FMHS Grad Takes Stage at TWU
Her mother Joan was in theatre as a youth, and older brother Eric performed at Flower Mound’s Shadow Ridge Middle School, so it’s no wonder Heather Sims followed suit.
Her first role was as a villager in an adaptation of Princess and the Pea in fifth grade at Garden Ridge Elementary. In seventh grade at Shadow Ridge, she played the antagonist Margaret in Bernice Bobs Her Hair. Her favorite show was The Shining Light in eighth grade when she also was the lead.
She continued performing all four years at Flower Mound High School, including her last show Blue Stockings. Most recently, the 21-year-old was the lead character in Emma, Texas Women’s University’s School of Arts and Design Division of Theatre’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s play. She performed seven times between Feb. 19-23 at TWU’s Redbud Theatre and loved every minute of it.
“I was shocked and still so grateful,” she said when she learned she was picked for the part after the mid-November auditions. A few rehearsals were held, and scripts were sent home, before the semester break with daily rehearsals beginning once school reconvened Jan. 13.
“I had read the play before, and I loved the character,” she added. “I was so excited. I had an advantage because I’d done five plays in high school and three of them were British period pieces, and so I got the accent down. But this was my first show in three years, and so the accent needed a bit of brushing off.”
This was the second production this school year for the junior history major, both directed by Dr. Patrick Bynane, professor of theatre, and director of the graduate studies program. The other was last fall when she portrayed Victor Frankenstein’s doomed bride Elizabeth Lavenza in a staged reading of a graduate student’s original version of Frankenstein.
“It’s great going into auditions because you never know who will show up for it. It’s always a wonderful surprise to have someone who comes in with confidence and poise and just kind of the attitude ‘this role is mine. I’ve got that,’” Patrick said. “Heather came in with that great positive energy and with an already strong British dialect and with a sense of poise that is right for Emma.”
Sims had to wear period costumes, hairstyles, and makeup for the part. As the lead character, she had an extensive amount of dialogue. To learn her lines, she utilized the visual flash card feature of the Quizlet study application.
“It’s funny, one thing I kept telling Emma through rehearsals was ‘you, Heather Sims are much, much smarter than Emma, but don’t be afraid to play Emma as being a bit naïve and a little less intelligent than you are personally,’” Patrick said.
“That being said, I could see right away in auditions that Heather was coming with a strong intelligence and a great sense of what makes that period the period. I think that’s one place being a history major really helped her. She understood this is an era of horse-drawn carriages; this is an era of gas lamps; this is an era of a parliamentary monarchy where the monarchy meant something. That sense of social class was an important part of British life at that point.”
When not performing on the stage, Heather can be found behind the scenes with the technical crew.
“It was designed to help us build responsibility, and the idea ‘if you are in this department you were going to help people in the department,’” she said. “That’s what I appreciated at my high school, and I understand it’s not a common thing.”
Heather returns near her home for work in Highland Village and is on track to graduate in December 2026. In the meantime, she serves as vice-president of the school’s climbing club.
Besides history, Heather is working on a minor in psychology and philosophy. While she wants to keep theater in her life, she hopes to be an academic researcher and professor focused on ancient religions.
I love theater so much,” she said. “I love being involved in the department. I’ve always been welcomed by the department and want to work with them as much as I can.”
Click here to check out the FMHS Theater Program and get tickets to the upcoming shows: fmhstheatre.net
