By Sarah Gillam, courtesy of Kent News
A few seniors from the drama program and the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) sat nervously around a table at Doc’s Trattoria on a warm mid-October night waiting for Anthony Rapp. We all shifted in our seats, asking no one in particular how we should greet him—do we stand up, do we shake his hand, do we just give those awkward five-second introductions like on the first day of class? Ms. Falcone, the technical director for the theatre, laughed and gave us a last second etiquette lesson as Mr. Stewart, who had invited Mr. Rapp to come and present for a PALS night, walked in with the guest of honor. He smiled at us wearily in his jean jacket and checkered shirt, and we all half rose from our seats and then sat back down awkwardly as he sank into his chair..
Our waitress came by to a silent table, and as she left we began the introductions. “Hi, I’m Jamie Jackson and I’m from outside of the Boston area,” and so on and so forth. A little stilted, but once everyone got their names out, Mr. Rapp seemed to relax, and we, in turn, began to relax. He started talking to Milo Shan, a senior participating in The Laramie Project, about Shanghai and all of the red tape a foreigner has to go through to get anywhere in the world these days. Ms. Falcone added that she’d known a teacher at Kent that had just the same problems with her visa, and suddenly we all opened up to Anthony. In moments, we had gone from near silence to hysterical laughter that made the waitress shut the door on us in our enclosed section of the restaurant. None of us seemed to mind, and we laughed all the louder as Mr. Foote, the director of The Actor’s Nightmare, began engaging Mr. Rapp with all of Kent’s silly traditions that always end in awkward situations for the teachers on duty. It wasn’t odd to any of us that he was laughing right along with us as Ms. Falcone elaborated on the initiation the new boys on the Senior Council go through; he was one of us.
Maybe that’s what struck everyone at the dinner, and everyone that attended his speech. He was just like us. He spoke about the start and development of Rent, his relationship with his director, who passed soon after the show’s opening night in a New York theatre workshop, and how much his life had changed for the better because of it all. Everything that he talked about seemed very relatable for all of us. One could see the actors in the crowd secretly laughing along with stories of his audition blunders because they had experienced the same thing. Somehow, everyone in that audience connected with him and was very moved by the story he had to tell us. He talked about his life, plain and simple, no icing or polish like someone would expect big Broadway and movie stars to embellish their tales with.
Mr. Rapp’s visit let Kent know that anyone who wanted something badly enough, had the motivation to get it and had the determination to get through, could achieve it. And it didn’t hurt that he is just as kind, thoughtful and intellectually captivating as Kent students thrive to be.
