BEYOND THE BOOKS
n e ws a n d n ot e worthy e v e n ts
ABOVE LEFT Left to right: Chris Ghaffari
’08, Jamie Biondi ’08, Upper School theater and English teacher Seth Potter, John LaBossiere ’13, Upper School English Chair Brendan Gilsenan, and Upper School English teacher Brian Freeman. ABOVE RIGHT Willy Fein ’13, John
LaBossiere ’13, Lauren Eames (GA ’13).
Shakespeare Project: ‘An Ode to Character’ Where character is so central to education, it’s no
surprise that Shakespeare is a hub of the Upper School
Shakespeare’s characters are so compelling because
English curriculum, culminating in the senior year.
they are so human, so much like us. Ghaffari observed:
Nascent professional actors Jamie Biondi ’08 and
“How someone chooses to speak informs his identity.
Chris Ghaffari ’08 returned to campus in March at the
Our actions become who we are.”
invitation of theater teacher and director Seth Potter,
and tarried long enough to make their mark on this
debate, as John LaBossiere ’13 showed, performing
year’s senior Shakespeare project.
Launcelot Gobbo’s “conscience/fiend” monologue from
The Merchant of Venice.
Playing the roles of a bickering Hamlet and
and deliberately cut English Department Chairman
teacher Brian Freeman’s rendition of King Lear’s
Brendan Gilsenan short as he began remarks to an
“storm” speech seemed to confirm.
Upper School assembly.
students from the audience volunteered first to
After all, what better proof of the immediacy and
Sometimes, we may never figure it out, as English
The crowd on stage grew thick and frenzied as
power of Shakespeare than his words themselves?
improvise and then to take part as guests and ghosts
to torment MacBeth at his own banquet table.
“Nowhere else is the text a stronger determinant
of character,” Biondi said, noting that entire
Shakespearean characters must be drawn largely from
understanding,” Ghaffari said. “The flexibility of the
what they say.
text creates imaginative space to fill.”
Biondi called the plays “an ode to character” and, at
said, “all the baggage we’ve accrued in our lives comes into the performance with us.”
times of Brunswick • Spring 2013
Often, that’s the subject of internal conflict and
Laertes, the pair barged onto Baker Theater’s stage
the same time, “central to our character.” As actors, he
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Revealed only by their words and actions,
Shakespeare challenges the “process of
And, in that imaginative space, “conscience can
become the theater.”
B