Gavin Mariani ’22, like most children, began his acting career about 10-years-ago by making productions with his cousins in his basement during the summer hoping to make their family members laugh. Now as a senior in high school, he is acting as the lead in Radium Girls and hoping to continue acting after graduating. Theater has allowed Mariani to unleash different parts of himself that he typically wouldn’t be able to express. “Every show you do, you’re learning a whole different story. You’re learning about a whole lot of different people. There’s so much you can learn.” Mariani explained during his interview with the Scroll.
Mariani’s first on stage production was in seventh grade during Aladdin in which he played “beggar number two”. Although he was a little disappointed in the role at the time he knew he wanted to continue his acting career. When considering secondary schools for sophomore year, he always made sure to ask about the theater program. He appreciated that Deerfield valued the theater program and that theater director Catriona Hynds reached out to him multiple times during his application process.
Mariana has now been an important part of the theater program for three years, having played roles in five Deerfield theater productions. According to Hynds, Mariani takes his job seriously and is a strong actor.
Mrs. Hynds noted that, “Gavin is a hard worker.” She elaborated, saying that, “As an actor, he takes his responsibilities really seriously, meaning that he gets off book swiftly, and he never, never stops trying to hone his performance.”
Part of developing a character is doing research on the person that one is performing. The Deerfield cast does textual deconstruction on each play and its characters. As well, each person can choose to individually conduct research during the process. When Mariani is assigned a role he does his own personal research, especially if the character is a historic figure. Mariani mentioned in his interview that he always looks for what his character’s intentions are and how the character hopes to achieve those objectives.
The Deerfield theater department only has limited time to put on their productions, and to utilize rehearsal time wisely students are often expected to practice their lines outside of co-curricular time. Every actor has their own way of memorizing their lines, for Mariani he makes sure to read through his lines both right before he goes to bed and in the morning if he has time. Mariani also shared, “Mostly, though, I just read my lines repeatedly, and after a few reads, I cover up the other lines and force myself to remember what to say.”
A highlight of Mariani’s career was his role as Christopher Boone in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. This play is Mariani’s favorite Deerfield production that he has been a part of and the role that he dedicated the most time into researching. He played the role of Christopher Boone, the 15-year-old protagonist with autism. Mariani wanted to be sure to portray Boone as accurately as possible without playing into any stereotypes or falsities.
“My favorite role of Gavin’s is easily Christopher Boone in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime,” Hynds commented. “This role required exceptional sensitivity and compassion and Gavin had both of those qualities. It was a really complex role, and Gavin did an absolutely amazing job.”
Often when watching Mariani people like Sophie Petronzio ’25 are in awe of how he is able to truly bring his character to life. Mariani spends time working on understanding his character’s point of view on the situation occurring in the play and the character’s physicality. Petronzio mentioned that “Gavin really stepped into his character in the play Radium Girls from the way he physicalized his role, blocked on stage, and embodied his character through his words and honestly just the way he carried himself.”
Mariani is constantly working to learn new monologues to have in his toolbox to use for when auditioning for roles both at and outside of Deerfield. During the college application process, Mariani worked to perfect eight monologues. Each college theater program required him to present at least two monologues. Mariani said that, “when picking a monologue the number one thing is finding someone who I can relate to in some way because if you don’t relate to a character, it’s very hard to make it believable.”
When Mariani came in as a new sophomore he looked up to many of the senior actors as role models and guides who he could ask questions. Both sophomore and junior year he worked to learn from the seniors and valued their feedback. Now being a senior himself, he is hoping to be a similar role model for younger students. Regarding this, Mariani commented, “I really tried to specifically give my full energy presence in the first reading of Radium Girls and I usually lead the warm ups in rehearsals.” Mariani also mentioned that he works to answer any questions the cast members may have and tries to lift everyone’s spirits.
Both Mariani’s theater ensemble and teachers have noticed that Gavin is both a strong actor and leader. Mrs. Hynds hopes that the younger actors will take notes from Mariani and his acting techniques, commenting that, “Gavin is fearless, bold, energetic and powerful, and intones lines beautifully.”
Multiple students including Lily Pierce ’25 have been a part of shows with Mariani and have been able to learn from him. Pierce worked closely with Mariani in the production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and just starred with him in Radium Girls. Pierce noted in an interview, “[That] working with Gavin Mariani is an absolute pleasure…Gavin truly showed me the ropes of the program as a Freshman actor and inspired me with his uncanny talent and unmatched dedication to Theater.”
The Theater ensemble for every show works closely together as they spend countless hours practicing lines and running scenes. It is important for Mariani to bring good energy to the ensemble as he believes that a united cast is a stronger cast. Members of the ensemble, including Pierce, have noticed the positive energy that he brings to rehearsal. Pierce mentioned that, “Gavin brings a wonderful, focused, yet light energy to the ensemble. In the rehearsal room, I have spent hours both working seriously with Gavin as well as sharing laughs over the most stupid things. I am so grateful for the talent and dedication he brings to Deerfield Theater.”
Mariani is planning to act in both Deerfield’s winter and spring productions, and hopes to continue acting both during and after college. Mariani has brought both talent and good energy to the Deerfield theater department, and although his cast members will be sad to see him go they know that he is bound for great things.