11-year-old wins theater award

SAUGUS – A Saugus middle-schooler has won the Best Youth Actor in a Musical award at one of the state?s largest theater galas.William Fafard, 11, of the Theater Company of Saugus, won the award for his 2011 portrayal of Oliver Twist in the musical “Oliver!” at the Eastern Massachusetts Association of Community Theater?s annual Distinguished Awards and Special Honors ceremony at Carey Hall in Lexington last weekend.?It?s awesome,” said Fafard, who is entering the sixth grade next week. “When I heard my name, I felt like I was going to throw up. I was dizzy all the way running up the aisle toward the stage. It was scary for some reason. I don?t why I was scared.”Fafard said he was completely surprised to win the award after he was nominated last month.He has been acting in the Theater Company of Saugus since he was 3 and said he has been in close to 30 shows.Fafard?s mother, Joanne Fafard, called the award a “huge” accomplishment.?It?s the entire eastern Massachusetts Association of Community Theaters,” she said. “Throughout the season they go and rate all the shows and everybody in it. Basically two different judges go and see one show and rank from soup to nuts on the show.”William Fafard was one of six nominees for the award, who were chosen from more than 60 musicals.?It was so awesome,” said Joanne Fafard, a Saugus Theater Company board member. “It was like being at the Tony?s. Each of the six musicals performed a number just like Tony?s do and they read about each play and show pictures.”Joanne Fafard said her son is the first member of the Theater Company of Saugus to win such an award from the theater association.?When they announced his name we had no shot of getting up there with him,” said Joanne Fafard, who works in the reader services department at the Daily Item. “He ran down that aisle so fast.”The Theater Company performed “Oliver!” last November, and William Fafard said he fit right in as the show?s main character.?It really felt like I was actually a young English boy in London,” he said. “I don?t pay attention to what I?m saying because I?m usually focusing on everything around me, but apparently my accent was awesome.”William Fafard will be starting at the Belmonte School next week, and said he?s “very nervous” to meet all the new kids from the other schools.?I?m not excited at all,” he said.Despite this, William Fafard said he?s going to try to do “a lot” of school plays in his middle school career.William Fafard will be singing in an operetta called “The Turn of the Screw” in Winchester on Oct. 12 for a church fundraiser, where he?ll play a boy possessed by ghosts.?I?m singing with an opera star from the Met,” he said.The theater company is planning its next big fall musical with a performance of Mel Brooks? modern classic “The Producers.” The show will premiere on Nov. 9 with repeat performances on Nov. 10, 16, 17 and 18.Joanne Fafard was also recently named director of the show.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].