Caroline Reese ’09 Performing Artist
“One of my first public performances ever was at School meeting in the KAC. I was in a band called Wovoka with Lawrentians Lizzie Quinlan ’09 and Bridgid Ruf ’10. Lizzie played the harp, I played acoustic guitar, and Bridgid played the viola. Bea Clark ’10 and Mary Ruf ’09 joined us on violin, and Isabelle Clark ’10 joined us on the cello — and we performed Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida.’ It was one of the first times I felt like maybe I SHOULD pursue music. Here I am seven years later at it full time, and my band and Lizzie Quinlan’s band have an upcoming show together in Washington, D.C.!”
Caroline Reese ’09, third from left
Monica Yunus ’95
Soprano and Co-Founder, Sing for Hope “When Lawrenceville instituted the prefect system, and I became a prefect, I had to speak at the KAC. It was a different kind of stage experience for me. Singing in front of an audience had its own kind of nerves, but none that came close to this. This time, I was speaking in front of not just my Fifth Form peers, but the entire school. It was terrifying and exciting all at the same time.”
Chris Cull James Cleary ’08
James Cleary ’08
Professional Ballet Dancer “Dance Director Derrick Wilder (now Chair of Performing Arts) showed me a video of Carlos Acosta’s performing the male solo from the ballet ‘Don Quixote’ and asked me if I wanted to do that for a career. I remember saying yes and deciding to take a huge risk and follow an alternative path versus the path of the Goldman Sachs financial analyst. I remember my first time going out on the KAC stage as a dancer and I knew that I had found what I wanted to do with my life. I remembered it years later when I took my first bows at the Joyce Theatre in New York City, The Rimsky Korsakov in St. Petersburg and the Smith Center in Las Vegas, and my thoughts returned, once again to the marble lobby, to the warmth of the upholstery on the weathered couch in Mrs. (Jean) Stephen’s office, and to the smell of scripts handed out in the lounge during Periwig preseason. Most importantly, I continue to remember the sweat pouring off my face during free periods spent in the dance studio practicing pirouettes and double tours, doubled over in content and elated exhaustion, knowing that I had discovered the most adamant cornerstone of both who and what I was.”
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t h e l aw r e n t i a n
Lawrenceville Director of Theatre, (Former) Performing Arts Chair “The year before Liz Duffy was inducted as Head Master, the students put on a David Mamet production, ‘Duck Variations.’ To celebrate the actual induction, we put on an 80-minute show, including a production of ‘Induction Variations.’ It was a lot of sophomoric, Triangle-Club stuff, but a lot of fun.”
Allen Fitzpatrick ’73 H’85 ’89 P’99 ’04
Chair, Lawrenceville Visual Arts Department “I recall teaching my first Parents’ Weekend (as a faculty member) here in 1979. I distinctly remember the nervous sweat running down my back. My classroom, in the KAC, was also the office of my department chair, Jack Garver. His guidance and help were pretty critical. Having that kind of transparency in my early career was awesome. I don’t think I would have asked for it at the time, but I ended up liking and appreciating it a great deal.”