The Lake Today

When Sylvia Thompson stepped onto the balcony during the famous restaurant scene of “Hello Dolly!,” put on by the former Lake Area Performing Arts Guild, in the ‘90s, the response she received was one of the most incredible moments of her career in theater and her life.

“The spotlight hit me and I got applause, and I hadn’t even opened my mouth. I felt waves of appreciation, affection and love coming from the audience. I was so overcome with their appreciation of me that it was all I could do not to cry,” she said. “Standing there in the spotlight in that red dress and having people applaud just because I stepped on the stage was incredible and totally unexpected. I was just so grateful to them for their kindness. It was a very touching moment and I will remember it as long as I live.”

Of the hundreds of characters Sylvia Thompson has embodied on the stage at the Lake, in Sedalia and around the world, “Dolly” was one of her favorites. For Sylvia, performing is in her blood and has been since she was a small child. Yet, as an adult, it is something she continues to do not only for her own appreciation of the arts but for the enjoyment of the audiences she performs to and as a charitable hand to those who want to grace the stage like she.

Not only will Sylvia perform as a1931 Troupe member and featured actor in the upcoming Ozark Ghost Stories Oct. 28 on Bagnell Dam Strip, but she continues to bring awareness of women’s rights through performances in her co-ran Goddess Productions, teaches self-esteem and confidence through her instruction as part of the international program, Power of One, and recently brought back the importance of intimate theater through the recent opening of the Thompson O’Sullvan Studio Theatre, a black box theatre in which she and other major contributors opened to aid the theater department at State Fair Community College in her native Sedalia.

Her life is on the stage, and her heart is where performance can be seen and heard. Sylvia is often in the Lake Area community, one of the main arteries that has kept the theater’s pulse still beating.

Out of the costume chest

One of Sylvia’s first childhood memories was tuning herself to the family’s piano.

As an only child growing up in Sedalia, she remembered one incident where the piano tuner came by her house. Her mother was doing her thing, and the piano tuner was doing his. However, his interest in little Sylvia’s apparent music talent made him talk to her mother.

“The piano tuner came in and said, ‘Mrs. Thompson, have you been listening to this child?’ She said, ‘Well, no.’ ‘Listen,’ he said. He would hit a note on piano; I would sing the note. He would do a little run; I would sing that run. He said, ‘This child has talent and has an ear for music. As soon as she is old enough, you need to start her on piano lessons,’” she explained. “So as soon as I could read and was in school, my mother took me at 6 years old and I started piano lessons.”

By 10 she was playing flute and at 14 she was taking vocal lessons. However, young Sylvia’s imagination also fueled her theatrical talents. In her above-garage play room, she often pulled out the many old Halloween costumes, dresses, heels and plastic sheet she used for trains, mink wraps and other accessories for her inventive “play” characters.

“I can’t remember a time I wasn’t playing dress up and creating characters,” she said. “I also did commercials. I couldn’t come in and get a glass of milk out of the refrigerator; I had to come in and do this whole commercial about the glass of milk. My mother would look at me and say, ‘Where do you get this stuff.’”

She began her on-stage work in second grade, performing as Mrs. Santa Claus in the play. She also joined every music-related group in grade and high schools, delving more into theater when it was most offered in her upperclassmen years.

Her first big role was as Snoddy in the play, ““Thar’s Gold in Them Thar Hills.” For Sylvia, this leading role was one she did not take lightly. Her character was supposed to be dirty, unless she was dusting herself off to impress the man she hoped to marry. So, she borrowed dirt from her mother’s garden, ashes from the fireplace and doused herself in a mixture of grime and dust that made for on crowd-pleasing performance.

“When I came out on stage, every time I moved dust just rolled off of me. It was not exactly what I was trying to accomplish, so it was comic genius by default,” she said. “The audience just roared, every time I was trying to straighten myself, the dust just flew. It took three baths to get clean. My mom and dad were in the audience, and they said, ‘You were great and so funny, but did you have to be so dirty?’”

Sylvia held additional roles in high school plays and musicials, such as “Flower Drum Song,” but she got even more involved in community theater once she attended Williams Woods University. Starting as a double major in piano and vocal, she delved into roles in “Our Town” and “Sleeping Beauty” to satisfy her appetite to be on stage. She left college and came back to Sedalia for a few years, participating back on stage as part of the Jaycee Follies. Then, she took a four-year hiatus from the theater before moving back to Sedalia again in 1984 to aid her mother, who subsequently passed away from cancer.

“After my mother died, I decided to stay in Sedalia and took a part in the community theater there. I had a role in ‘The Miracle Worker’ and a professor who was involved in the theater at the time encouraged me to go back to college,” she said.

Before heading back to school at State Fair Community College in Sedalia, Sylvia took her love for the theater and arts in general and given back by participating on various arts boards in central Missouri. She was on the Scott Joplin Board in Sedalia, and became the first paid administrator for the Scott Joplin Festival. Sylvia also served on the Missouri Association of Community Arts Agencies Board (MACAA) in Sedalia.

Once attending college, she had started with a business major, then moved to public relations. However, after her first play she decided that a theater major was what she truly needed to pursue. So she did, earning her degree and a wealth of knowledge from the talented theater department and fellow thespians.

“I had a wonderful time at State Fair and had many wonderful roles and experiences on stage there,” she said. “It was a natural thing for me to perform, and it was never scary or stressful. It was just as easy for me as could be. I have so much fun when I am on the stage, I have so much fun it feels like it should be sinful.”

Breaking ground on stage

In 1990, Sylvia moved to Lake of the Ozarks and immediately sought out the community theater here.

