MEET SEBASTIAN

Hello! My name is Sebastian Gervase and I’m an actor, singer, dancer, and creative writer from Washington, DC. I first fell in love with musicals when I was six years old, playing Lucky in a children’s theater production of 101 Dalmatians. I have been training and performing ever since. I am hooked on being part of a team working together creatively to tell a compelling story.

I have been in two full professional productions at DC equity theaters and more than 40 productions in educational programs. When I was in 5th grade, being a part of Arena Stage’s 2015-16 production of Oliver! (Workhouse Boy/Fagin’s Gang/Bookseller’s Boy) under the direction of Molly Smith for 76 performances, eight shows a week, was one of my most meaningful and formative experiences. I was also honored to be cast in Olney Theatre Center’s 2019 regional premiere of Matilda, the Musical, directed by Peter Flynn, the summer before the pandemic. I learned so much from these creative teams and my fellow cast members, both Broadway veterans and other local performers like me.

In addition to participating in the annual school musical, I have performed for eight years with two regional pre-professional theater programs: the Levine Performance Institute (initially Act Two), through the Levine School of Music, and Young Artists of America (YAA), an affiliate of the Music Center at Strathmore. I also completed training at the Broadway Artists Alliance and participated in several master classes.

Some of my favorite roles across educational productions include the Emcee in Cabaret (YAA's Hal Prince's Broadway); El Gato in the world youth premiere of Wonderland (YAA); Tanya in Mamma Mia! (Maret School); Angel in Rent (YAA); Teen Angel in Grease (Maret School); Simeon in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (YAA); and George in The Drowsy Chaperone (Levine).

When in-person performances were suspended due to COVID, I searched for every opportunity to continue being active in theater. I participated in seven full-length filmed musicals during 2020 and 2021, including Company and Sophisticated Ladies (YAA) and Theory of Relativity (Maret School). Whether filming one take outside with a dance partner I was meeting in person for the very first time after rehearsing only on Zoom, learning how to overlay recorded singing with scenes filmed at home, or having to perform in masks, I am truly grateful for the opportunities I had to connect and create throughout the pandemic and the people I met along the way. I was excited to create and perform a benefit cabaret of some of my favorite songs and dances -- inviting several of the friends I made doing theatre to join me -- to cap off my senior year of high school.

I have more than ten years of dance training at the DC Conservatory of Dance (among other studios), including ballet, tap, and jazz. In most recent productions, you can find me assisting as dance captain on top of learning my track for the show. For Olney’s production of Matilda, the choreographer (Byron Easley of NYU’s Tisch School and choreographer of Broadway’s Slave Play) appointed me “junior dance captain” to help teach the combinations to the other 12 youth performers and to maintain the youth dancing during the run of the show.

Off the stage, I am in my first year at Yale in a program called Directed Studies, an integrated, interdisciplinary full-year course in Literature, Philosophy, and Historical and Political Thought, with courses in French and Chekhov on the side. I'm a member of the Yale Alley Cats, an a cappella group founded in 1943, performing this year in China, South Africa, Switzerland, Chicago, San Diego, and Hawaii. I had a blast performing "I Am What I Am" in the Yale Artists Cabaret's compilation of 11:00 numbers called "10:59." I will perform the role of Chino in West Side Story this April. I have especially enjoyed being able to perform in several original student productions/workshops. I see as many shows as I can possibly squeeze in, ranging from my friends’ shows to regional and NYC theatre.