What’s your name?
Khara Hoyer.
Who are you playing?
I’m playing Karen Weston.
What town are you from?
Windsor. I live in Vernon.
Is this your first time at Hole in the Wall?
This is my second show. I was in Heartless last year.
How did you get into theater and what is your background in theater?
I’ve been on stage forever. When I was a kid, my parents were all very into sports and everything. My whole family was sports. Then one day at the baseball field, my mom started chatting with this woman who mentioned she ran a children’s theater in town. They said, “oh, maybe this is something she would like.” I worked with that woman for many years. She came out to my senior recital in college and everything. She meant a lot to me. Yeah, I went to college for musical theater. I like to say I work to fund my theater habit. My real life is what I do at night.
Describe your character.
So my character is written as the youngest sister, and she’s a little flighty. She’s the one to run away and do her own thing. She doesn’t really ever come back. She talks a mile a minute. When she gets the chance to talk, she will not shut up. She’s bubbly and just a little naive in some ways. She tries to act younger than she is.
If you would give your character advice, what would that advice be?
Pay attention to red flags. Because there are a few that should be very obvious to her. She should open her eyes a little more.
Are you able to mention any specific red flag without doing spoilers?
Well, I think even from her first speech, it’s clear that she, she jumps from one thing to another. She’s all over the place and she sort of allows herself to be manipulated a lot. She kind of jumps into what other people want more than anything. I want her to… take a little more time for herself
Why do you think this show got a Pulitzer Prize for Drama?
The characters are just so interesting. They all have such rich backstories when you really start paying attention. I don’t even know how much you get the first time seeing it, but the characters are written so intriguingly and they’re fairly dysfunctional. But there’s gray everywhere, no one’s black and white. It’s very complex characters that are trying to deal with a very stressful situation and not doing well. I think a lot of people can see themselves or their family in ways.
Do you have a favorite book?
My favorite book is actually Pride and Prejudice.
Any reason why?
I’m not even that much of a romantic. I just adore the characters. I even read fan fictions. I love Jane Austen, but the characters are just so intriguing to me. Fun fact, a couple weeks before auditioning for the show, I saw Sarah Etkin, who played Barbara in Pride and Prejudice. She played the main character and I was a little starstruck seeing her at auditions for this. Like, oh my gosh, she’s amazing.
Do you have a favorite poem?
The only one that really comes to mind that’s always stuck with me is, a Robert Frost poem that was in “The Outsiders” by S. E. Hinton. Nothing gold can stay.
Do you have a favorite drink, alcoholic or otherwise?
You know what? I like pineapple juice. I love pineapple juice.
What’s a fun fact about yourself?
A fun fact about myself is, I am terrified of, whales, large things underwater.
Thalassophobia, right?
Yes. It’s a phobia. We can’t go anywhere near an aquarium. We’ll never go on a whale watch.
Is there anything else you’d to say, other ventures, shoutouts?
No, I’ve just so enjoyed getting to know this cast. I knew Wayne, I worked with Wayne years and years ago, so it was interesting to reconnect with him. Not knowing anyone else here and getting to know all these people through the complex, intriguing lens of this show has really been a treat.
Appended: “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.