Zara keen to honour Dolly’s legacy
Zara Thompson says she has felt a new connection to country music superstar Dolly Parton who died last week.
The Cambridge based third year Wintec student plays Doralee Rhodes in the upcoming production of 9-to-5; The Musical at Hamilton’s Meteor Theatre.
It’s the role Parton played in the 1980 movie of the same name. Parton sang the theme song and starred alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.
The film followed the trio’s effort to overthrow their company’s sexist vice president.
The musical will be on stage in Hamilton in November and Thompson will be singing the theme – one of Parton’s biggest hits.
For Thompson the context has changed with the death of Parton on August 25 – “I have a new found responsibility to carry on her legacy.”
She has done more research into Parton’s life since her death finding that she was a proto-feminist and philanthropist. That increased her respect for the recording artist.
“I didn’t realise the extent of how much she did in the world, I have only recently found out.”
Thompson lives in Cambridge with her parents Mark, a mortgage broker and Penny, marketing director for Sacred Heart Girls College. She is older sister to Ella and Mark. Ella attends St Peters School and Mark travels to Hamilton Boys High School.
Paul J Michael
She developed her passion for the stage at St Peters School and took the lead role in the musical Anastasia.
In her third year in the Bachelor of Music and Performing Arts she talks highly of her tutors and fellow students.
“This course has taught me a lot about myself, while prancing around in these different characters you learn so much about yourself as an individual.”
Her wish is to make a career in theatre and she would like to perform on stages in New York and London.
- Paul Michael is a Wintec journalism student.
