WILL KARR
Editor in Chief
In 2019, Fredonia alum and former theatre student Genevieve Ellis was warming up for her senior recital and preparing for life after graduation. But, one microscopic medical discovery put a halt to all of her future plans. As she approached graduation, she explained how “things went awry.
“I remember my voice just was suddenly not working correctly as I was going to these auditions,” Ellis said. “… Doctors eventually found a cyst on my vocal cords during my senior and final year. I had to cancel my senior recital. … All of the plans that I had to move to New York with friends and any job offers that I had at the time, I had to turn them all down. I had to pause completely and now prioritize this thing.”
Ellis graduated from Fredonia with her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts (BFA) in musical theatre in May 2019. She is currently performing in the Ensemble for the 2022 U.S. National Tour of “Les Miserables” while serving as an understudy for the character Fantine.
Ellis had vocal cord surgery about a month after her graduation. As a result, she wasn’t allowed to speak for a month or sing for three months.
Before coming to Fredonia, Ellis graduated from Chautauqua Lake High School (CLHS) in the town of Chautauqua (CHQ), N.Y. She transferred to CLHS from Southern California during her senior year of high school.
Ellis was born in South Africa but grew up in California. Ellis explained how there were not a lot of opportunities at her school in California primarily due to underfunding of the arts.
“My high school theatre department in California was seriously so underfunded that it was sad. … The shows we did were very small and not very well known,” Ellis said. “… When we moved to Chautauqua Lake during my senior year, it was the first time they were doing a musical that I knew. They were doing ‘Little Women.’ That was a big change. … It was nice to do a musical that people knew.”
In addition to underfunding, Ellis explained how she was heavily involved with martial arts growing up, causing her to forgo participating in different shows. She has a first-degree black belt in karate.
“As I got older, it would make sense for there to be more opportunities and things for me to do, but I did martial arts my entire childhood,” Ellis said. “I did it for a total of [about] 12 years. … I was there every single day, and I would teach. So there were not a lot of shows that I did growing up.”
“My mom told me that I started acting as Snow White as a kid and that I would force my family to watch me reanact scenes from it. I would do it and put on shows for my family.” – Ellis
However, one day a week, Ellis would swap out her karate belt for a belt-out session with a vocal coach. After moving to CHQ, Ellis was cast as the lead in “Little Women.” Ellis explained that she decided to come to Fredonia after high school because it was close to CHQ Lake.
“If I had not moved to New York when I did, I would not have known about SUNY Fredonia. I am so glad that I found out about this school and that they had a great BFA program,” Ellis said. “I didn’t have any former training or experience.”
Ellis said that since both her parents were raised in South Africa, they didn’t understand how the college application and admissions process worked. Ellis applied to five schools and was eventually accepted into Fredonia. She was “nervous” and “intimidated” at first coming to Fredonia and about Mainstage auditions during the first week.
“I had my first day on a Monday and then on Tuesday, I was auditioning for all the shows for the entire year. It was nerve-wracking,” Ellis said. “… I remember it being said that ‘oh, freshmen don’t get cast,’ but I got cast my freshman year in a Mainstage, which was so crazy and cool. I remember ‘Cabaret’ was the first Mainstage that I did … It was the first show I ever did that dealt with adult themes. I felt like a grown up.”
In addition to “Cabaret,” during her time at Fredonia, Ellis performed in productions of “Noises Off” and “Pirates of Penzance.” During her senior year, before her diagnosis, Ellis participated in the Fredonia dance ensemble as a non-dance major.
“It was really rewarding and so cool. It was really interesting to see how rehearsals are so different for dance productions versus theater, musicals and plays,” Ellis said. “It was extremely rewarding and that was one of my favorite things that I did at Fredonia.”
After the dance ensemble, Ellis missed out on many other senior events as a result of medical restrictions. However, in October 2019, five months after graduation, Ellis said that she started to regain vocal strength. In March 2020, Ellis went to her first after-college audition in NYC before the pandemic. However, she contracted COVID-19 at the audition, presenting her with another obstacle.
“The pandemic hit and everything shut down. Unfortunately, in addition to me not being able to perform much, I was sick for about a year and a half with long-haul COVID[-19] symptoms and couldn’t breathe. I was having heart problems, fatigue and some serious lung issues,” Ellis said. “I was still singing as much as I could. But, I was so sick, which was just another really big blow.”
