Arts & Entertainment
Whiz Kid: Taylyn Olney Talks About Her Life on Stage
Eleven-year-old Taylyn Olney said she has been singing and acting since age 3 and aspires to be on Broadway. She stars currently as Tinker Bell in the Stagedoor production of "Neverland."
Taylyn Olney, 11, is a whiz at being on stage, this time in the Stagedoor Performing Arts production of “Neverland,” the Peter Pan story, as one of America’s most-favored characters, Tinker Bell.
The fairy with spunk sports a finely tuned streak of jealousy when it comes to Peter, the boy-man who refuses to grow up, which in the Stagedoor production is played by Hillsborough Community College student Andy Tekampe.
Tink also recoups with aplomb when she makes amends for her jealousy run amok, which results in her unholy alliance with the villainous Captain Hook, in this case, played by Todd Siverling.
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Olney studied her character and learned from the script notes, as written by the musical’s author, Terry Abbott, a 1987 graduate of Brandon High School.
“Tinker Bell, sometimes she only can have one emotion at a time,” Olney said. “And when she has that emotion, she has to set it free on somebody else.”
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Interesting.
As Olney put it: “I got that from the script, but I also flipped it up a little bit. Tinker Bell feels so much that she just has to get it out.”
Olney said she has been singing and acting “since I was 3” and has been performing in theater since her uncle, Vincent “Vinnie" Natale, asked her to perform in his show, “Saving Christmas,” with the Village Players at the James McCabe Theater in Valrico.
“I’ve been inspired by my uncle,” said Olney, who performed recently with the national tour of “The Wizard of Oz” at the Lakeland Civic Center. “I’ve been doing [theater] for so long now that I have a passion for it. I want to be on Broadway one day.”
“” continues its three-weekend run with three shows, April 15 and 22-23, at the South Bay Community Church,13498 U.S. Highway 301 South in Riverview, just south of Big Bend Road.
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