Belle Fockler lands role at Renaissance Theatre

With one year left before earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Ohio Northern University, Belle Fockler of Dover is pursuing a career in professional theater. She opens Saturday, Feb. 21, in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” at the Renaissance Theatre in Mansfield. The production features performers with experience in major markets across the country.

“I think I always knew I wanted to be an actress,” Fockler said. “My whole life, since I was probably about 5. But I specifically knew I loved musical theater once I got to high school and I realized it was something I could go to school for. That’s when I decided I wanted that to be my major.”

Fockler said she chose musical theater because it offers broad training.

“I like plays, too. And I want to do TV and film as well. But I think a musical theater education takes in everything from all the different disciplines of the entertainment business,” she said. “You can learn it all.”

She has performed locally on the Little Theatre stage since early childhood and has also appeared in productions at Dover High School and in Columbus and Canton.

Her mother, Lisa Fockler, said her daughter discovered the stage early.

“When she was around 5 years old, they did ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at Little Theatre and I took her in to see if she might want to be a munchkin or something,” Lisa Fockler said. “That was her very first show. From there she started doing a show every year, sometimes two, at Little Theatre. She just instantly fell in love with it. We had tried everything else to see what might interest her. We tried soccer and baseball, she did dance lessons. She did like dance, but this was the thing she fell in love with.”

Fockler also took singing lessons during middle school.

Fockler sent an audition tape for the Renaissance Theatre season and was offered a role in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” appearing as one of the Geminae. She said rehearsals have included working with director Jeff Richmond, a former “Saturday Night Live” writer and actor, along with another SNL alumnus, Rob Lutz, and other performers from around the country.

Fockler said working with Richmond has been especially valuable as she focuses on comedy.

“It has been very exciting to see him working with the other professional comedians because they really bounce jokes off each other all the time,” she said. “I’m trying to absorb it all because that’s what I want to do, the comedic stuff. Everyone is just amazing and so many have traveled here from New York.”

After graduation next year, Fockler said she plans to move to New York.

“Yes, that’s the plan,” Lisa Fockler said. “She hopes to be forever on the stage, performing, then later maybe get into movies and TV. We’re just so proud because we’ve watched as she has done all this and she’s just been so passionate about it. We’ve seen all the heart she’s poured into it and she has worked so hard at her classes and she’s always practicing. Anytime she’s on stage, we just love it. I know I’ll be in the front row, crying when this show opens.”

The Renaissance Theatre is at 138 Park Ave. W. Tickets are available at rentickets.org.