Downers Grove teen grows up on stage
At 17, Lauren Patten has the kind of resume many older actors would envy. The Downers Grove native, who appears in Chicago Children Theatre's current production of "The Hundred Dresses," has been doing TV commercials since preschool - and live theater for almost as long.
Voiceovers, new musicals, independent films, television - she's done it. Or she's prepared to do it.
"I have always wanted to act," Patten says. "I got an agent when I was 4 and started doing my first commercials. I did Kraft Mac and Cheese, granola bar ads, The Illinois Lottery. I did a lot of commercials then because I thought it was fun."
Later, Patten branched out into live theater.
"I wanted to begin acting when I was 6," she says. "I wanted to take classes at the Theatre of Western Springs. But because I was too young to go to Theatre of Western Springs by myself, my older sister went with me."
Her sister went on to study theater at New York University before, after graduation, finding work in the advertising world.
"I learned so much at the Theatre of Western Springs," Patten says. "I took dance classes and theater classes and I took part in a lot of their productions."
By the seventh grade, Patten decided to go pro and take her acting more seriously. Since then, she has appeared in productions at the Goodman Theatre, the Rubicon in Los Angeles and the critically acclaimed Chicago Children's Theatre.
Currently she plays the Polish immigrant girl at the center of Ralph Covert and G. Riley Mills' new musical, "The Hundred Dresses" (based on the story by Eleanor Estes).
"The story is about Wanda Petronski," Patten says. "That is my character. She goes to a school where they find her very funny. That's because she wears this weird dress every day and she has a Polish accent. The other students start teasing her about the dress." And there hangs a tale.
How does Patten balance school and acting? She doesn't. She has been homeschooled since seventh grade and is now a senior in high school - that is, if she had a high school to be a senior in.
"I get a learning guide in the mail. It is all done by mail," Patten says. "I did get a tutor for a while for math."
Is she getting the kind of education she needs? Judge for yourself: Her SAT scores were 660 for math, 710 for writing and a solid 800 for reading.
But for Patten, the academics are not as important as the acting.
"My goal for myself, since I am so young," Patten says, "I want to choose projects that are really good work and are a challenge to me."
"The Hundred Dresses" fits solidly into that plan.
"This project encompassed all that," Patten says. "It offers so much for kids and adults to watch. And it has been a challenge. Musicals are new for me, especially singing and dancing at the same time. But people have been great. And patient. And kind."
• The Hundred Dresses runs through Nov. 22 at The Royal George Theatre Mainstage, 1641 N. Halsted St., Chicago. For tickets call (312) 988-9000 or go the Chicago Children's Theatre Web site, www.chicagochildrenstheatre.org.