Musical theatre major and Sylvania native Hayley Reynolds has played many roles and garnered many laughs in her young career. Beginning in January, she will experience the academic opportunity of a lifetime when she has the role of a student at Chicago’s Second City Training Center, arguably the nation’s best-known home of comedy and satire. She was chosen to attend classes in comedy, learning its history, writing it, and developing the physical, vocal, and improvisational skills to perform it. She will earn 16 credit hours toward her degree at Ohio Northern University while plying Chicago’s comedy and improvisation venues.
“I didn’t get the word that I had been chosen when I expected it,” Reynolds says. “They had me enrolled at the college connected to the program but not in the program, and it took a week to straighten out that glitch in the application. That was a nerve-racking seven days before I got the email that my application had been accepted. I opened the e-mail at seven in the morning and only told a few people until I was sure. Then I called everybody!”
Asked about her reason for applying to the program, she answered, “I am an outgoing person, but I don’t try to be funny. People tell me that I am funny, so I liked the idea of exploring roles outside my own skin. Maybe it is a hidden talent, I don’t know.”
What she does know is that comedy is hard work. “Anyone can tell a joke, but great comedy is not easy. It takes a lot of effort to affect comedic timing and a strong point of view for each character. “When I approach a comedic character, my goal is not just to make people laugh. I use the other characters around me to feed off and, above all, I focus on having fun. I really strive to commit to each character through physical movement and voice work. My favorite part about comedy and improv is the creativity I get to use.”
Reynolds has been performing since she was eight, appearing in more than 50 productions through several local theater companies. She attributes all of her comedic acting techniques and training to her past directors, including Trish Sanders at Notre Dame Academy. Sanders pushed Reynolds to develop new voices and become more of a physical actress, skills she has used since performing on the stage at NDA and in statewide and national forensic competitions while she went to school there. She has appeared in dramatic & comedic productions at Ohio Northern and was part of a seven-member University troupe that performed in England last year.
Sanders is pleased for her former student, saying, “This program will develop skills that musicals alone don’t develop. Hayley has the energy, creative vision, and talent that will allow her to make the most of what Second City has to offer. She really is a triple threat because she can act, sing, and dance. Plus, she has a mobile comic face; she is the whole package.”
While she waits for the program in Chicago to start, Reynolds continues to “work.” She recently played Logainne Schwartzandgrubnierre in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (“my favorite role, I think”) and reprised her role of Pixel the Elf in ONU’s holiday spectacular. On break from school, she vows to watch her favorite comedic actors (Robin Williams, Tina Fey, Steve Carrell, and Ellen DeGeneres, among others) to see if she can pick up any pieces of their art. She’ll keep in touch with her future classmates on Facebook, and spend time doing the required reading for the academic work.
“The first comic scene of my Chicago adventure will probably be navigating the transportation system,” she predicts. “We don’t get much rehearsal for commuter trains in little Ada, Ohio!”
