November 23, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

GFS grad, 24, already an award-winning playwright
by LOU PERSEGHIN

Alix Fenhagen, 24, who graduated from Germantown Friends School six years ago, has the potential to be a major star, both as an actress and as a playwright. And as if her theatrical exploits were not enough, Alix is also a personal trainer.

Like many of her characters, Alix Fenhagen is torn. The actor/writer is constantly working on her stage presence while also honing her acting skills, conducting research and, taking up no small amount of time holding down a ‘real job.’

“It would be nice to have one job instead of four,” said Fenhagen, 24. The (Class of 2000) Germantown Friends School grad-turned Brooklynite makes the most of her time, though, giving an interview on her recent work and career while heading from work to that night’s rehearsal for her newest venture.

“It’s a lot of split time,” said Fenhagen. “Theater is my full time job in the sense that it’s time consuming, but I’m also a personal trainer. I’m mostly doing one-on-one training, not through a gym.”

The scheduling freedom of her training job allows Fenhagen to fully involve herself in the theater scene of both New York and Philadelphia. She recently completed a two-and-a-half week run with the New City Stage Company and their production of Angel: A Nightmare in Two Acts at the Walnut Street Theater’s Studio 5. It’s feasible, she explained, to live in New York and work in Philadelphia on occasion, and that commuting is becoming more of a reality for many.

“When I left [Philadelphia], there was some theater stuff going on, but not nearly as much as there is now,” said Fenhagen. “[Philadelphia] is definitely a place that I think a lot of actors and writers are going to from New York.”

The seed of inspiration to make that long commute for rehearsal and shows was planted during her time at GFS, and it subsequently bloomed during her four years as a theater undergrad at Northwestern University in Chicago.

“I was in the musicals as a freshman and sophomore [at GFS],” said Fenhagen, “and I took private acting classes outside of school.” A very involved student, she took two languages, edited the yearbook, played sports, and of course, acted.

“I knew I wanted to act and write,” said Fenhagen, “and I think because I knew that, I figured I could do it all later, that I didn’t have to do it all through high school.”

She eventually settled into theater at Northwestern and began to delve into research and writing in addition to acting.

“It’s not a conservatory,” explained Fenhagen, “so I got to take other courses too.”

During her senior year, she won the Agnes Nixon Playwriting Award for her script Sacrificing Isaac. Though she set out to write a play about her father’s family growing up in South Africa during apartheid, she hit a roadblock in telling the stories she was cultivating through family interviews.

“I couldn’t really write their stories,” explained Fenhagen. “The more I learned the more I grew, but I couldn’t really write the story because I didn’t know it, didn’t have any true grasp about what it was like.”

Based on a conversation between her father and grandmother, Fenhagen instead chose to focus on the role of family relationships and the past. Much of her work now focuses on relationships, and her plots are driven by strong characters and “smaller internal conflicts rather than big epic happenings.”

Following Northwestern, Fenhagen studied for a year in Paris at the Jacques Lecoq International School of Theatre. The renowned school teaches the importance of the physicality of theater and movement as expression. Many of the theater companies she admires, including Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Company, have come out of the Lecoq school.

Although she has yet to perform in a show she has penned (not that she’s opposed to it, she just hasn’t had the opportunity), Fenhagen derives her motivation for both writing and acting from the same place. There is a duality there, but Fenhagen is comfortable switching between the two forms of expression.

“It’s hard to divorce the two once you know them,” she explained. “The writing and structure I come at from a writer’s point of view, but when I write something, I’m certainly aware of whether or not it’s able to be said comfortably, and if it’s going to help or hinder the actor.”

Fenhagen’s focus shifts from writing to acting and back again with no particular pattern, but she thrives on this duality.

“Writing is something I can always do on my own,” said Fenhagen. “I can act on my own too, but it only goes so far for me to perform in my living room for my roommates.” Much like well written characters, Fenhagen is torn. That, however, is what makes her development in the theater world so interesting.