Return to the Stage

“Carousel” is a crowded musical. It’s all bright colors and chorus voices, with songs about clambakes and fights about money. After a spring spent preparing to perform, Upper School boys enjoyed a single presentation of their hard work before COVID-19 restrictions came crashing down.

“Our ‘Carousel’ dress rehearsal was the last thing everyone did before the ‘two weeks of COVID-19’” recalls Fifth Former Thomas Pendergast. “Quarantine started the next day.” He remembers the audience during their sole performance of “Carousel,” full of energy, not fully understanding what was to come. The crowd celebrated the boys “working together to create something,” as Darren Hengst, The Grace and Mahlon Buck Chair in Performing Arts, described it, the satisfying moment when student actors achieve the goals they set months, sometimes years, before.

The preparation for “Carousel” involved all the usual lessons of the performing arts. It was meant to be an exercise in the basics, a classic musical shared in normal times. In Hengst’s lecture for the School’s Best for Boys Speaker Series, “Performing Arts—Empathy, Connection, Communication,” he discussed the foundations of acting, how an actor must first understand his character’s intentions and his obstacles—what the character wants and what’s in his way. The difference between a good performance and a great one comes in the personalization, relating to the character’s circumstances somehow. As Hengst explains, “If a student can feel what the character feels on stage, the audience will feel that as well. That’s what I’m looking for.” In traditional theater, the actor absorbs his knowledge of his character and the energy of the audience to create a synergetic experience. That’s what the actors and the audience felt on March 12, 2020, during that dress rehearsal performance of “Carousel.” As Pendergast says, “It was a lot of really good energy, but we only had the one night.”

“Through the use of our new full stage green screen and editing technology, we were able to safely film the multi-actor scenes without ever having more than one student on stage at a time. Enjoy the show!”—Opening to “An Evening of Scenes and Monologues,” performed by Upper School boys in spring 2021

The spring 2021 performing arts experience was characterized by, as Fourth Former Jai Bonaparte described it, “social distancing and all that jazz.” He remembers “not knowing what was going to happen, how it was going to look, or who was going to be watching.” Hengst spent that spring rehearsing monologues with the boys, filming them from far away so they could perform safely without masks.

Plans for the final performance changed with the news of each passing day. A dip in COVID-19 cases offered hope for an in-person performance, while spikes sparked plans for live streaming. Sixth Former Ian Rush reflects, “Theater was unconventional during COVID-19, because

everything was unconventional during COVID-19.”

The young actors had a unique perspective of a historical moment, something Rush says “I will carry with me for the rest of my life.” Fifth Former Ben Bodle remembers acting alone against a marker that stood in for his stage partner, “When they put it together, it looked like we were having a conversation, but we weren’t. He wasn’t even there.”

COVID-19 added fresh challenges for the actors. “It’s almost not like theater without an audience,” Hengst says. “When I say something on stage, the audience reacts. Their response changes me and it changes my performance.” The restrictions added distance to the directions and some students struggled to take guidance over Zoom.

Recognizing his own difficulty, Rush filled in the gaps in his performance with extensive research into his characters. Meanwhile, Bodle enjoyed the space to make mistakes in recorded performances, a flexibility not readily available in live theater. He explains, “If I messed up, we could just do another take. It was a little bit easier.” Meanwhile, Bonaparte was learning self-reliance through monologue: “If I mess up a line in dialogue, someone else can either take over or mask the energy. But when I’m there alone, and I don’t know a line, or I slip up, I have to rely on myself to pull it together.”

Even when performing alone, the actors in “An Evening of Scenes and Monologues” recognized the resilience of the School’s performing arts community. Bodle remembers meaningful conversations with newfound friends and relationships strengthened through shared experiences, the normal bonding that happens in all performances. “That was one of the biggest takeaways,” he says, “that we could still have fun in those hard times. We could still be together. Haverford did a really good job with that.”

The experience of socially-distanced acting also demonstrated for the boys their own resilience. As Rush explains, “It made me focus more on myself instead of an audience, a scene partner on stage, or a director sitting right in front of me. It made me critique myself in a different, constructive way to find the character. Even though I felt lost so many times trying to do things that didn’t work, I’d always find a way. Going through that process—having to adapt and overcome—was so beneficial to me as an actor.”

Plans made during pandemics fall apart—that’s what they do—but the Nov. 2021 performance of “Peter and the Starcatcher” was a rare exception. From the dress rehearsal on Nov. 18 to the closing night on the 21st, the boys performed again with the added energy of an audience.

“We’re putting all the pieces back together,” said Rush, “remembering that past feeling of getting up on stage with a cast of other actors and a crowd, getting to interact. I’m re-learning that, while continuing the same tactics I learned during COVID-19.”

Face masks worn during rehearsal pose a new challenge for the actors, one that trained them in new ways to portray their characters’ emotions. Thomas Pendergast reflects, “I’ve learned to get more into character with my body than just using my face. It will help me in the long run, in terms of acting skills. I’ll be more used to mannerisms and how important they are to sculpting my character.”

The School’s actors return to the stage with newfound maturity and theatrical skills. Bodle reflects on this fall’s rehearsals, “During COVID-19, we learned to be on the same page in our performances. Previous shows were pieced together in the last week or two, but now we’re working together as a team and it’s coming together sooner.” Pendergast smiles, “It’s cool to be back in the group. It’s a little bit different, but I’m happy that we’re doing this together.”

Hengst, leading the performing arts department through times of such uncertainty, clings to the constants, saying, “The genuine love and support that is fostered during this kind of experience here at The Haverford School is something that these boys will hold dear for the rest of their lives. That’s what is wonderful about the performing arts. They develop the qualities that create leaders, and men of character, and genuinely good human beings.”

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, recent donations enabled equipment upgrades that improved student experiences in the performing arts. We’re grateful for the generous donations from the Loughnane and the Patterson families that made the following purchases possible:

• Choral risers • Instruments, amplifiers, storage closets, and reclaimed wood for a guitar display wall • LED lighting technology • Sound board

As Hengst explains, “We need to set the standard and give the boys memories of the arts—life changing experiences. When our equipment matches our curriculum and our production values, it makes a cohesive experience for our students.”