Douglass to sing farewell concert

After weathering setbacks and heartbreaks, Sarah Douglass - a familiar face on the Sisters performance scene - is Los Angeles-bound, chasing her lifelong dream of a singing career at last. Douglass will perform a farewell concert on Friday evening, August 19, at Sisters Coffee Company.

Until recently, Douglass, 22, had all but given up on a musical career. Twice accepted to the highly selective Berklee College of Music in Boston, and twice prevented from attending due to lack of funds, she says that she spent several years avoiding music and floundering "with no direction or purpose. I felt I was denying who God created me to be. That was really hard."

All that changed after Starry Nights co-chair Jeri Fouts persuaded her to attend a master class conducted in Sisters recently by Hollywood actress and Broadway star Linda Purl.

"She wouldn't let me give up," says Douglass about Fouts' encouragement. "She said 'You have to do this.'"

Douglass virtually sang her way through high school: She performed in the choir and jazz choir during all four years she attended SHS, took first-place honors for three consecutive years in the Central Oregon division of the Oregon State Solo Competition, going on to compete at the state level, and she dabbled in the Americana program.

After graduation, she flew to Boston, auditioned and was accepted at Berklee. It seemed the natural step.

"There was no Plan B, ever," says Douglass. Since childhood, when folks asked her future plans, she answered, "I want to be a singer. I grew up in a musical family. My earliest and fondest memories are of Dad playing the piano."

But she couldn't surmount the financial obstacle of Berklee's tuition. Instead, Douglass dug into her job as a barista for Sisters Coffee Company and put the dream on a three-year hiatus.

At the start of 2010 she did a three-month stint on the Oregon Coast at tiny Ecola Bible College. She quickly realized it was not her destiny, but rather an escape.

"God was clearly saying 'You're running away,'" she remembers.

Facing her fears, she auditioned again for Berklee, assuming it was a long-shot but desiring the affirmation that she wasn't "just crazy. In my small town I was only known as 'Sarah who sings in church.'" Once again Berklee welcomed her and she boarded a plane for Boston. Once again, she returned home when financial aid didn't pan out.

Again, she decided to hang it up.

"I thought it was a last shot at my dream," says Douglass.

When Fouts, who had continued to tap her for help with Starry Nights productions, firmly suggested she attend Linda Purl's master class, Douglass hadn't sung in months.

"I'd stopped altogether," she says.

But Douglass acquiesced and tiptoed into Purl's class with a song she had found on the Internet and rehearsed for only an hour ahead of time.

As she sat, anxiously, with one eye on the exit door, her name was the first drawn from a hat to sing for the esteemed vocal coach.

Douglass performed Burt Bacharach's "A House is Not a Home" while Purl observed in a manner Douglass calls "'gracefully intimidating.' It's like she's listening to your soul."

Purl asked her to sing it again; this time Purl coached her energetically, enlivening her song delivery.

"She completely changed how I sang the song," says Douglass. "I came out of that class with all fires a-blazin'. For the first time in a long time I felt like myself."

Within days, Fouts shared a text message she received from Purl which read "I can't get her voice out of my head."

"I was so overwhelmed," says Douglass. The two began to correspond by email. Purl gave her a list of performing school recommendations. Douglass landed on the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) because it offers a bachelor's degree in performing arts (musical theater), dance and acting.

"I'm a singer, but if I have the opportunity to do Broadway, I want to be able to offer a little something extra," says Douglass.

Graciously, Purl welcomed Douglass into her LA home to run through her AMDA audition with her. Douglass told The Nugget, "It was a total Dorothy in Oz moment and it calmed my nerves."

Armed with a letter of recommendation from Purl, Douglass auditioned. An excerpt from Purl's letter reads: "As soon as Sarah began to sing it was evident that between the fine quality of her voice and her stage presence, she was graced with tremendous potential." Purl describes in glowing terms Douglass' "natural gift" and her ability to maintain control of her voice and states, "Her presence was haunted, poised, well beyond her years."

Douglass was told to expect a two or three-week wait for AMDA's decision; her acceptance letter arrived within a week.

She notes that in addition to Fouts and Purl, she has her high school Aspire counselor Karen Hensley to thank for helping her - four years post-graduation - to "make it happen."

Starting this fall, Douglass will get to spend every day doing the thing she loves most, as she trains full-time at AMDA. She sees challenges ahead but says, "I'm excited to be in a community that is like me - people with the passion for performing."

Sisters Coffee Company will serve cheesecake, French-press coffee and Italian sodas during Friday night's free concert, beginning at 7 p.m. Donations to Douglass's tuition fund are welcomed.