As soon as Helene Yorke graduated from the University of Michigan last June, she packed her belongings in three suitcases and headed to New York. She sublet an apartment in Queens and began taking the subway into the city every day to audition for musicals. ‘It was me growing up,’ said the 22-year-old Palisades Charter High School graduate who had majored in theater in college. At some of the auditions, Yorke thought she would be perfect for the part, but she didn’t hear back. After two months, she landed a small role in her first off-Broadway show, ‘Walmartopia,’ that ran from September 3 to December 31, and then came her big break: She is now touring with Disney’s ‘High School Musical.’ ‘Sometimes I am sitting in the dressing room, and I think I am getting paid to do this; I feel so lucky,’ Yorke told the Palisadian-Post from Minneapolis. Yorke was the youngest person on the 11-member cast for ‘Walmartopia,’ a musical about a single mom who speaks up to her corporate employer and finds herself and young daughter jettisoned to a future where Wal-Mart dominates the entire world. She played various roles in the political satire, from a Wal-Mart executive donning a patriotic tie and a man’s wig to a Hooters’ girl in a skimpy outfit. The show, directed by Daniel Goldstein, was performed at the Minetta Lane Theatre in Manhattan. ‘Walmartopia was a learning experience,’ Yorke said, noting she picked up valuable tips from cast member John Jellison, who has 17 Broadway credits. While performing in ‘Walmartopia,’ Yorke auditioned twice for one of the main characters, Sharpay Evans, in Disney’s ‘High School Musical’ and was hired to replace actress Chandra Lee Schwartz. When she opened her first show of the national tour in Baltimore on February 19, reviewers described Yorke as ‘scene stealing’ and ‘sizzling in stilettos.’ She is now performing in venues across the nation until August, including the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, June 17-22. The musical is based on the Disney Channel movie with all the same characters and songs. ‘I just love playing the misunderstood mean person,’ Yorke said. ‘She’s funny, you can laugh at her.’ She plays a drama-club president who schemes to keep her talented peers, characters Troy Bolton and Gabriella Amontez, out of the high school musical in order to keep her role in the limelight. ‘It’s ironic that I’m playing the queen bee of the high school because that was not who I was at all,’ Yorke said. ‘I was an awkward, goofy person. I was a drama geek.’ At PaliHi, Yorke performed in four musicals: ’42nd Street,’ ‘Oklahoma!,’ ‘Crazy for You’ and ‘Les Miserables.’ Her high school drama teacher Victoria Francis, who retired in 2004, said Yorke grew tremendously as a performer between her freshman and senior years. ‘She was vocally outstanding in ‘Les Miserables’ and ‘Crazy for You,” Francis said. ‘Even as a senior, I could see her going on to Broadway.’ In high school, Yorke took singing lessons, danced with the Westside Ballet in Santa Monica and attended acting classes in London and on the East Coast. She thanks her parents, Rhos and Andrea Dyke, for finding her opportunities to pursue her love for theater. She has two brothers: Lance, 21, who attends Shimer College in Illinois and Sutherland, 19, who is at a military preparatory academy in New Jersey. Yorke began ballet dancing at three years old and first discovered her love for singing and acting in her drama and choir classes at Paul Revere Middle School. ‘I knew she was going to be a success,’ said Janet Smith, her middle-school choir teacher. ‘She had a strong work ethic, a beautiful singing voice, a delightful personality ‘ I knew there was a lot of potential in her.’ Yorke credits Smith, who retired in 2003, for her accomplishments. ‘She was so encouraging about what I was doing,’ Yorke said. ‘She made me believe it was possible.’ Yorke auditioned for seven universities with musical programs and chose the University of Michigan, where she performed in the musicals ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ ‘Seussical the Musical,’ ‘The Boys from Syracuse,’ ‘Tommy’ and ‘The Pajama Game.’ ‘There is something so freeing, spiritual about being on stage and communicating with an audience,’ Yorke said. ‘There is a conversation, an energy that you receive from an audience.’ She now enjoys sharing that energy with the pre-teens who attend ‘High School Musical.’ Many ask for her autograph after the show. ‘I love being able to bring theater to youth,’ she said. She performs the musical for young people eight times a week and lives in hotels or with friends as she travels across the country. Yorke hopes to perform in a Broadway musical one day. ‘There is so much more I want to accomplish. This is just the tip of the iceberg.’
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