As the show begins and intense light floods the stage, her heart beats faster. An artist, PASC member and editor-in-chief of the Stall Street Journal, Sophie Converse stands behind the curtain, awaiting her cue. But before it is her time to shine, she completes the final step of her pre-show ritual: jumping jacks to get the adrenaline pumping. Finally, she steps onstage.
Junior Amira Shamsi recalled first seeing Converse three years ago during the fall show “The Real Queen of Hearts Ain’t Even Pretty.” “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this girl’s so good. She must be a senior.’ But then after the show, [senior] Casey [Glemich] introduced me and she was a freshman.”
Her skills in acting weren’t the only ones that garnered attention. Converse caught Performing Arts teacher Danielle Pigneri’s eye as early as middle school. “She started off in my 6th grade Movement and Oral Interpretation class. I remember her even from that point. She stood out to me because she was so serious about her craft [and] invested in doing the best that she could.”
Her dedication began early. “I started doing theater and dance when I was little,” Converse said. “And then I just fell in love with it.” She trained at the Marat Daukayev School of Ballet, Studio B and Millenium Dance Complex before joining Poly’s dance program.
Shamsi marveled at Converse’s ability to balance performing and academics: “I think this is still true — she’s been in the most productions at Poly out of anybody else in the Upper School. It takes a lot of commitment. Especially the fall and winter shows you go after school. It’s basically like doing a sport.” Beyond acting, Converse balances singing, dancing, directing, playwriting and producing. “They all sort of fit into each other,” she explained. “I sort of dance and sing mostly to do theater, and I direct and produce work so that I can act in it, or so that my friends can act in it.”
This past summer, in a local town in Upstate New York, she participated in “The Antiquities,” a play depicting a dysfunctional world usurped by AI bots trying to retell the story of humans and their emotions. Because the storyline warned about the threat artificial intelligence poses to art, it was easy for Converse to connect deeply with the play. She also found the experience fascinating and a unique opportunity to grow alongside her cast and directors.
Middle and Upper School Performing Arts teacher Eric Lifland described what distinguishes Converse on stage: “[She is] spontaneous and alive. In the musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” she was really free and would improvise her sung lines and spoken lines, in different, fresh ways every night.” Converse goes far beyond simply reading lines; she even helped choreograph the show.
Recently, she co-wrote and directed “unsex me!,” a comedic play that combines Shakespeare with the chaos of high school life. “Amira and I were talking about how we thought that we didn’t see a lot of accurate representation of teenagers in a lot of movies,” Converse said. “I had the idea in my Notes app for years of Shakespeare coming back as a ghost in a play, but not being like how people imagined him.” However, directing peers brought its own challenges. “Amira and I had to direct our friends and people that were our age or even older than us.” Converse explained. “It’s hard because you want to just be chill and [have a] fun time, but also be strict about coming to rehearsal and be the leader of a big team.” However, Converse doesn’t need to be directing her peers in order to lead them. “Sophie works so hard and she’s so focused, I think that spreads,” Pigneri noted.
Her storytelling abilities also extend seamlessly into her dance. In Poly’s 2025 concert “Boundless,” Converse performed in a guest artist piece called “Move,” an emotive routine about breaking free from life’s restrictions. Pigneri praised her performance, saying, “She brought so much depth into her character. That was a pivotal point for her in terms of being able to dance at an advanced level, work with the guest choreographer, and also bring herself to the creation.” The poignancy she is able to convey through dance is complemented by her adaptability, and Pigneri noted her ability to handle last-minute choreography change with grace.
As her time at Poly nears its curtain call, Converse is far from her swan song. She plans to pursue acting in college and professionally. As a multidisciplinary, virtuoso artist, her future is an endless horizon of possibilities.
