There are two sides to every coin. While we’re all very sorry, down here at the Opera House, that we won’t be working with former Education Associate Robin Cust on a regular basis anymore, we are all so excited to welcome Joshua McCarey to the position! Especially now that we know he’s a James and the Giant Peach fan…
1. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in a neighborhood called “The Grove” on the city limits of Boston. Though downtown was just 20 minutes away by train, my house was surrounded by trees and a circuit of winding dirt roads. This made playing, exploring, and also some scandalous behavior possible and routine. We played kickball behind my house, made forts between oaks and maples and raced down hills on our bicycles. I realize now that it was a blessing for city kid.
2. How would your elementary classmates remember you?
It seems sad to say, but they may remember me as sick! I was in and out of Boston Children’s Hospital for severe asthma and allergies. Though I wasn’t well, it was a cool place to be! There were clowns and kind nurses- I was treated so well. I remember my classmates would craft personalized get-well cards on colored construction paper. It made me feel so special. They drew a skinny boy smiling from a hospital bed…with bright suns and seagulls flying around the room.
3. Name four fictional characters with whom you’d be ok being stuck in an elevator. Why them?
James could tell me about his adventure from inside the Giant Peach, and help to scheme a plan to get the elevator unstuck. If that doesn’t work, Sir Toby Belch would be fun for joking and singing to pass the time. Anybody from the unpredictable and fantastic world of Daniil Kharms would be welcome; the situation itself being so absurd. I was always moved by Louis, the Trumpeter Swan. He could inspire us to find alternate forms of communication when words are not enough.
4. Which cartoon character would you be?
Charlie Brown. (Borrowing Linus’ security blanket)
5. When did you fall in love with theater?
At 12 years old, I was cast as Bottom the Weaver in a community production of A Mid Summer Night’s Dream. That character literally plucked me out of all my closets. He was just so outrageous; and taught me that I could be outrageous, too. I think I learned that theatre does that- plucks us out of the closet. I was frightened and enamored by it.
Joshua will be back on the island in a couple of weeks. Make sure you stop in and say hi!
