CU's Lord of Off-Broadway

Frances, the mature young daughter in Daisy Foote's new drama, Bhutan, dreams of escaping her family by one day visiting kingdoms in the Himalayas and other faraway places. Her first step in getting away from them is applying to Columbia University. In a real-life twist, Frances is played by Sarah Lord, herself a Columbia student.

Lord, a sophomore in the School of General Studies, began this acting endeavor about one year ago, when she participated in a monthlong workshop version of Bhutan presented by Cherry Lane Theatre in association with New York Stage and Film at the Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College. At that point, Lord was a part-time student at Columbia, and found the balance quite difficult. "We had 10 days to rehearse," Lord explains, "and we rehearsed all day, every day, which made attending classes really hard."

She feels fortunate to get to work for an extended period of time on Bhutan, now enjoying a full run at the newly renovated Cherry Lane Theatre, with a close cast of four people, including Tony-nominated actress Tasha Lawrence, The Laramie Project's Jedediah Schultz, and New York Stage and Film veteran Amy Redford. Lord reminisces, "When we were up at Vassar [workshopping Bhutan] for a month, Tasha was my roommate. She was like such a mother, we were really close. This cast has pretty much become my new family."

Acting is something that Lord always knew she wanted to do. And for such a young actress, she has already had much success. She started acting professionally at 12 and received her first starring role in a professional show, with the Portland Stage Company, at age 13. She graduated from high school in 2002 and left her home state of Maine to come to New York City and start seeing what she could do as an actress. She even postponed her plans for college to pursue a professional acting career.

Her first off-Broadway triumph, and one of her most notable achievements, came when she auditioned for The Fifth of July with the Signature Theatre Company. "Just the auditioning process was mind-boggling," she explains fondly. "I'm a huge musical theater dork, though I don't do it myself. When I was in the audition for The Fifth of July, Anthony Rapp [the original Mark from Rent] was sitting across from me in the lobby. ... After the audition, I started crying in the elevator, it was so emotional." From there, starting in 2003, she decided to attend General Studies at Columbia. "It just fit everything I needed," she said.

Since The Fifth of July, Lord has been making herself known on the professional circuit. She performed in Walk Two Moons off-Broadway with Theatreworks/NYC, and played the role of Candi in the 2005 independent film Backseat. She also appeared in an episode of the comedy TV series Hope and Faith.

Even while acting downtown, Lord has found time to establish herself within the theatrical community at Columbia. She's done shows with just about every student group and has acted in the King's Crown spring show every year, where last year she starred as the titular Richard III.

Lord is on leave from Columbia for the semester to act, but this is not to say that she doesn't have her foot in Columbia's theater programs: She's currently directing King John for the King's Crown Shakespeare Troupe's Festival of One-Act Plays. Balancing Columbia and rehearsals for Bhutan proved to be quite the challenge, however. "For the last two weeks of September, I completely worked my cast to death," Lord says. "And now I'm just rehearsing them on Mondays-my days off." King John will go up during King's Crown's sixth annual Festival of One-Act Plays this weekend.

On the horizon for Lord will be her return to Columbia next semester, where she intends to stay active in the theatrical community, but also, according to her, "auditioning, auditioning, and more auditioning" to pursue her professional theatre goals. And it seems as though she barely has time to rest, she says, "It's a very different schedule from Columbia. ... Thursday is still the middle of the week for me."

Much like her character, Lord has dreams of the next step in her career. "I hope Bhutan takes me somewhere," she says. She keeps her plans in perspective, though. "Even if it doesn't," she says, "that's OK because I'm just getting started." With multiple off-Broadway roles under her belt, she is well on her way.