She is one of the most promising up-and-coming young actors Saskatchewan's southeast has to offer, but it's a wonder if she'll ever land a role playing a character of a matching sex.
Lampman School's Sam Paxman has earned a fair bit of praise for a teenager who has only been a theatre brat for the past three years. At this year's regional drama festival, held at her home school, the Grade 10 student earned the runner-up honour in the best performance category.
Fresh from the Provincial Drama Festival in Regina May 9 to 11, her acting chops were once again recognized as she collected one of the four top acting awards. Both times she was honoured next to her classmate Maya Branyik-Thornton, who will be graduating this spring and attending theatre school in the fall.
To be entirely clear, Sam was being recognized for her role as Sam, the male lead, in Lampman's production of Boy Meets Girl: A Young Love Story. She also played Tom, another boy, in her drama club's other production The Magic Fairy in the Microwave. She even played a male character earlier this school year in her drama club's musical production.
Her drama teacher Christine Branyik-Thornton noted that because of the shortage of males currently in the program, more often than not, there are actors crossing genders in order to fill out the cast. She is thrilled to have Sam to tackle the masculine roles, and Sam has thus far taken on the parts with enthusiasm.
In one production, she played the male lead, a neurotic, allergy-ridden speller.
"It's a character role with a lot of vocal work and dancing," said Branyik-Thornton, who noted the number of males in the program ebbs and flows.
Right now it's ebbing, but the drama teacher is happy to have Sam to confidently fill in those roles.
"Sam has the ability to chameleon into any character at all. She can focus in on the germ of the character. It's not that Sam looks like a boy - I can make her look like a boy - it doesn't matter. Sam's able to take on the personality traits, and that's probably why I'm picking her all the time, because she has an advanced ability to do that."
"It was a little weird, because I had to play a boy, but I had to kind of figure out who that character was too," said Sam. "It was weird because I had to wear this wrap thing, and I had to wear a wig. Most people didn't recognize if I was a girl or a boy."
Of course, the whole idea behind a performance is to become somebody else and it sounds as though Sam did just that.
"During the adjudication for our show, the director asked who was playing Sam, and I raised my hand, and he looked at me, and he was like, 'Damn.' He threw down the script, and he was just mind-blown."
"It was very clear when the audience was watching it, they became completely invested in the show," added Branyik-Thornton. "When something would happen on stage, they would go 'Oooh' and 'Awww.' They were having an emotional, guttural reaction to the staff happening on the stage. I had someone come up to me after, and several e-mails after from other directors, going 'I had no idea Sam was a girl.' I had a lot of shock from the audience."
The first show Sam did was a musical in while she was in Grade 8. That was the first time she did any sort of performing. She said as soon as she was on the stage, she was hooked, and knew it was something she wanted to pursue.
Branyik-Thornton was there for that first production, and recalls Sam telling her in the auditions that she wasn't much of a singer.
"She said, 'Well, not really.' We put her in with Arlene Lafrentz, who is our vocal coach, and here, she has this great voice," said Branyik-Thornton, who noted Sam also takes dance and identified her as someone with the makings of a "triple threat."
This summer, Sam will be heading to Stratford to take in the professional theatre world and take part in a number of workshops. The exposure and experience over the two-week placement is something she is getting very excited about.
Her classmate, Maya, has been to Stratford for the same placement and encouraged Sam to apply. She applied in February and was accepted in April.
"I felt proud of myself for getting into something like that. It's really big, and it's going to really help me with my acting," Sam said.
For two weeks she will be immersed in the Shakespearean theatre world with 26 other students from all over the globe, going to theatre classes all day to learn different techniques. The group works six days each week, attending classes from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The students will also get to see a lot of the Stratford Shakespearean Festival's productions. This year the festival has productions of Romeo and Juliet and Measure for Measure. The group will take in about eight plays during their time in Stratford.
At the end of the two weeks, the group will perform a section of a play on stage.
Sam is excited at the prospect of learning and strengthening her craft.
"I want to be an actor when I get out of school, so that will help, hopefully," she said.
"It's total submersion in Shakespeare for two weeks," said Branyik-Thornton. "They focus heavily on Shakespeare, but the general acting techniques will transcend any genre."
Looking ahead to next year, Sam is secretly hoping that just once, Branyik-Thornton will give her a female role.
"It doesn't really matter, but I'm hoping to be a girl," Sam said with a laugh. "Wearing a wig kind of sucks."
