Everett Irving

Our theater department has great facilities and a great faculty and we put on a huge variety of works. The school put up Carousel last spring, but we do lots of Shakespeare and older plays, too. One of my favorites was Antigone; I played the role of Teiresias. It was a small part, but it required all of my physical and mental energy. The character is an old, blind mystic, so not only did I have to develop a new voice, I had to figure out how to move in a new way. Every night I would leave the stage sweating from nervous energy, having felt that I’d really invented something, maybe even changed myself in some way.

 

And though I came to NMH to act, I’ve expanded into other aspects of the theater here, too. I’ve taken a directing class and in my free time started writing plays. Seeing all the backstage stuff and having friends involved has even taught me about the technical side of theater.

 

Before I came here I visited eight other boarding schools: they all offered  life-changing experiences. But what’s different here is that it’s not predetermined. NMH doesn’t have an agenda for me. They let me find out who I am. They let me write my own story and discover my own self. Of course, a big part of that process is interacting with all these other kids doing the same thing. And there again, NMH is different because the variety of kids here is amazing. I know a lot of schools say they’re diverse, but it doesn’t mean anything if each group just hangs out with only itself. Here, they don’t.

 

I’ve thrown myself entirely into this experience and now it’s hard to find one part about me that’s stayed the same. But just like that old Greek shaman I played on stage, it’s not someone else’s version. It’s mine. I’ve created me.