Petra Lamy: The Saarland Actress Championing Self-Discovery Through Art
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A central tenet of acting, according to veteran performer Petra Lamy, is a daily reckoning with identity. “Who am I? That is the question that has to be asked anew every day. It can be someone diffrent at the beginning of the day than in the evening,” she observed during a recent conversation, emphasizing the constant flux inherent in life itself. For artists, she believes, this question is notably “existential.”
Lamy, 64, extends this ideology beyond the stage, applying it to all forms of artistic expression. However, acting – the art she practices, teaches, and has dedicated herself to mastering – that remains her primary focus. Her formative years included a fifteen-year mentorship with Dominique de fazio, taking lessons in both Rome and Los Angeles for half a year at a time. She recalls this collaboration, which concluded in 2009, as profoundly transformative, stating that “Learning doesn’t mean adding on to
she offers. “people who have never met before meet there and after an hour or so, depending on how the group is composed, they have the feeling that they know and understand each other better than you get to know each other after six months in private meetings,” she notes. “the willingness to open up determines the closeness between people.”
From Stage to School Principal
Lamy, alongside a team of dedicated lecturers, provides evening courses and workshops for a diverse range of students – children, young adults, and professionals – at her school located at Dudweiler Landstrasse 7 in Saarbrücken. A recent addition to the curriculum includes specialized workshops tailored for managers. Her innovative approach has proven prosperous,leading to a shift in public perception. She wryly observes that she is now more widely recognized as a lecturer and school principal than as a singer and actress within Saarland.
Lamy’s own artistic journey is remarkably varied. A native of Saarbrücken, she initially launched her career as a musical actress, a path deeply rooted in her family history.”Both my grandmothers sang. One sang in an opera choir as a soprano. The other could sing any melody she heard without any notes,” she recalls, adding that she began performing in bands during her high school years.
A Diverse Career Spanning Stage and Screen
Her repertoire includes performances in productions like the “Rocky Horror Picture Show”. After briefly studying Romance languages with aspirations of becoming a teacher – a path she ultimately abandoned, seeking a more artistic outlet – Lamy gained recognition at the national singing competition in Berlin in 1987, winning an award for her stage song performance.This led to an audition and subsequent debut in the musical “Line 1” in Oberhausen six months later.
Further engagements in the musical theater world followed across Germany. She has portrayed iconic characters such as fräulein Schneider in “cabaret,” Anita in “West Side Story,” Janet in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and Grandma in “The Addams Family,” performing in cities including dortmund, Wiesbaden, Cologne, and Schwerin. She also collaborated with the Frankfurt “Ensemble Modern,” performing as Mrs. Peachum in “The Threepenny Opera” in concert performances in London and Berlin.
Beyond musical theater, Lamy’s career encompasses guest appearances in crime dramas in Saarland, advertising work for Barilla noodles, orchestral concerts, and voice-over work. However, she is perhaps best known for her captivating portrayal of Édith Piaf, both in a dedicated play and through her own solo program. For a decade, she captivated audiences aboard the MS Deutschland with her renditions of classic French chansons.
