2017 Summer/Fall Thayer Magazine

Page 16

THE CURIOUS & COLLABORATIVE JOURNEY OF LEIF TILDEN ’83 STORY BY PAUL W. KAHN

In the spring of 1983, when English teacher and theninterim theater director Jim King P ’01, ’04, ’06 decided to put on his own original play, The Surprise Party, there was no doubt who would portray the main character — a complex, monologueriffing, 'tortured soul' who planned his revenge party. Of course the lead would be senior Leif Tilden. Leif was the precocious kid who made his dramatic lead stage debut in that production, in turn snapping witty one liners with characters-both real and fictional (including Batman, John Wayne, and Tarzan) - for their perceived betrayals and bad influences, while also playing a violin at times. Even more prescient with this production was that Leif - along with many of the students in the play - actually had a substantive hand in direction of the action itself. The script (which Jim King still has a mimeograph copy of - see

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Thayer Magazine /// Summer / Fall 2017

“The Final Word” on page 80) is replete with handwritten workshopped edits made during rehearsals. Changed lines, reworked scenes, fresh ideas. Fast forward a few decades to April of 2017, and a screening of Leif ’s feature film debut, “1 Mile To You” in West Hollywood, California. It might seem like a straightforward narrative to declare this moment as the culmination of a story begun on the Frothingham stage those many years ago at Thayer. But that wouldn’t be telling even a fraction of the story of the journey that is Leif Tilden. If you ever have the good fortune to spend a few hours with Leif, you’ll soon discover a story - and a life - as complex and rich and tragic and redemptive and philosophical and surprising as any. Leif ’s path to Thayer Academy was a circuitous one. Though born in Boston, he moved following his parents’ divorce to Berkeley, California with his mom - but then following her devastating death by suicide, ended up back with his father in Massachusetts. He bounced from town to town, ending up in Duxbury by way of Marshfield and Wellesley. At this point in life, he was a directionless early teenager; in his words, “a complete stoner, listening to Zeppelin non-stop and reading Nostradamus with a buddy, thinking we were really smart.”


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2017 Summer/Fall Thayer Magazine by Thayer Academy - Issuu