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He shares the part of Brutus’ page Lucius with Jimmy Presson of Wilton under an exemption from Actors’ Equity that allows the festival to employ on alternate nights non-union performers like the two teen-aged high school seniors. Both are making their first professional appearance. To capitalize on Ghaffari’s developing tenor-baritone and Presson’s youthful tenor, the director, Ezra Barnes, intends to add a palette of song to the dialogue uttered by Lucius in Shakespeare’s epic chronicle of political intrigue, chicanery and betrayal.
Approaching its 13th season, the festival showcases hand-stitched costumes, original live music, inventive sets and a cast of professional performers largely drawn from New York’s theatrical hub, supplemented by the young people from Connecticut. A third member of the Connecticut cadre is Chris Rivard, 23, of Monroe who is playing a number of minor roles to be determined. Outside acting, Rivard holds down the traditional waiter’s job. But he has appeared on TV’s “Law and Order” and in the movie “Righteous Kill,” filmed in Bridgeport, slotted for September release and starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. There is no charge for admission. A donation of $20 is suggested, $10 for students and seniors. Additional information is available online at www.shakespeareonthesound.org. Ghaffari, 18, the son of a hedge fund manager, is 185-pound linebacker in football and a midfielder in lacrosse at Brunswick School where he studies Latin, Greek and calculus. He heads for Princeton in the fall to pursue international economics and the theater. In the annual Shakespeare contest jointly sponsored by the Greenwich Branch of the English-Speaking Union, the Smith College Club and the Greenwich Library, he finished second to Lucy Van Atta, 19, who has transitioned from Greenwich Academy to the Tish School of the Arts at NYU.
The late Sir John Gielgud and Daniel Day-Lewis are the actors most admired by Ghaffari. He is awed by their “versatility and captivating power over audiences.” Presson has high regard for Ben Kingsley for much the same reasons. Both Ghaffari and Presson apprenticed in the standard run of high school productions, playing the tyro-type parts of Danny Zuko in “Grease,” Benny in “Guys and Dolls” and an assortment of characters in plays like “Kiss Me Kate,” “Pippin,” “The Crucible” and “The Sound of Music.” Auditioning is described by Ghaffari as “nerve-wracking.” But there is a certain exhilaration he finds in “putting myself on the line.” Speculates Barnes: “Perhaps they’ll get the acting bug even more this summer.” © Copyright by StamfordPlus.com. Some articles and pictures posted on our website, as indicated by their bylines, were submitted as press releases and do not necessarily reflect the position and opinion of StamfordPlus.com, Stamford Plus magazine, Canaiden LLC or any of its associated entities. Articles may have been edited for brevity and grammar. [an error occurred while processing this directive] CURRENT HEADLINES: [an error occurred while processing this directive] Top of Page
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