News & Press

Governor's School drama alum lands title role at Ford's Theatre

GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA - SEPTEMBER 16, 2010 - Susan Heyward, an alumna of the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities Drama Program, makes her Washington debut at Ford's Theatre in the title role of the 1953 play Sabrina Fair. Better known as the Audrey Hepburn film Sabrina, the play is directed by Stephen Rayne and features Todd Gearhart and Tom Story as the Larrabee brothers. "Sabrina Fair is a wonderful social comedy that has largely been ignored for the last 50 yeras," director Rayne said. "We have given the story a fresh perspective by casting black actors in the roles of Sabrina and her father Fairchild and, with no changes to the script, have cast a new light on the sturggles faced in relationships across lines of race and class." Opening night is October 6.

Susan Heyward hails from Charleston and graduated with the first class of the Governor's School's Residential High School. "She was a top national recruit academically and artistically, earning scholarship offers from nearly every major arts school and several top-flight academic schools as well," says her former drama instructor, Daniel Murray, now Chair of the Governor's School Drama Department. Ms. Heyward chose to attend Carnegie Mellon University, where she earned their top arts scholarship, the Carnegie Mellon Award, given to one actor nationally each year. She studied abroad at the famed Moscow Art Theatre and graduated in 2005. She has since worked at the American Shakespeare Center, Yale Repertory Theatre, and now Ford's Theatre. In addition, her New York City credits include Ruined at the Manhattan Theatre Club, Nathan the Wise and The Oedipus Cycle at the Pearl Theatre, and I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given To Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda.

Ms. Heyward sites her early training at the Governor's School as an important factor in her present success. "The Governor's School was a haven for me," she states. "It was a place where all the curiosity, ambition, work ethic, and young talent of the state came to grow into the best artists they could. The Governor's School was the first place I gave serious thought to living the life of an artist and my two years there among like-minded students and inspiring teachers equipped me to start the journey. Today, we have a community that reaches far and wide. Govies are everywhere!"

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