“I went up to the Brass Door (Restaurant) and asked if there is community theater in town. The man said, you need to meet my wife, Dixie (Larkin),” she said. “I was part of a Tennessee Williams trilogy and from there one was in at least one play a season, if not more.”

That group, the former Lake Area Performing Arts Guild, had numerous plays, musicals, one-act performances and various other events that kept the Lake abound with theater throughout the year. Sylvia said she served her time on the LAPAG board, as president and as the “voice of LAPAG” helping to run the box office for ticket sales for two years, which meant the ticket hotline rang to her home.

Sylvia recalls many fond memories from LAPAG productions, including her representation as Dolly, as well as playing Mother Watts in the play, “Trip to Bountiful.”

“The woman was in her late 70s/early 80s, and I liked the character because it was a stretch and a dramatic role,” she said. “She had so much spunk, heart and drive. It was a beautifully written play.”

Other favorite roles that pushed her talents to extremes were a lightly dressed stripper, Miss Electra in the musical, “Gypsy,” and as part of a series of one-act plays, “Introduction to Compelling Theater.”

For Sylvia, the latter was her role that was included in a set of three, one-act monologues, called “Lunacy.” All three plays’ antagonist character was a bathroom door that locked on its own. For Sylvia’s character, she was an abused spouse and escaped to the bathroom to clean and get away from her husband. Yet, the one act delivers a powerful punch into what Sylvia’s character will do in a certain situation.

“She hears the kitchen timer go off and the roast is done. He is sleeping off a drunk on the other side of the door and if she knows if she wakes him up, he’ll beat her again. She knows if she doesn’t wake him up the roast will burn and he will beat her again,” she said. “For 17 minutes, I’m doing this heartbreaking monologue, and at the end of 17 minutes I climbed in the tub and committed suicide. People were uncomfortable; they shuffled; they cried; they left. It was an amazing piece of work. That is some of the finest work I have ever done.”

‘Coming full circle’

Her current projects include continuing her work with Goddess Productions for which she is a founding member and executive producer, and with The Power of One. Goddess Productions has performed various productions here at the Lake with the purpose of profits to be for the benefit of abused women and children.

The Power of One’s purpose is one person can make a difference in the world. In conjunction with The Power of One, each winter Sylvia travels to the Far East to Thailand to work with young people. The group works with an elementary school close to the Burmese border to rehabilitate and upgrade the facility.

Sylvia is an adult mentor who utilizes her background in theater to organize a production with the participating youth both locally and from around the world. She casts, directs and emcees the production.

For the 2011 event, there were participants from the United States, Canada, England, Thailand, Mexico, and South Africa. The program has been so well received that they will be expanding it to have a program in South Africa for 2012. Sylvia said the Thailand experience, which spans nearly a month each year, the children get to spend time at a Elephant Nature Park. She said about the third day of the program, one child will ask if another child knows a certain game. Typically the children do and they all join in the fun. She said that is what is so beautiful and amazing to see is when the children, who may not even speak the same language, learn to find common ground and learn from each other and their cultures.

She also noted that the Power of One has also started scholarship programs to help send certain children involved in the program to higher education and schooling. She said this is a great asset to the program and has seen good, talented and smart but less fortunate children get the proper education they need to deserve.

Thompson’s local philanthropy is also found at the Thompson O’Sullivan Studio Theater on the campus of State Fair Community College in Sedalia, which had its grand opening Oct. 6.

Sylvia is the principal donor for an 88-seat black box theater, which will have its grand opening with the production of “Honus and Me.” A black box theater is an intimate setting between actors and audience. The scenery is minimal with smaller casts of 10 or less. Because of the more intimate setting, experimental plays can be tested and presented along with the more standard productions, much like what Sylvia was used to doing while studying theater on the State Fair campus. In fact, this theater is where she would practice and perform her plays while in school with the help of a beloved professor. She donated her funds and inspiration to help build this theater in honor of the professor and once head of the theater department at the college. Sylvia’s credits include performing on both U.S. coasts as well as all over the United States and six foreign countries. In addition to the United States, she has performed in Thailand, Bali, Italy, Greece, Egypt, England, and Canada. In Missouri, she has performed here at the Lake of the Ozarks with LAPAG, with the Royal Theater in Versailles, in Jefferson City, and, of course, with her roots in Sedalia. She will be continuing that legacy in late winter 2012 with a Terrence McNally musical, which opens March 1, 2012. The performances will be at the Sedalia Community Theater at the Liberty Center.

She continues to nurture the youth of our area with her support as a major sponsor of the Missoula Children’s Theater through the Lake Arts Council. Their summer performance enables our young people to experience a full production from audition and casting through performance with full costumes and music in a week. It is truly a sight to behold and enjoy.

For Sylvia, her contributions to theater globally and locally both on charitable and pure theatrical levels are ones she just feels in her heart to do. She will be a part of the Witch’s Cauldron at the Ozark Ghost Stories and Other Scary Tales” on Oct. 28, but for her it’s a great opportunity to be involved and get other involved in performance arts.

“I’ve had a long healthy career in theater here at the Lake. I have had a lot of really really wonderful roles,” she said. “There is a lot of wonderful plays out there and I have had a chance to do quite of few of them.”

“People come up to me and say, ‘You look like you are having so much fun up there.’ And I am. I love performing.”

For more information about the Thompson O’Sullivan Studio Theatre, call the Box Office at 660-530-5814 or visit www.sfccmo.edu/thearts. For more information about the Power of One program, visit www.bluestarofhope.org.

The 1931 Troupe organizers contributed to this article.