Uncommon Interview: Sophie Hoyt, Fourth-year and Actress

For the busy UChicago student, carving out time to participate in campus theater and attend weekly rehearsals can be challenging, if not impossible. Fourth-year Sophie Hoyt, however, has not let the pressures of her impending graduation or her A.B. deadlines deter her from joining the cast of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, currently being staged by the Redtwist Theatre located in northern Chicago. The play centers around Helen Alving, a widow who struggles to protect her son Oswald and her beloved maid Regina—played by Hoyt—from her late husband’s dark secrets. Directed by Erin Murray, this adaptation chooses to portray Regina and her father as Black, complicating the onstage power dynamics and adding a welcome critique of white feminism for a modern audience. Hoyt’s portrayal of the tragic-yet-dignified victim—from her nervous energy addressing her mistress to her quivering anger upon being betrayed—delivers the emotional force the performance needs.  

The Maroon spoke with her about her experience working on Ghosts and other productions at UChicago and beyond. 

 

Chicago Maroon: The time commitment of working for a professional theater company on top of being a student must be huge! How much work goes into a production like this? 

Sophie Hoyt: It’s definitely a lot of work. Shows like Ghosts require a lot of planning and preparation, especially because it’s the world premiere of this adaptation. They offered me the role of Regina back in June, so that’s when the process started for me. We didn’t actually start work as a full team until September, but once we got started we were in rehearsal up to five days a week for four to six hours at a time.  

CM: You’ve been in a lot of other productions before; what do you think makes Ghosts special? 

SH: As a person of color, I rarely envision myself playing classic roles as…most of these parts were written to capture the white experience. To have the opportunity to re-envision these stories in an inclusive and contemporary context speaks to their staying power. I rarely get to play biracial characters, so Regina is a kind of landmark for me.   

CM: Tell me a bit about your theater background before coming to UChicago. How did you first get into acting? 

SH: Before coming to UChicago, I went to an arts high school in New York called LaGuardia where I studied acting. It’s a conservatory-style training program that allowed me to foster my love for acting at an early age in a really structured and disciplined way.    

CM: What drew you to theater? 

SH: I think theater allows us to become more compassionate and empathetic people. If we can sit and listen to another person’s story and try to understand them, maybe we can take that and bring it into our everyday lives. 

CM: What other projects have you been involved with on campus? 

SH: I’ve done a lot of UT [University Theater] shows and a few Fire Escape projects over the last four years. The great thing about working with on-campus groups is that it gives you the opportunity to experiment with various creative roles. Some of my favorite experiences with UT have been in design capacities, doing costume and directorial assistant work. And next quarter I’ll be working as a dramaturg for Machinal, which I love because it’s such a female-heavy team!