A Seattle Times Footlight Award winner (for Village Theatre’s Show Boat), Cayman Ilika’s “startlingly beautiful voice (Seattle Weekly) and “winning stage presence” (The News Tribune) are just the right combination for the mysterious character; Kathy. David Armstrong, the director of Vanities: A New Musical, remembers Cayman from an even earlier performance--as a high school senior in the 2003 5th Avenue Theatre High School Awards. “We were so taken with her voice that we’ve followed her ever since,” he says. “She’s not only strikingly beautiful but has an astonishing voice as well.”Cayman's past credits include Candide and Buddy at the 5th Avenue Theatre, Showboat and The Gypsy King at The Village Theatre and Always...Patsy Cline at ACT: A Contemporary Theatre. Of Vanites: A New Musical, she says:
“Vanities is the story of a journey taken by three women in a time of dramatic social change in the United States. Im also going on a journey where I hope to come to understand and embody the character Kathy and her complex relationships with her two high school friends. The fact that we are aging almost 30 years right before the audience’s eyes is what really excites me! No one is exactly the same person at 40 that they were at 18…parts of us flourish, some parts die away. It’s an exciting challenge to bring those intricacies to life on the stage.
Cayman Ilika as Kathy in Vanities: A New Musical, playing now-May 1st at ACT.
Photo: Chris Bennion
