Thirteen-year-old Olivia Bohlmann recently had the opportunity to meet with I Love Lucy® Live On Stage star Sirena Irwin while working on her National History Day project about Lucille Ball and took the time to share her thoughts on the experience with us below.
After seeing “I Love Lucy Live On Stage” I was able to meet a few writers and the producers from the show. I then met Sirena Irwin, who played Lucy Ricardo in the show. I interviewed her for my History Day project. National History Day is a program where middle school and high school students take an event or person in history and base it around a theme. This year’s theme is turning points in history so I thought Lucille Ball would be the perfect person to use for my project.
Since I am doing a performance this year, I needed some tips on how to portray Lucille Ball. After hearing about the I Love Lucy show in Chicago, my mom and I worked to try and see if we could interview the person who was playing Lucy.
While I interviewed Sirena, I learned about the different kind of actions, movements, and facial expressions Lucille Ball often used while on I Love Lucy. Sirena told me about the amount of in depth research about Lucille Ball and Lucy Ricardo while practicing for her role. She gave us the names of some of the books and movies she read and watched, which will be really helpful with my project. One thing Sirena said that stood out to me was that being Lucy Ricardo wasn’t about impersonating her, but instead about honoring the memory of Lucille Ball, which is what I now want my performance to be all about.
I would like to thank Broadway in Chicago for making this opportunity possible for me. Without them I wouldn’t have all these amazing resources and information that will help my History Day performance out A TON. Thank you so much Broadway in Chicago!!
