Finding his voice: MFHS sophomore wins best actor award

By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula

Not every 16-year-old can portray a sexagenarian, Russian milkman with riotous emotions and a Yiddish accent.

However, soft-spoken Marble Falls High School sophomore Wolf Williams mastered Tevye (the protagonist in the classic musical Fiddler on the Roof) so well he walked away with the coveted Best Actor in a Lead Role award at the Greater Austin High School Musical Theatre Awards. 

A theater and choir student, Williams and hundreds of theater students and teachers gathered last week at the Long Center for Performing Arts in Austin to celebrate their craft with a host of 15 awards for everything from costume and set design to choreography.

“It’s one of the top three awards that are given away,” said MFHS Choir Director Bryce Gage. “It’s an incredible honor; we’re really proud of him.”

The panel of judges, who are art professionals, based their decision on Williams’ acting and singing during a performance of Fiddler on the Roof.

“It was awesome; it was a lot of fun,” Williams said.

For the lead actor award, Williams competed against eight other high school students from schools both public and private from an eight-county region around Austin.

The winner had already been determined before the nine actors stepped on stage in Austin. The 10-minute performance of a medley of songs was “part of the honor of the nomination,” Gage said. “It was like the Tony’s or the Oscar’s.”

Williams said he was prepared after rehearsing for three weeks, so his level of nervousness was low.

Besides, the winner had been determined, so he figured if he made a mistake the worst that could happen was a few guffaws, Williams said.

No one laughed at him.

“It looked like some random old man and eight teenagers trying to play their parts” because Williams’ portrayal of Tevye “was so believable,” Gage said.

The judges saw it, too.

“They saw Tevye,” Gage said. “They immediately recognized the incredible talent it took to pull that off.”

Gage added that judges are unaware of actors’ ages, “so they probably thought he was a senior.” 

Tevye is a difficult character to master.

“He has a wide range of emotions, from crying when he has to banish his daughter from the family to joyous moments of dancing with his wife for the first time,” Gage said.

He’s also an iconic character.

“It’s a really familiar play so people have preconceived notions of what the character should be,” Gage explained.

Many people expect to see Topol, the actor in the 1971 movie.

Williams said he has only watched bits and pieces of the film.

Of course, he had to look 50 years older, so he wore layers of clothes and a fat suit fashioned from a pregnancy suit they bought online. “We took some foam out of the midsection and created shoulder pads and filled it out,” Gage said.

Finding his voice

Williams has been involved in theatre since he was eight years old, but singing is new territory. “Last year I was in my first musical but I didn’t sing anything in it,” Williams said. Still, he signed up for choir like many theater students.

“He [Gage] basically taught me how to sing this year,” Williams said.

Dealing with nervousness is no problem after nine years on stage.

“I usually get nervous five minutes before going on stage,” Williams said. At the Long Center performance, “it was more excitement than nervousness.”

Williams said he enjoys making characters his own, “translating” them. Then he becomes attached: He was sad when he had to take off Tevye’s beard after the performance, having known him since being cast in September.

Gage said the severance of a character after a show’s run is like a divorce.

“It’s like the character came home and said, ‘I’m moving on',” he said.

Williams said Tevye found a place within him, and he rejoiced when called to play the character again. “I hope I can play him again someday.”

After Fiddler on the Roof was over, Williams delved into a character in Moon Over Buffalo that was the opposite of Tevye, as he switched gears from a musical drama to a comedy. Williams is not sure yet what he wants to do for a living, but it’s clear that acting has a big place in his life.

“It’s the audience response” that keeps him on stage, he said.

“I’ve been doing a lot of comedies lately, and it feels amazing to make somebody laugh,” Williams said, not to mention the roar of a laughing crowd.

Williams knows he couldn’t do it on his own. His parents have driven him to hundreds of rehearsals.

“I’m really shocked and really grateful” for teacher mentors in the theatre and choir departments, Williams said.