Sarah Everett was born in 1989 to a Coast Guard family and has traveled the majority of her young life around the coasts of the USA, discovering the history, life and atmosphere of her country. She’s lived in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Washington, and Alaska. Her faith in Jesus Christ, as a Christian therefore, has been at the core of her dreams and lifestyle. Her earliest passions were geared towards theatre/the performing arts. Since she was very little, she loved to play stuffed animal stories with her sisters. Then beginning in middle school and into high school, she acted in a wide variety of theatre shows with different companies in Juneau.
Such theatrical shows included: “Number the Stars” by Northern Lights Junior Theatre; “The Passage Inside: An Original Ensemble Composition” by JDHS; “Pippin: The Musical” by JDHS; “Steel Magnolias” by the Perseverance Theatre Young Company; “Welcome to Social Disorder Camp: An Original Comedy” by the Perseverance Theatre Young Company; “Whiteout: An Original Play” by the Perseverance Theatre Young Company; “Peer Gynt” by the Perseverance Theatre STAR program; “The Children of Eden” by the Perseverance Theatre STAR program; “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” by the Perseverance Theatre STAR program, and “Mozart’s Magic Flute” by Juneau’s Opera To Go. She also stage managed for Northern Lights Junior Theatre such plays as “Midnight Cry: The Underground Railroad to Freedom”; “The Sound of Music,” and “Grease: The Musical”. Mask pieces, musicals, dramas, comedies, original pieces, and choirs. Sarah’s formal theatrical training includes: Classes at UAS taught by Perseverance Theatre actors; classes at JMU taught by a wide variety of actors and directors; and a summer acting/directing intensive at the North Carolina School of the Arts. In 2008, before graduating high school, she won the JDHS French Dept. Award in front of her whole school class for Best Senior and Best Performance as The Fox in the department’s production of “The Little Prince”.
In 2011, she also picked up a love for radio, and for Summer 2011 and Summer 2012, she played classical music every Tuesday on KRNN. Sarah has also produced a couple radio dramas, such as “Lost Christmas” and “The Book of Virtues: A Four Story Radio Drama”. A link to the latter can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CpvlZ0-nYA. These are available on her YouTube channel. Sarah also aided in the production of a Summer Radio Drama Production with KTOO and Theater at Latitude 58 which can be found here: http://www.theateratlatitude58.com/summer-radio-theater-project-ktoo
Sarah has been a scholar of James Madison for over ten years, beginning in high school (2006) when she did a Presidential history project on Madison. It was an intense study, which propelled her into the world of Mr. Madison, his life and times. She can say with God’s grace that she is a knowledgeable and quite fervent James Madison enthusiast. She began formally interpreting/impersonating Madison for her hometown in 2009, three years into her interest of Madison, as she was told that she resembled Madison closely enough to realistically represent him. This combined not only her passion for Madison, but also Theatre. Her study of Madison has been strong and entirely devoted. She has had the blessing and honor of connecting with and working with the wonderful staff and scholars at James Madison’s Montpelier; her friend Mr. Philip Bigler of the former director of the James Madison Center at James Madison University; Ms. Catherine Allgor, Dolley Madison scholar; her mentor and friend John Douglas Hall, the honored national interpreter of James Madison; as well as her dear friend and mentor, Dr. Ralph Ketcham, the foremost Madison scholar in the nation who wrote the leading biography about James Madison in 1971.
Sarah graduated from Juneau Douglas High School (JDHS) in Class of 2008, then began studies at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS). She entered James Madison University in fall of 2010 as a transfer student, beginning her junior year, and with great excitement. At JMU, she contributed and invested into the JMU community. As President James Madison, she was invited frequently and attended numerous events on campus, uplifting Mr. Madison’s legacy by bringing him to life for students and faculty. For most of these interpretations, ‘Madison’ has either given a presentation, participated in constitutional debate, given a speech, participated in a Q&A session, even has simply made a guest appearance, among many other things. Some of these events/programs/organizations included: American government classrooms; The Forbes Center for the Performing Arts; Madison Historians; The Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society; Constitution Day with Madison Institutes; JMU’s History Club; Kijiji; The JMU Honor Council; CMSS; University Program Board; Madison Union ACUI Conference, and the Boy Scouts of America. Her experience, scholarship, and believability of her presence as James Madison has been said by many to be completely real and authoritative. In fact, the demand of Madison’s presence at JMU amounted to her need for an agent for a brief time. She also made frequent appearances as James Madison for the JMU football games – a tradition well known now in the JMU community.
