Canyon Crest junior a rising theater, jazz talent

By Rob LeDonne

Even though he’s 16, Scott Roberts has the acting resume and work ethic of someone twice his age.

“I’ve been doing about five shows per year,” he explains of the exhausting process. “At first I was only acting during the summer, but it snowballed from there.”

Roberts, who is going into his junior year at Canyon Crest Academy, has been acting since he was just 4 years old.

“That was when my parents signed me up for Junior Theater camp,” he remembers. “One of my counselors at camp told me I should start auditioning, and I’ve been doing San Diego Junior Theatre since I was 10.”

Following a role in Canyon Crest’s production of “Our Town” last year, Roberts is fresh off a stint as an ensemble member for the San Diego Junior Theatre’s production of “Guys and Dolls,” which had a three-week run at the Casa del Prado Theatre in Balboa Park.

“I think we only had one new person in this cast, so everyone already knew each other,” he notes. “It’s probably the best quality show we’ve done in a long time. The experience was fantastic.”

Acting isn’t the only thing Roberts is passionate about.

“I also play jazz piano, which is also a pretty big part of my life,” he said.

Roberts’ jazz band performed last month as part of the Carmel Valley Farmer’s Market and Canyon Crest Academy Foundation’s Music and Movies event. Just this week, Roberts and his band released a crop of jazzy tracks available to download at thesingleladies.bandcamp.com. Roberts and his fellow CCA jazz band members won a recording session when they finished first at Canyon Crest Academy’s Battle of the Bands competition last year.

Roberts isn’t sure what he’ll be pursuing a few years from now and is taking everything in stride. “Junior Theatre has been more of a social thing for me,” he said. “I would like to continue acting, but I’m not sure I’ll go after it as a career.”