Meet Isabella Carmenate!

by Emma Foley

You met Isabella during the Fleur d'Orange Residency as our Photographic Intern.  Now here is an interview she did with fellow Monkeyhouse Intern Emma Foley!

Isabella Carmenate is a 15-year-old sophomore in high school and a new Monkeyhouse intern! I also attend school with her--and any one of our peers could tell you just how much Isabella's creativity shines through on a daily basis. I recently had the opportunity to ask her some questions about her experiences in art, theater, and dance. 

EF: I understand that out of your variety of creative endeavors, theater might be the most recent; you just picked it up a few years ago (although everyone at Natick High Drama is very glad you did!) Why did you decide to start doing drama, and have you learned anything unexpected from it?

IC: I started doing drama because in eighth grade my chorus teacher heard me playing piano and singing after school. He pretty much got all my friends to force me into it and I did my first show that year. I expected to be under impressed with the whole thing to be honest. But I learned that it’s not really just about the acting and singing it’s more about the people you meet and the experiences you take from it.

EF: Out of the shows you’ve done, which has been your favorite? 

IC: The first show I did was Once on This Island and it was probably my favorite. I played the old mother and was extremely awkward on stage. I said my lines with probably no expression and sang super quietly. I laugh at this now because I don’t understand why I got a part. But I met some of my friends that I’ve gotten really close with there and it really got me into drama.

EF: I know you’ve been taking art classes outside of school for a long time, and subsequently become very good at it! When did you first know you loved art? 

IC: The question more is when didn’t I know that I liked art? Seriously, I’ve been drawing since I was super little. I started by when I first moved here by taking these weird classes where we would basically copy what the teacher had done a demo of at the front of the classroom. This was super boring to me so I looked for something else and found the current classes that I go to when I was in the third grade. I still remember the first real drawing I did of a bird with a really awful sun colored in the background. I’ve always loved art and taking art classes but it wasn’t until I wasn’t until I started trying other styles and really getting into experimenting with mediums and styles that I realized how much I really love art.

EF: Do you have a favorite type of art, and why is it your favorite? 

IC: I’ve been practicing realism since I was in the third grade. I like that the best because I think personally it was a really good foundation for other kinds of art. I’m always trying different kinds of art to try out but I always find that I need the basic skills of shape and form and value to keep me going. Even when I’m making simple, goofy cartoons I need an understanding of proportions and line.

EF: Why do you like dance?

IC: I like dance because I’m a big believer in the importance of creative outlets. For me, dance is a really good not only creative but emotional and physical outlet. I like that I can ‘get out’ whatever I need to during dance.

Meet Emma Foley

by Isabella Carmenate

Emma and Isabella are our newest interns. Their first task this fall was to interview each other!

I had the chance to interview Emma Foley, a current sophomore at Natick High school about drama, dance and writing. What I found out about her was super interesting!

IC: Did anyone push you into the arts as a small child or was that something you decided on your own?

EF: I had played sports for a while, just because that’s what everyone else was doing, but my parents and I both knew I was not gonna be a sporty kid up into high school! My mom was the first to prod me into theater, and I went from there.

IC: What roles have you played, and what are some of your favorite shows that you have been in?

EF: My favorite show I’ve been in was when I was in an acting troupe at Wheelock Theater—the director put together a collection of monologues and short plays around a central theme, then we spent two weeks in the summer rehearsing, and two weeks performing for various summer camps, etc. We changed a bunch of the content based on whatever age group we were performing for that day—it was a really unique experience! Aside from that, doing Once Upon a Mattress was such a blast. Nicole came up with some crazy fun choreography.

IC: If you had to pick one thing that was your favorite part of the process (of putting on a show), what would it be?

EF: I love doing read-throughs with the entire cast for the first time. Everyone’s really energetic and excited to start rehearsing the show, and its neat to see how people portray their character when they haven’t seen the entire script before.

What have you found through the opportunities high school has given you?

It’s been really cool just to meet a ton of new people, through theater or otherwise.

IC: What has been different (or the same) about theater at the high school?

EF: I feel like high school theater is a little more of a tight-knit community than anywhere else, because we all go to school together, in addition to seeing each other for hours after school every day, for four years in a row.

IC: Does your love for writing and theater ever meet, and if so, how does that happen for you?

EF: Definitely! In a creative writing class I took, we were asked to try writing a short play, so I felt like I had the advantage of having experience in exactly what that’s supposed to look like. Even when the two don’t meet, I feel like they connect in a lot of ways—they’re both about a very introspective point of view.

IC: Why do you like dance?

EF: This may sound super cliché, but I like how dance is really energetic yet controlled and disciplined at the same time.