Every year since 2009, she made appearances whether she is at JMU or Juneau as James Madison for New Year’s Day, President’s Day, his birthday (March 16th), Dolley Madison’s birthday (May 20th), Independence Day, and Constitution Day (September 17th), among other unique and individual events.
Her interpretations outside of the JMU community have been notable as well. In Juneau, she represented Madison in numerous elementary, middle, and high schools; at the University of Alaska Southeast for various events of their own, mainly history and government classrooms and programs; and at Juneau’s Centennial Hall and Nugget Mall Conference Center for 2009’s Constitution Day (where she worked with another interpreter, John Venables a.k.a. William Henry Seward, and spoke to Alaska congressmen). She also appeared as Madison for Juneau’s 50th statehood anniversary Fourth of July Parade Celebration.
On March 4th, 2009, she published an article in the Juneau Empire about Madison’s bicentennial inauguration as our fourth president. She has been published by The Breeze at JMU for numerous articles she wrote about James Madison, and articles have been written about her and her interpretations both at JMU as well as in Juneau Alaska. The most notable of these publications was one article written in The Chronicle of Higher Education on March 11th, 2012. At James Madison’s Montpelier, she published a scholarly text inside of the newly released second edition of the Montpelier Hospitality Cookbook. She additionally had the honor to interpret Madison at a teachers conference for the Center for the Constitution from James Madison’s Montpelier during the summer of 2009 at Montpelier, then was re-invited to interpret/impersonate Madison for the Center for the Constitution in Washington D.C for their Dec. 2nd 2012 NCSS conference, where hundreds of teachers across the world met ‘Mr. Madison’. In August 2009, she took part in an Archaeology Expedition at Montpelier. What James Madison’s Montpelier is doing to uplift and preserve the spirit and legacy of James Madison is amazing, astounding, and beautiful to watch unfold. To Montpelier, Dr. Ketcham, John Douglas Hall, JMU, and Juneau, Sarah holds the highest esteem and gratitude for all the opportunities, privileges, friendships and guidance she has learned and still is learning. As she approached graduation from JMU with a Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre at the end of 2012, Sarah embarked out into the world to further her artistic and scholarly pursuit of James Madison’s legacy, as well as her other artistic interests.
In Dec. 2022, she celebrated her 10 year anniversary from James Madison University graduation! Between 2013-2023, below are her accomplishments!
In 2013, Sarah was very humbled to have successfully launched out into her work in Theatre and Historical Interpretation. She currently resides in Juneau Alaska with her family. July 2013, Sarah went abroad for the first time to France; she visited Nancy, Caen and Paris for a month.
Sarah also worked for Theater at Latitude 58 as an actor/assistant director/acting coach/Theatre Associate for two years. She performed in Fall of 2013 as Sylvester McMonkey McBean in the preshow “The Sneetches” for “Seussical: The Musical”. In Spring of 2014, Sarah performed as Captain Arthur Keller in “The Miracle Worker”, and also assistant directed “Sadako’s A Thousand Cranes” for Theater at Latitude 58. In Fall of 2014, she worked with Theater at Latitude 58 in shows, “Calamity Jane” and “How Things Happen in Threes.” In “Calamity Jane”, she performed and sang as Lieutenant Danny Gilmartin. Sarah reprised her involvement with Theater at Latitude 58 in the Spring of 2015 season, which included the classic plays “The Tempest” and “Anne of Green Gables”, the latter of which she performed as leading role Matthew Cuthbert to strong positive reviews.
In Spring of 2014, Sarah self-produced and directed six original skits as an ensemble show, called “Calico”, which performed in May 2014. The video recording of “Calico” can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRbMnLy1Cqw. Also see an article about it here: http://m.juneauempire.com/art/2014-05-22/everetts-artistic-energy-feeds-calico.
During Summer of 2014, Sarah was given a formal grant from the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council (JAHC) to produce “Calico 2: Reloaded” for the Spring 2015 season. “Calico 2: Reloaded” performed in May 2015, with great success, and consisted of nine original skits as an ensemble show like its predecessor! The video recording of “Calico 2: Reloaded” can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIfztuRtFFI.
