
Lydia Garcia ’22 discovered the highlights of performing arts at PHS after participating in numerous plays throughout elementary and middle school. She is now the co-president of the Spectacle Theatre. Through this club, she cultivates an open community for PHS students interested in theater and guides them through their acting journeys. Her dedication to theater paid off, as she was recently awarded Governor’s Best Actress by The Speech and Theatre Association of New Jersey. Acting not only allows Garcia to express her individuality but also contributes to her confidence in life beyond the stage. Always willing to explore new opportunities, Garcia plans on continuing theater in college and is excited to see where this journey takes her.

What encouraged you to start pursuing theater and music?

My preschool had these little shows that they would put on, and I always loved entertaining and being on stage since I was a kid. Then McCarter Theater came to my fifth grade class. They were doing Macbeth, and I got the role of Lady Macbeth. It was just a really fun time to be with people that were in the industry already, and I thought that it was just a really cool job to have.

How does your Latina identity translate into your work?

Since I grew up in Princeton, I could only ever connect to my Latin roots through my family. It took a lot of time to understand how my ethnicity shaped me and what that meant being in a place with minimal representation. My Latina identity shapes my acting by showing me that there is a lot that goes into a character: who they appear to be on the outside and what parts of themselves they identify with. From my experience, Latina women can be known for being shameless and passionate, and I think these traits have definitely translated into my acting and my love for acting. My mentality is doing things just because I can, whether that’s a character choice on stage or simply stepping into an audition room. And feeling all the emotions that come with your actions, it builds cha- racter and empathy, which are two things that I can directly thank my Puerto Rican and Dominican roots for.

What productions have you been in?

What has been your most memorable role? Sophomore year was my first year that I got into theater at PHS. It was the play “Clue.” I got the role as a cop, which was okay, because it was a good entry-level role to get to know how things worked at PHS. That role showed me the ins and outs, and I got to know everything that goes on here pre-COVID-19. Then I auditioned for “Freaky Friday.” I got the role of Hannah, and that musical in itself was just really complicated in terms of choreography and late rehearsals so that was really cool to experience as well. However, when that show was about to come out, we stopped because of COVID-19. At least I was able to get a clear view of what theater looked like before COVID-19. In junior year, I auditioned for “12 Incompetent Jurors,” and I got the role as Juror 10. That is probably my most memorable role here because of how intense I had to be every single time, and I guess that pushed my love for acting and showed me what it’s really about.

Is there a community within PHS that students can seek out if they are interested in acting?

Spectacle Theatre is really the epicenter for everything acting, everything theater. I’m actually the co-president of the club. It’s a great place where people can come together, experienced or inexperienced, and talk about theater opportunities within PHS. We have a lot of plays, so that’s definitely a place where any interested PHS students can come and automatically be accepted into the space and feel comfortable to pursue acting or know more about it.

Do you plan on pursuing theater in the future?

Yeah, absolutely. It’s something that I’ve always loved, and I don’t want to give it up early. So if I can do it in college and make a career out of it, I definitely want to do that.

Student Artist of the Month: Lydia Garcia ’22 discovers self-expression through acting



Most drama students would agree that the highlight of theater is getting to perform in front of a live audience. However, as a result of COVID-19, drama students were no longer able to experience the opening night adrenaline rush. In order to adapt to these unexpected circumstances, the PHS drama students attended online classes, performed pre-recorded musicals, and even filmed self-tapes for auditions. Although the school year was far from normal, the drama students made the best of the situation and used their time at home to not only improve upon their acting skills but to also prepare for when performances would eventually start up again.

PHS drama students were not discouraged by the cancellation of in-person performances. Drama teacher Julianna Krawiecki made use of the technology available online and decided to have an at-home production. After auditioning online, students recorded themselves reciting their lines. These videos were then combined to create one cohesive musical. PHS students agreed that an online production had both its advantages and disadvantages.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s definitely nice being able to have your sheet music and lines out while performing as a little bit of a safety net, but there’s nothing like live theater and an audience to perform for,” said Hannah Bobchin ’21.

