FRUIT HEIGHTS — Sylvia Jorgensen has a passion that transforms her.
Her joy of music and acting allows her to morph into new people and experience new sights as she performs for crowds of theater spectators and dabbles in commercials, television and film.
Jorgensen recently starred as Dolly Levy in “Hello, Dolly!” This production opened the 2011 season of the Clearfield Community Theater, and it ran from June 30 to July 9.
“I couldn’t pass this one by,” she said of the role. “It was one of my favorite parts because of the character and music. It was a role of a lifetime.”
This was her sixth musical theater play in the six years she has been back in Utah.
She and her husband, David, are both retired. After living in California for 20 years, they have moved back to Utah.
Sylvia, who worked mostly in outside sales for airline companies, put her acting on hold while in California because most performances required work on Sundays, which was not something she wanted to do. Though she continued singing in the Southern California Mormon choir, she didn’t restart acting until returning to Utah.
Her husband, David, encouraged her to audition for parts when they came back.
“It’s like the song in ‘Hello, Dolly!’ about the parade and not letting it pass her by,” he said. “She has let so many years pass by without doing this. She could have been doing it longer.”
He said she is talented and enjoys doing it, so it is something she should do as much as possible. He added that it is too bad that there aren’t more roles for more mature women, such as that of Dolly.
But that doesn’t stop Sylvia.
When she hasn’t been working in theater productions, she has been busy with her other endeavors. She has been in several film festival plays, including “Bread to Kill,” a comedy where she played a murderer, and “Chicken Boy.”
Both those plays received acclaim. The first was a finalist at the Park City Film Festival as well as winner of the director’s choice award, while the second was a finalist in the LDS film festival last year.
She was an extra in “Everwood,” which was a TV show filmed in Ogden, on multiple occasions.
No matter what she does, she says she finds joy in it.
“It’s a challenge, but it’s great fun,” she said. “You get to try to be someone or something else.”
Being in the spotlight is something she is used to. She sang in the Tabernacle Choir for 11 years and, before that, she acted in high school and had early performances on stage as a youth.
“It has been a passion all of my life,” she said. “My parents had me on the stage at 4 years old singing. I have been on the stage since then.
“I grew up on the stage.”
She plans to keep acting and singing as long as possible.
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