Summer 2015, Sarah embarked on theatrical opportunities with Alaska’s leading professional theater company, Perseverance Theatre (www.ptalaska.org), joining them in their Fall 2015 productions of “Othello” and the musical “Sweeney Todd” as a professional backstage crew member/Wardrobe Costumer. She also hosted a special event at The Gold Town Theater for the 30th anniversary of the famed trilogy, “Back to the Future,” that October 2015. At this event, she impersonated Doc Emmett L. Brown to a welcome crowd.
Winter of 2015, Sarah stage managed for Juneau Lyric Opera’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors”, and sang with the choir in the Juneau Lyric Opera Mid-Winter Vocal Festival Chorus in January 2016. She also starred in her first professional short film project, “Health Nuts” with the Juneau JUMP Festival, which can be viewed on her YouTube channel amongst other videos. Spring of 2016, Sarah joined Juneau Lyric Opera once again to work with actors and crew backstage for “Man of La Mancha” as a professional backstage manager/Wardrobe Costumer. (http://juneauopera.org)
Sarah embarked on yet another full production season of acting, stage management, and backstage/costuming work with both Perseverance Theatre’s Mainstage in shows “Peter and the Starcatcher”, among others, and Juneau Lyric Opera’s “Putting It Together” by Sondheim, Fall 2016. She also helped with production, costuming and crew work in a special local film production, “One Day and a Half.” After singing in the Juneau Lyric Opera Chorus again for their annual Vocal Festival in January 2017, including singing as a lead soloist, Sarah prepared for the Fall/Winter 2017 season to act in a leading role as Annelle Dupuy-Desoto in Perseverance Theatre’s “Steel Magnolias” for three months, going on tour to Anchorage in October 2017 and performances in Juneau in December 2017. January 2018, she joined the Juneau Lyric Opera Chorus, for the third year in a row, as a choir singer. And between March-April 2018, Sarah worked again as professional Wardrobe/Costumer at Perseverance Theatre’s Mainstage for a grand French classic adaptation of “Cyrano de Bergerac.”
In Spring of 2017-2023, Sarah also began/continues now the process of applying to become a theatre arts teacher to France. She will not only teach theatre, but also study as a French foreign language student at a French local language school/college. A new section of this website shall be added for that purpose (under construction) in the near future.
Therefore, in Spring of 2018, Sarah visited France for two months to view prospective opportunities for theatre teaching. She continues to work off-and-on for Juneau Lyric Opera, Perseverance Theatre and KTOO. Fall 2018, she stage managed for JLO’s brand new world premiere of “Here’s Looking at You, Casablanca” showcase at the Rockwell. And in January 2019, she joined the Juneau Lyric Opera Chorus, for the fourth year in a row, as a choir singer. She stage managed for PT Young Company’s “Disco: Alice in Wonderland Remix,” January-March 2019.
Sarah was asked hence to take over the VBS Drama department for Chapel By The Lake’s theatrical production of “Paul’s Adventures in Athens,” for Vacation Bible School, June 2019. June-August 2019, Sarah was additionally the stage manager and assistant director for Perseverance Theatre’s summer STAR program in the production and educational endeavors of Shakespeare’s “Pericles.” After this, a project with John Clough at Juneau Lyric Opera went underway, an original play about Jim Croce, in which Sarah became backstage manager Spring 2020.
Then, COVID struck. Current theatrical endeavors have since pended.
Sarah became a full-time substitute teacher for the Juneau School District in 2019-2023.
Other than James Madison, Sarah is a passionate fan of the actors Sir Michael Caine, Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton, Trevor Howard, and the recently-late Paul Reubens/Pee-wee Herman, from whom she sees her fullest potential. She is also formally studying the medieval martyr/saint, St. Thomas Becket as well as the magnificent German opera/music drama composer, Richard Wagner. She plans to incorporate her studies of Thomas Becket and Richard Wagner as additional historical figures of theatrical interest and performance in the future.
She loves the French language and culture, and has studied French for many years. She hopes to continue pioneering in directing, producing, acting, teaching, and radio work. Between 2013-2020, Sarah ran a weekly radio show every Thursday morning from 8am-10am called Crosscurrents on KRNN.org, where she played World and New Age music, but also produces her own radio dramas. One such radio drama can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CpvlZ0-nYA.
In 2023, she played the same world music radio show on Wednesday morning from 10am-noon called Soundings on KRNN.org. Tune in!!!
Sarah is now living in France working on an original theatre project based on music and movement, coming May 2024!
She continues to interpret James Madison at local schools and for occasional local events such as the July 4th Parade, Constitution Day and Presidents Day.