Meet sophomore Keelyn Smey, who uses theater, painting, poetry, and makeup to engage with all things art.
Scarlet Gitelson (SG): What is one thing that you’re really looking forward to right now?
Keelyn Smey (KS): I’m excited for the show, but I’m also really excited for the show to be over so that I can take a very long nap.
SG: What’s the show this year?
KS: “Failure: A Love Story.”
SG: Why do you like theater?
KS: I’ve always enjoyed acting, and I think I’m pretty good at it. I can fake cry—that’s a fun fact. Which is really fun to freak people out with. But I just always have loved the theater community and my friends in theater. I feel like it’s a very accepting space most of the time. I feel like I can really be myself there, and also get to act and do these things that I like. But I think even if I wasn’t into acting, I’d probably do tech or something because I have a really good time doing it.
SG: What’s an example of Latin’s theater community?
KS: What we do before shows where we do warm-ups, and we’ll do them with [Upper School performing arts teacher Frank] Schneider. Those are pretty fun to do. [Also] just talking backstage in the green room, because even if we’re not supposed to be talking and we’re supposed to be quiet, we’re usually talking anyway.
SG: Is there any particular role that stands out to you as your favorite role you’ve ever had in the Latin production?
KS: Not really. I like the role that I have now because I’m a bird in this show, and I get to do a lot of [happy] dancing around, kind of thing. I think it’s pretty fun. I enjoy doing that, but I’ve never had a lead role. At least not yet.
SG: Outside of theater, what do you think is like your most unique hobby?
KS: I paint, I sketch, I draw, I like doing makeup with my huge makeup case, I like to crochet, [and] I like hanging out with my little cousins. Oh, I write poetry a lot. I do so many things, and I can’t remember any of them. Well, I do theater. I sing—I’m in Romanettes, the a cappella group. I can’t think of anything else right now. Oh, I do printmaking stuff sometimes.
SG: What got you into doing makeup?
KS: When I was in seventh grade, I liked how eyeliner looked, so I pleaded with my mom to let me get eyeliner and mascara. And she did. I would occasionally do, like, a very big wing, and then she would not like it, and I had to take it off before school, which was very sad. But I think just doing that, because I loved putting on makeup in the morning and stuff like that. Putting on mascara, even though I don’t wear it every day now, I think [is what] probably started it. And then I started seeing people doing fun eyeliner looks that weren’t just like black winged eyeliner. So there [are] more fun things that you can do with makeup, and there [are] so many ways that you can enhance your features. And I just think it’s really cool.
SG: If you could describe your personality as any color, what would it be?
KS: I guess green, because I feel like green can be soothing and stuff like that, but it can also be bright.
