PIETRA IN THE ARTS!:

Story by Margaret Bass and Mia Esposito
​​Many people are scared of the stage, but Pietra Fischer takes comfort in the lights.
Fischer is from Sao Paulo, Brazil. She is very close with her family and lives with her mom, her 12-year-old brother Henrique, and mutt Amora. She loves spending time with them no matter the workload. 
“When my mom got home she could be on her phone and I could be on mine,” Fischer said, “but at least we are in the same room.” 
The hardest part about this time away might be the separation from her family. She says “It's not like when my mom is in her work and I'm at school,” she said. Back home she knew that, “I will see her at night, or when I’m sleeping in my room and she’s sleeping in her room.” No longer. Now, they are separated not by walls but by oceans and countries. 
Fischer likes it here so far, however the cold has thrown a kink in her enjoyment. 
She still likes “to speak English all the time,” she says it’s “out of my comfort zone.” It’s not her first time in America. She has visited the regular tourist attractions, but not “a city.” Before North Cross, Fischer was originally planning on attending school in Greensboro where her God-father lives. Only one problem, the school misplaced her information. So they turned to a family friend. They helped connect her to a director at North Cross. She then amassed an arts scholarship. 
Fischer is enjoying her classes so far but some are difficult “like chemistry or math.” It is hard for her to “understand and write the things in English, because I already have (learned) the content in Brazil.” 
That being said, she is thriving in her art class and has gotten involved with the North Cross theater program. 
Her love for performing was sparked when she was 4 years old. Fischer started doing ballet, and her love for the stage grew year after year. The lights, costumes, and makeup drew her in from the start. She did twelve years of ballet before it came to a halt with COVID’s beginning. Looking back on those years, she recalls the little dancers, merely 3 or 4 years old, looking up to the older girls for guidance and inspiration. It’s so important to her that she was able to grow up and become that example for future dancers. Her first lead character on stage was in the ballet The Nutcracker as Clara. Then she played Flounder in The Little Mermaid. She says that one of the main reasons she is drawn to performing is seeing the audience of people supporting her and cheering her on.
    Fischer’s admiration of the stage leveled up when she was 7 and her mother took her to see Wicked. She was in awe of the dancers doing “all these beautiful things.” She remembers that from then on that she knew this was something she needed to do. She wasn’t picky. After seeing Wicked she said, “I could be the grass,” and she would still be so happy to be a part of the magic she saw on stage. Soon after, she started taking theatre classes. She felt less experienced and a little behind her classmates, but that never stopped her. Her dream roles include Anna from Frozen, Glinda in Wicked, and Odette in Swan Lake. 
She’s since been in about 20 plays back home in Brazil and wants to continue while in America. Sadly, she joined the North Cross community too late to participate in the winter play, Alice in Wonderland, but she plans on auditioning for the spring musical, Matilda. She is a bit nervous, as anyone would be, but she’s taking the chance because it’s her passion and she wants to be involved in any way she can. 
Fischer’s theatrical background leaves us excited to see what amazing things she will bring to the North Cross stage in the future.

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