Entertainment
Greenwich’s Chris Ghaffari added to Shakespeare cast
By Press Release
May 9, 2008 - 6:14:02 AM

Chris Ghaffari

Chris Ghaffari, a strong runnerup in the Shakespeare 2007 recital contest for Greenwich students, has been cast in a supporting role in Shakespeare on the Sound’s al fresco production of “Julius Caesar” to be presented in Rowayton’s Pinkney Park June 12-28 and Roger Sherman Baldwin Park in Greenwich July 4-13.

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.

Chris Rivard

Barnes plucked the pair from an open audition at the Rowayton Arts Center. He characterizes them both as “appealing, intelligent and with a good grasp of language,” the framework from which Shakespeare suspends his compelling visual imagery and poetic mirror of life’s perplexities.

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.

Jimmy Presson

Presson is a year younger than Ghaffari and a senior at Wilton High School. His mother is a public defender. He used to coach Little Leaguers in baseball and basketball. He plans to study theater at Fordham next September.

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