her singing. She partakes in the a Capella group Syncopate, as well as taking on solos in the musical productions.
“She had one of the most beautiful solos,” theater teacher Linda Moody said.
Ward prefers straight forward acting as opposed to musicals; she believes her strongest performance was during this school year’s Senior Scenes that took place in late January. In Senior Scenes students perform their favorite adaption of a scene that could be from a movie or play.
Ward played the role of Officer Sterling from Silence of The Lambs, the character played by Jodie Foster in the movie adaption.
“(Ward) did an excellent job in senior scenes; she has done amazing work in the things she has been a part of” Moody said.