Superintendent’s Spotlight: Nate Fodor, Nova McRoberts & Carly Orthman

WVCSD Superintendent’s Spotlight: Nova McRoberts, Nate Fodor & Carly Orthman

Sanfordville Elementary School fourth graders and Drama Club members Nate Fodor, Carly Orthman and Nova McRoberts were the leads in the SES Drama Club’s production of 101 Dalmatians Kids. The three costars and friends are practically veterans of the stage at this point, as they all made their stage debuts last year in the drama club’s production of Finding Nemo Kids.

You can tell that the three performers enjoy collaborating and supporting one another’s creativity. They all sat down together for their Spotlight interview, which turned into a fun reminiscence about their journey in the arts together. They kept each other laughing the entire time.

Carly became interested in joining drama club last year out of an interest in choreography and being active.

“Dancing, moving; I don’t know, I just love it,” Carly said. “All the lights and stuff. And I have no stage fright; I just do not get embarrassed.”

Nova’s parents are both Broadway performers, so being around that world and seeing its possibilities is why she gravitated toward theater. Just like Carly, Nova enjoys performing for an audience.

“It just seems normal to me,” said Nova. “And I just love it, being on stage in front of a bunch of people.”

Drama Club seemed like something that “might be fun,” to Nate, who said that he “figured [he’d] give it a try” last year.

He nailed his audition, landed the role of Marlin in Nemo, and hasn’t looked back since. This year he played Roger to Carly’s Anita in Dalmatians, while Nova played one of Disney’s most infamous villains, Cruella de Vil.

Along with the entire outstanding cast – and under the direction of teachers Hayley Mistler and Allison Moren – the SESD troupe played to two sold out audiences.

“Nova, Nate and Carly gave such outstanding performances in 101 Dalmatians Kids,” said Ms. Mistler. “Watching these three grow over the past two years in drama club has been amazing. They are the most hardworking kids, and they put their everything into every rehearsal.”

While both performances were fantastic, the actors were more delighted to share behind-the-scenes anecdotes about rehearsals and performanvce day, particularly one about a near catastrophe they overcame.

“Tell the juice story! You’ve got to tell the juice story,” urged Carly. “Tell it!”

“Yea, the Kool-Aid thing, oh yea,” Nova started. “So, Nate loves Lunchables, and we were backstage having lunch between shows, and he had on an all-white shirt and his sweater vest. And… he had red Kool-Aid.”

Carly, with Nate laughing and nodding in agreement, continued, “Then someone, I guess just pushed it, and it was like slow motion. We were like, ‘Was that.. what the… did you just get that on your costume?!’ But, oh, yeah it was all over!”

Roger’s white shirt was now covered in red drink, and curtains up on the second show was quickly approaching. The actors said that the show’s production crew (“Thank you, Nate’s mom,” they all said.) rallied and new wardrobe was fitted just in time for the second show. As for the performances themselves, all three students agreed — the opportunity to be back up on stage in front of an audience was their favorite part of this year’s show.

Carly is a also member of the Sanfordville Leadership Club, which supported of the annual WTBQ Radio Toys for Military Tots Drive. Leadership Club rallied the Sanfordville school community to contribute more than 100 toys that will be given to local children this holiday season.

Nova also enjoys the visual arts, and just finished up the fall semester in Art Club with Ms. Gil. Not surprisingly, all three performers also play instruments! Nate loves playing cello in the orchestra and Nova feels the same about playing flute in band, but all three agree that Carly may have chosen the coolest instrument of the three.

“Oh yea, she plays the big one,” Nate said. “That thing’s, like, whoa!”

“Yea, I play the big boom,” Carly added, gesturing the approximate height of her upright bass with her hand. “I don’t know why, but I just loved the upright bass right away. I guess the E string is a little hard, but I like it anyway.”  

Nate, Nova and Carly all plan to continue pursuing the arts next year in middle school. They’ll be participating in the instrumental program and all plan to audition for roles with the WVMS Drama Club.

“In middle school, they do their plays at the high school auditorium, so I’m very excited for that,” said Carly. “And they have more like sound effects and lights, more of that kind of stuff.”

In case you were wondering, Nova played Nemo and Carly played Crush last year in Nemo.

“The SES drama club is going to miss these three next year,” said Ms. Mistler, “but I cannot wait to see them shine in Middle School Drama Club.”

Bravo, Nate, Nova and Carly!

(l-r) Carly Orthman, Nate Fodor & Nova McRoberts