Getting To Know Fagin's Gang | An Interview Series | Feature # 7 | Nessa St. Clair

The St. Clair girl trilogy continues today with another Fagin's Gang interview of the second St. Clair sister in our show, Nessa! Nessa is 11 years old and a member of the kid's ensemble in our production of Oliver! However, this is certainly not her first rodeo. As part of the infamous St. Clair theatre clan she has had her fair share of production experience! She told me her favorite song is 'Food, Glorious Food' because, "It's fun learning how to do the exact same steps with a bunch of people. It's also kind of difficult but a lot of fun."

Her prior theatre work at Greenville Theatre has been Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol, and most recently Beauty and The Beast, where she played a dancing sugar cube. In A Christmas Carol she played ‘Hunger’ with The Ghost of Christmas Present. “We were under his cloak and had to walk with him. Then we stuck our hands out and when he opened the cloak we would crawl out and up to Scrooge saying ‘Help me…’,” she commented. Nessa said about Greenville Theatre, “I really like working here because I like meeting new people,

working hard in the shows, and the costumes are always cool.”

Her first show ever was actually The Little Mermaid Jr. at the Younts Performing Arts Center where she played a starfish. She has also recently performed at Mauldin Cultural Center in Lion King Jr., James and The Giant Peach, and Shrek Jr.. She fondly recalled working on Lion King Jr. because it was the first show she had a lead role in. She played the hyena Ed and had this awesome goofy laugh, which I got to experience first hand. Then in Shrek Jr. she played Teen Fiona and a Dragonette.

Knowing her family’s involvement in theatre, I asked Nessa if she thought she would have been interested in this without any guidance. “Probably not,” she responded, “because I also really like to do art so I think that I might have chose art over theatre, but now I really like theatre as well as art.” This

prompted me to see what Nessa enjoys doing besides theatre. “I like to play piano, art, and crafting. I mainly like to paint scenes, like landscapes. I have also started to draw and paint people. I am even in an art class now so I go there every Monday and Wednesday, and we just finished working on clay pots.” She then proceeded to tell me about some really cool projects she has been working on in class. Intrigued by her love of painting, we even discussed a potential future as a scenic artist in theatre. Nessa also told me how she helps out her mother, who is a dance teacher, in class and enjoys working on all styles of dance school as ballet, jazz, and tap.

Nessa also told me how she enjoys caring for animals. The St. Clair family has a handful of pets in their

home that include a bunny, a fish, a kitten and a cat. “Both cats we actually rescued from the sewers, one we named Oscar and he is more of an outside cat and the other one we rescued before hurricane Florence so we nicknamed her Flo.” She then told me how she loves to cuddle with her by laying on her chest and under her neck, which is cute but can be a little uncomfortable. I also asked Nessa what it was like growing up with a large number of siblings .

“It’s fun having five sisters. It’s fun most of the time because we can play games with each other.” She spoke how even when things get difficult with her sisters, they always work it out and continue to love and support each other.

Surprising no one, I ended the interview with my favorite question to ask: what word would you use to describe Oliver!? She confidently said “Exquisite” and then also followed it with “Challenging, because there is a lot of choreography and singing. Plus keeping up with life and theatre.”

Well, that’s the inside scoop! We hope you have enjoyed getting to know Nessa St. Clair and we will see you Tuesday for our next feature!