Many PHS drama students shared the same view. Although at-home productions brought about some benefits, such as not needing to stress about memorizing lines, these virtual performances didn’t have the same excitement as the live performances of a typical year.

“In a few ways, yes, it was easier to perform from our homes, by having easy access to scripts and by being able to control your environment,” said Matty Baglio ‘23. “However, in a lot of ways it sucked. Spectacle theatre is all about coming together and performing, and that was hard to achieve over Zoom.”

One of the more difficult challenges of at-home acting was the lack of interaction between fellow actors. PHS actors have found it hard to portray a character effectively if they are not able to interact with other characters in person. 

"One of the other big challenges as an actor in doing the production from home was that there were no other actors on stage with you to play off of. When there is no one to react to, it makes telling the story a lot harder!” said Sedona Raphael ’24. “While I appreciated the gift of ‘slowed-down time’ during the pandemic to work on my craft, I have definitely missed live theater — the friendships that you make during shows and that adrenaline rush you get when you enter an audition room for a callback.”

Out of all the aspects of in-person theater, students agreed that they missed the live performances the most.

“Hands down, what I miss most about live theatre is the audience’s energy. Performing for a live audience is almost like a supply and demand kind of thing,” Bobchin said. “It’s almost like you’re feeding off of their energy and vice versa.”

After a long year of online learning, students are ready to get back into their regular year routines, following COVID-19 regulations. Krawiecki shares some of her plans for the new school year and whether or not the pandemic has affected any of these upcoming plans.

"So I still have plans that all of my classes will have production. That is typical of the drama program right now. We just don’t know what the timeline is because of everything else going on with the COVID-19 restrictions. I do plan on kind of going back to the way that we used to run the class, where it was more interactive in exercises and activities that we can do still distanced,” Krawiecki said. “My goal is to let my students collaborate together, build our community, build their performance skills and experience diverse repertoire throughout the year. And we still do hope to have all of our productions. The timeline is just unknown right now.” Krawiecki is grateful for the opportunity to conduct more in-person activities that the online schedule prevented. She understands the restrictions of the pandemic such as social distancing and wearing a muffling mask, but she plans on working around these challenges to pull off great productions once again. With classes being in person, students now have the chance to connect with their classmates and truly experiencing the opening night excitement once again. But whether online or in-person the students at PHS are grateful for the opportunity to experience the true theater.

Reflecting on online performances, drama students prep for in person


All displayed photos are provided by Elias Gitterman

Theater is much more than just memorizing a script. For Elias Gitterman ’21, it’s a transformative experience, starting with the nerve-wracking auditions all the way to production day. After participating in musicals throughout middle school, Gitterman continued his acting journey in PHS by starring in drama department productions including “Theory of Relativity” and “Clue.” This year, he is excited to play Gomez Addams in PHS’ very own production of “The Addams Family.” Gitterman demonstrates his versatility as a student actor by taking on roles of all types of genres including comedy, mystery, and romance. When embodying a character, he emphasizes the importance of being original on stage. With his distinctive understanding of theater and his love for all roles, Gitterman looks forward to many more amazing on-stage experiences in the future, as he plans to attend New York University this fall. 

What influenced your interest in acting?

The first show I ever did was in fourth grade, and it was a Shakespeare play called “A Midsummer Night's Dream.” That sort of instilled in me a love of being on stage and having the attention of the audience. Then when I got to middle school, I just started auditioning for plays and taking drama classes; I auditioned for the musical when I was in eighth grade. I would also see plays and musicals, specifically on Broadway. By the time I got to high school, I very much considered myself an actor.

Is this your first time starring in a PHS musical production? If not, can you give an overview of past experiences? 

Yes, this is my first time having a leading role in the musical at PHS. I was in a musical last year called “Theory of Relativity.” That was an ensemble show that was just a series of individual musical numbers: some pieces were solos, some were duos, and others were large ensemble pieces. That was a big moment for me, getting to be in that show. There was a lot of emotion, and overall it was very deep and touching to a lot of people. My favorite role I’ve ever played was probably Mr. Green in “Clue,” because it was so much fun to play. I got to live out a lot of my theater dreams by playing a secret FBI agent; getting to play that character was such an over the top, ridiculous situation. And being able to play those characters in those types of scenes is fun. After this tremendous experience, I auditioned for Addams Family this year and got the role of Gomez. I’m just so happy to have the role. 

