By Angela Marshall
This will be the biggest audience yet for the 11-year-old Rockville Centre resident who has her heart set on making it as an entertainer.
Sydney started out just entertaining her family, grabbing the loaf of bread every time her family ordered Italian food and running around the house singing the chorus of the Aladdin song One Jump Ahead, in which an Arabian youth flees captors after stealing a loaf of bread.
After memorizing many Disney tunes, Sydney fell in love with Annie. When her family learned a theater group in Commack was holding auditions for the musical, they decided to let her try out. Sydney made the ensemble and has earned spots in three other productions of the show, including playing the curly redhead herself at her school, Oceanside's School 2.
After years of regional theater, Sydney's parents decided it was time she got an agent and started auditioning for commercials and movies.
She finished her first movie, Once Upon A Time Never Comes Again, this summer. It is a 1950s period piece about the summer the Dodgers moved out of Brooklyn.
When Sydney's mom, Christina, learned her daughter would be singing when the Mets played the Dodgers, she new it would be the perfect way for her daughter to end the summer.
A huge Mets' fan, Sydney's dad, Seth, called around to find out how singers are selected to perform at Shea Stadium and sent in an audio tape of Sydney singing. She has performed at some football games in New Jersey and an ice hockey rink on Long Island and the family thought, Why not take the next step?
Sydney didn't think the decision makers would even call the family. But she was wrong. They called with the good news one day while Sydney was out. When she got home, her brother, Teddy, said he had a surprise. Sydney wondered if they were getting a dog. When the family broke the news, Sydney screamed and her mom took pictures of her reaction.
Before her performance, Sydney will get to spend some time practicing at Shea Stadium while the Mets are away. She can't wait for the 16th, but knows her nerves will kick in as the date gets closer. A few butterflies won't deter her. Once I start singing, I'm not nervous anymore.
Sydney's voice coach, Frank Scafuri, of Rockville Centre was not surprised she was chosen to perform at the Mets game. Vocally she's exceptional for her age, he said. She has an incredible talent.
Christina is very proud of her daughter and wants to encourage her in any way she can, but she closely monitors the youngster to make sure she's still having fun. The drives to auditions are time consuming and it means time waiting around and not playing with her friends. But Christina says that as long as Sydney isn't complaining, the family will help her in any way they can to achieve her goal. They want to protect her but not stifle her.
Making the movie gave Sydney a first-hand look at some of the more grueling aspects of acting. For one scene, seven people plus cameras and lights were squeezed into a bathroom no bigger than the inside of a car, Sydney said. It was 100 degrees out and they worked on the scene for 12 hours, sometimes wearing mud masks.
It was so hard, Sydney recalled. The itchy mud masks alternated between melting in the heat and cracking when they were dry.
Tough work or not, Sydney still valued the experience. It was very different from theater, but I liked it, she said. All the people there were great.
The movie was directed by a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York and will be shown at film festivals. If it is received well, it could be released as a feature film.
Every experience you learn, Christina said. But she loves it. She really, really loves it.
