What is your name and grade, and what are your pronouns? My name is Bella Ruffner, I’m a 12th grader–she/her pronouns.
How did you feel playing one of the lead roles in The Prom? I love this show so much. It was the first Broadway show I ever saw. When we found out we were doing it, I was like, “no matter who I played, I would have so much fun with this”–but secretly, I was like, “I wanna be Emma.” As we got closer to auditions, I was getting really nervous. I really catered my audition package toward wanting to play Emma, but in my head, it was always kind of a dream that I couldn’t actually achieve. So when I actually saw my name on the list, it was an insane feeling.
When and how did you first get involved in theater? My parents are both theater people, so I’ve been surrounded by it for as long as I can remember–listening to soundtracks, going to see shows from a young age. But the first real show that I acted in wasn’t until around sixth grade, at Summer on Broadway theater camp. I’d been involved in theater camps when I was, like, little little, but…I mark that as the first “real” show I was in, that I was like, “Oh, I really liked doing this; let’s keep doing this.” It was James and the Giant Peach. And I was very intensely an ensemble role, but it was still a lot of fun.
What have been the benefits of theater for you? I think that theater has given me the best friends that I’ve ever made. I don’t make a lot of friends in class. I tried, but it doesn’t stick. I’ve been involved in other kinds of extracurricular activities where I didn’t feel like I really fit. Theater has given me a community and let me help grow a community for a lot of different people who are all coming from these [different] kinds of experiences [who get] new friendships that they’ve never had before. It’s given us all that special thing to look forward to every day.
What was it like preparing for your performance in rehearsals, or even just right before opening night? I was initially anxious in the rehearsal process, because it was the first time in a while that I’ve had to do a lot of character work for a person in the musical. I [hadn’t] played a big lead role in a musical at Niles North yet. But there was a lot of support. As we got closer to the performance day, I was realizing that I wasn’t so anxious anymore. The most anxiety producing part was probably having to play guitar, but overall, I wasn’t as anxious anymore. I was just really, really excited for people to come see it, to be able to show the people who have supported me for so long–through my community theater endeavors, through my other Niles North endeavors–to show them what we’ve been working on, and to just show the community at large this amazing show with an amazing message.
You mentioned doing character work: what’s one surprising fact that you and Ella decided on for Emma and Alyssa’s relationship? We were trying to figure out how we met each other, because Emma and Alyssa don’t do the same activities. Alyssa is a cheerleader, Emma stays at home and plays guitar, chillin’, because she’s ostracized from the community. We realized that it’s highlighted that they’re both high-level students, [so they] probably met each other in a high-level class. And we were thinking about [how] we’ve probably all gone to school together for a really long time, because it’s a small town, but we connected in this class. We did this little improvising exercise with Ms. Baskin, where we pretended that [our characters] were in class, working on a project together, and realiz[ed], “oh, we work really well together, we should be partners again for the next project.” [That started] the little friendship into [being] more than that.
You have a younger sister joining you in the theater department now–what’s that like? Before this school year, we had acted in a couple of things overlapping, but since we’re a few years apart, we were never in the same age groups for summer camp theater. But now, getting to do every show with her and see her work on the same things [as me], and see her grow into different roles, and make friends with people –it’s been really fun seeing her do that. I really hope that I can come back next year and see the shows she does because I want to keep seeing her make her own place here, in this department.
How did you get into math? [Math] is just something that I’ve enjoyed since middle school. I’ve always liked the core subjects, I tend to do well in classes and enjoy them. But math stuck with me after algebra, and so it’s another little highlight of my day. My favorite core subject is probably math and getting to go do calc every day. And I think that surprises people. I’ve had college representatives be like, “Oh, you’re studying theater, you probably will not want to do science and math.” And I’m like, “Actually, I love math a lot.” I think that it’s surprising to people that I have that other interest randomly, but it’s just another way that I like working my brain; [it’s] another thing that’s interesting to think about, for me.
What do you enjoy doing outside of art and theater? I am a part of VV Viking Voice, which is a lot of fun. I haven’t been able to do all of the pep assemblies, but when I do get to do them, it’s a lot of fun…I like rollerblading, I like crocheting, I like baking sometimes. I like working out, getting strong, and feeling healthy. I like reading a lot. That’s something that I struggled to find time to do around theater, but in between shows, during winter break, I was reading so many books. I read nine books in January and haven’t read any since, because of my schedule, but I do enjoy it. It’s a nice little escape from reality.
What plans do you have for your future, beyond Niles North? I will be studying theater. I’m going to get a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in acting. So a very intense, almost a conservatory-like, program, to study acting and get my experience with that. I have not yet chosen a school, but I’m in a lot of BFA acting programs and I have a good top five to choose from. I hope to be a professional actor in the future. I also like exploring the scenic painting parts of, like, the technical theater, but my main focus will be to be an actor.
If you were going into the Witness Protection Program and were allowed to create your own new identity, what character would you create for yourself? I really like the name Margarita. Probably, [my] last name [would be] Schnoogle. That’s a character I created. I used to create a lot of fun characters in middle school because that was a thing I had fun doing with friends. She would probably be a connoisseur of expensive wine and aging wine, and she would live on a vineyard, far away from any other people–Witness Protection. She would have a wiener dog, and it would be very cute, and she would take it on walks through her vineyard and make sure it didn’t eat the grapes, because dogs can’t have grapes. And she would write romantic letters in her free time, to mysterious soldiers across the sea.
How did she meet the soldiers? Through the vineyard. They like wine…she would send them photos of her wiener dog. She would live a private, romanticized life, with her soldiers. She would be really good at selling wine, and she would make a lot of money and have a lot of fancy wine collections. She’d just be a mysterious, romantic woman, overall.
And I would probably dye my hair red…I (Margarita Schnoogle) could use my grapes from my wine to dye my hair, and then it would be even more natural and beautiful, and I could use it to promote my wine business.