Can you guide us through the overall process of a production, starting with auditions?

The first thing you do is go to the informational meeting, where you learn what the show is about and you get your audition materials. Once you have your audition materials, you have to practice memorizing your lines and start thinking about which characters you might want to be cast as. Then you go to the audition, which can be nerve-wracking because there’s lots of new people.

You start to gauge what the production, in a broader sense, is going to look like. Every actor will also tell you that the audition goes by very quickly, you’re walking out of the audition room, and you’re thinking “wait, did that just happen?” But if you’ve practiced enough, it becomes second nature, and then you don't need to focus too much. So that’s the audition, but callbacks can be equally nerve wracking. Sometimes, directors and auditors will put you in a scene where they know that you’re going to flub your lines just to see how you roll with it. Actually, that is a great way for the people in the audition room to get to know you as a person and an actor. It does require a lot of devotion, but once you’re in production, you’re performing, and you never get tired of it. It’s always fun and so exciting to walk out on stage and be in a scene.

Auditions for musicals can get competitive. How do you feel about the environment of the musical industry? 

Whenever there’s some sort of aspect of performance, whether it’s instrumental or athletic, there’s always a lot of pressure following it, which can lead to a high pressure environment. There can be competitiveness when you're involved in a theatrical production. Though, in every show that I’ve been in, the environment has been very welcoming and positive. There’s always an understanding that there’s a level of pressure and weight that come with that. You’re doing something that’s important and you want to do it well. The theater community almost always is super supportive, which helps take some of the weight off of your shoulders when putting together such a large production.

Do you ever feel yourself getting personally attached to your role, or even becoming somewhat like the role you play?

I definitely bring a lot of myself in my roles, and I’m never the same person coming out of a show as I am going into it. It’s always a transformative experience, but outside of rehearsal I don’t really become my character. Like I said before, it’s fun to watch your characters come to life and bring them to the stage in a way that’s original and effective. You come to love your role, and you make the most of it no matter how many scenes you’re in or how big of a role it is. This is something that you'll definitely hear a lot as an actor, but bigger roles do not always mean better roles. It’s natural for different roles to have varying amounts of stage time and types of preparation. For the supporting and leading roles, your character is already written out. The type of character that you’re supposed to play already exists. However, as an ensemble member, you often get to create your own character, but at the same time, I always say that aspect of inventing is very important, no matter what role you get. You always have to bring something original to your role. To circle back around to your question, I’ve never gotten attached to my roles, but very often I find the characters that I’m playing are somewhat similar to me.

Gomez Addams is known for his extraordinary love for Morticia. When acting, is it ever difficult to portray feelings like love?

With something as complex as showing love, regret, or contempt, abstract emotions are obviously more difficult to convey because they have to come from an authentic place. A very common technique that's used by actors is emotional recall, and it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. If you’re trying to convey an emotion, just think of a time in your life when you experienced that emotion, try to reflect on that in your brain, and recreate it through acting. Portraying an emotion like love can be difficult because people interpret love in lots of different ways, and there are many different types of love. It’s not always easy to be an effective actor. Something that I live by is that good acting is when the audience feels whatever the actor is trying to portray. That may seem obvious, but if there's a disconnect between what you’re trying to create and how the audience is perceiving it that means you are doing something wrong. I know I’ve stressed this so many times, but it’s something that I live by, and that’s being original with your role. You have to create something that’s never been seen before. So once again, to revisit your original question, portraying love can be challenging, but if you do it right, it can be very compelling and very moving. 

Any advice for students beginning in theater?

My advice would be that you have to form a community by getting to know the other people in your class because you are going to stick with them, and they're going to be people who sustain you. Once you do a show with them, you get to know them really well. You form this really strong bond that is so important to being not only a high schooler but also an actor. Shows should be fun, and they shouldn’t be too much work. You definitely have to work hard as an actor and have to put in those hours. You have to really be able to invent in a way that's honest, effective, and self sustaining. You need to be the type of actor who enjoys the work.

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