When the Oak Ridge Civic Ballet Association performs Grimm Tales at the end of March this year, the
stage will be filled with fairies and princesses, frogs and dwarves, butterflies and elves… and a talking
squirrel?!?Carolyn Lawrence, best known as the voice of Sandy Cheeks the Squirrel on Nickelodeon’s awardwinning cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants, will be joining the community ballet this spring as their “very special guest host”, reading selections from Grimm Fairy Tales and introducing the vignettes performed by the dancers. “We are very excited to have a nationally-recognized talent participating in our show,” said Katherine Bumgardner, President of ORCBA. “Carolyn has shown such warm, enthusiastic interest in our Organization; not only is she waiving her performance fee, but she is also providing her own transportation from California to be here.”
Born in Baltimore Maryland, Carolyn knew at an early age that she was going to be a performer. Barely out of high school, Carolyn moved to Illinois to dance as a company member of Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago. As fate would have it, she landed her first voice-over gig as the talking stuffed dog Snoozie, after auditioning at the suggestion of a fellow dance student; she was immediately hooked. Since then, Carolyn’s unmistakable voice has been featured in commercials for Toyota, Mattel, 7- Eleven, Kellogg’s, H & R Block, and McDonald’s. She also can be heard in a slew of video games, including the Spyro, Resident Evil and Everquest series. As an actress she has made guest appearances on many TV shows, including 7th Heaven, Caroline in the City, Wings, and Boston Legal; she has appeared on screen with Jodie Foster in Little Man Tate, and Michael Madsen in Vampires Anonymous, as well as countless other voice-overs, cameos, commercials and cartoons.
But her claim to fame has to be the work she has done for Nickelodeon Studios. In 1999, Carolyn was tapped to be the voice of Sandy Cheeks the Squirrel on SpongeBob SquarePants, a show that has since won many Annie awards (the Oscars for the animated world) and has been nominated four times for an Emmy for “Outstanding Animated/Children’s Program”. In 2001, Carolyn expanded her work for Nickelodeon by voicing the tomboyish Cindy Vortex on The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, for which Carolyn herself was nominated for an Annie for “Best Voice Acting in an Animated Series” in 2005. (Carolyn also plays Orel Puppington, the lead role in Moral Orel, a popular show that airs on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.)
Carolyn will be lending her many talents and voices to ORCBA for two public performances (Saturday, March 31, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, April 1, 2007 at 3:00 p.m.) as she reads from the stories of Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and others. The ballet company of over 70 dancers will then act out each scene. Following an intermission, ORCBA will continue with Swan Lake, Act II by Tchaikovsky. The performances will be held at the Oak Ridge High School Auditorium; tickets are $12.00 for Adults, $10.00 for Seniors 55 and older, and $6.00 for Students, and are available from the ORNL Federal Credit Union on Rutgers Avenue, online at http://www.orcba.org , and at the door.