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BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG DREAMS Agnes Scott alumna Saycon Sengbloh ’00x was not sure she had what it took to be a professional actress. Luckily, she proved herself wrong. —By Sara Baxter
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n 2016, Saycon Sengbloh ’00x got the call every Broadway actress dreams about: She was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in the critically acclaimed play “Eclipsed.” “A friend of mine called me, and I was so shocked and excited,” she remembers. “I couldn’t believe it.” The nomination was a crowning achievement in a career that started back at Ridgeview Charter Middle School in Sandy Springs, Georgia, when Sengbloh played a chef in her school’s performance of “Alice in Wonderland.” She later went on to act in productions through the Visual and Performing Arts Program at Tri-Cities High School and as a member of the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta. “I was bitten by the theatre bug,” she says. “I became a theatre nerd — eating, sleeping and breathing theatre. I loved everything about it, and it’s all I did.” Cultivated at a young age, this combination of work ethic and love of performing has allowed Sengbloh to make a name for herself as an actress and a singer on Broadway, film and television over the past 20 years.
This fact is slightly surprising, considering she majored in Spanish at Agnes Scott College because she was not sure her acting was “serious enough” to make a career out of and wanted to have a plan B. She chose a college close to home because she was still very much entrenched in Atlanta’s theatre world. “I had never heard of Agnes Scott,” says Sengbloh, who grew up in College Park, a suburb south of Atlanta. “But I received a brochure in the mail and decided to come visit. I loved the campus right away, and the fact that it was a women’s college appealed to me.” Although she did not have time to perform in any productions at Agnes Scott, she did pursue a minor in music and took theatre classes. She fondly remembers the professors who had an impact on her. “I still use some of the skills taught by Dawn-Marie James, my voice teacher,” she says. “And I keep in touch with David Thompson, who reaches out to me from time to time.”
