The Redwood High School annual spring play has come! This year’s musical is Wizard of Oz. Young actress Jersey Hays 21’ portrays the role of the scarecrow.
Hays comes from a musical family, which she says really, “Paved the way for me as an actress.” Her inspirations are her older siblings, Tyler and Mikayla Hays.
Hays is also involved with sports such as water polo and swim. This will be her third year on the varsity girls water polo team. She is also in choir. In her free time, Hays enjoys spending “Quality time with the people who make me the happiest.” Some of her close friends include Brooke O’leary and Logan Parsley.
Hays explained that she has a busy schedule during the musical, so for her, homework becomes a struggle but not impossible. She says that, “Self discipline has to be a learned strategy.”
Other than this year’s play, she has starred in musicals starting in elementary school. In middle school, she played Jemima in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. In high school, she has played Jojo in “Seussical,” And the lead role of Winnifred in “Once Upon a Mattress” and now this year, she is Scarecrow in the The Wizard of Oz.
She said that her role as Scarecrow is, “Definitely the most high energy character…It is physically demanding considering I am not made of straw but bones so my entire positioning has to be altered to make sense with my role.”
Hays also said that, “doing musicals when I was younger also sparked the adrenaline and satisfaction of live performances and I really do have a passion for it.”
Her favorite part of acting is portraying a different role, “because it teaches you how to give up yourself to be a part of something bigger.” She emphasized that this is a rare quality in our society today and that it should be focused more.
Despite her love for performing, she is not planning on a career in such arts. She hopes to see herself owning a business one day and being the “Cool Aunt” to her soon to be niece!
You can see Jersey Hays and her fellow cast mates on the 6th, 7th and 8th at the LJ Williams Theater.
Tags: #redwood #redwoodrangers, Jersey Hays, redwoodmusical, The Wizard of Oz