Ellis eventually ended up moving to Buffalo and enrolled in a voice pedagogy course to regain vocal strength. As a non-union actress, Ellis realized that she had acquired no professional credits on her resume for after graduation. However, she explained that she started going on PLAYBILL looking for jobs and opportunities at the start of 2022.
“I was extremely lucky and saw the posts on PLAYBILL for Les Miz the day it was posted,” Ellis said. “Les Miz was a show that I have wanted to do since I was a child so I knew that I had to submit for it.”
Ellis submitted a self-tape of her singing Fantine’s parts the day the role was listed. When she submitted it, as a non-union-represented actress with no equity credits on her resume, Ellis said that she never expected anyone from the casting department to actually watch it.
“I [eventually] got an email asking me to come in for an in-person appointment and I thought that they had sent the email to the wrong person,” Ellis said. “I almost emailed them back and said that they had the wrong person. But, my name was in the email a couple of times, so I was quite flabbergasted.”
Ellis took a train to NYC for the audition. She was eventually summoned back on two occasions for work-study and a call back for finals. One night, Ellis got an email about ten minutes before she was about to go on for a performance in Buffalo that she had officially booked the part as a member of the Ensemble on the Fantine track. There are two understudies in the Ensemble for every character.
“To this day, I still have moments where I pinch myself,” Ellis said. “… There were a lot of things. One, I didn’t think I’d be able to book it because I was non-equity. Two, at one point I didn’t think I would ever be able to sing again. And now here I am singing a song that I have wanted to sing since I was eight and being able to do what I want to do.”
Reagan Ellis, Genevieve’s younger brother, expressed how proud he is of her for overcoming so many different obstacles to get to where she is now.
“One of the many things that I admire most about my sister is her dedication and determination to succeed in such a ruthless profession,” Reagan Ellis said. “I believe she wouldn’t be where she is now with [her] knowledge and capability if she hadn’t gone through the struggles and setbacks that she did. They molded and shaped her into the young woman she is today, and I couldn’t be more proud of my older sister.”
Darin Schulz, executive director of the Faculty Student Association (FSA), whose daughters went to CHQ Lake with Ellis expressed his thoughts on her big stage debut.
“It was obvious the talent she possessed and the extreme passion she felt for performing,” Schulz said. “To see that she has now made her debut in ‘Les Miserables’ is no surprise, and I expect wonderful things as her career progresses.”
Ellis has been traveling across the country since the tour started back in October 2022. Reagan Ellis was able to see her perform on opening night.
“Seeing Gen perform on stage, a dream I know she’s had from a very young age, was such a heartfelt experience because I know she’s following her dreams to the fullest,” Reagan Ellis said. “… It was definitely a full circle moment, too, watching her up on the stage because although I could hear her [singing on stage], I could still also hear the younger version of her yelling [the words to] ‘One Day More!’ in her room.”
Ellis chooses to drive from stop to stop on tour. She travels with a furry traveling companion — her dog Bentley. Ellis said it’s been an adjustment adapting to the fact that she no longer has a home base.
“Going to all the cities and visiting new places has been such a cool way to see the country,” Ellis said. “We don’t have ‘work’ until the evening, so we have the whole day to explore cities and sightsee.”
Show dates are currently released to the public through Fall 2023. However, Ellis expects the tour to be on the road for longer.
Ellis wanted to offer advice to current Fredonia theater students and the upcoming Class of 2023 graduates.
“Something that I had learned that I wish I had known a bit earlier was to always keep learning. There is always opportunity for growth regardless of how far you have come or how much progress you think you are making,” Ellis said. “I learned a lot at Fredonia. But, after graduating, I continued to learn and that is what propelled me so much, within my pedagogy training, my voice training and other master classes.”
Gen’s advice for the Next GEN-eration of theatre students:
- Always continue to learn and seek opportunities
- Do not submit for everything, only what you are passionate about
- “Always post your work because it can be seen and you have no idea who is watching it.” Ellis said that she has gotten jobs through her social media posts, videos and presence. Follow Gen on Instagram and Tik Tok at @genevieve.ellis .