By Megan Charms, Staff Writer
Take 1. Meet Gabriel Firestone, eldest son of David and Wendy Firestone. He is currently a senior at Beachwood High School. He credits Hilltop for unearthing his true passion, theater.
It happened in Mr. Bryce’s 6th grade science class when he received a flyer about tryouts for “Peter Pan”. Before that moment, Gabe said that he “never thought about trying theater” even though he enjoyed singing songs from musicals, which he did often as a young boy with his mom on long car trips. The flyer made it all “click,” Gabe said. His mom first noticed his curiosity for the arts in kindergarten. While other kids were off and running, Gabe was busy making paper sculptures and puppets. He also enjoyed playing piano and molding clay. She made a point to expose him to a variety of arts and theater.
Take 2. As an actor, Gabe participates in plays with many different organizations, completing about five plays a year. He works at Stage Crafters in Orange, Play Makers through the JCC, Heights Youth Theater, as well as performing in a Cabaret Troop.
Throughout the years, Gabe has worked in a wide variety of plays. His first play was “Peter Pan”. Other plays include “Cheer Wars,” “Batboy,” “Urinetown,” “Les Misérables,” “Godspell,” “Hair,” “Pinocchio,” “42nd Street,” and “Pippin” to name a few. Right now, Gabe can be seen as Utterson, a main role, in the play “Jekyll and Hyde”.
Take 3. In plays, Gabe is usually cast in a main role and often sings solos as was the case in the play “Godspell” when he sang one of his favorites “We Beseeched Thee.” This comes as no surprise to Gabe’s peer and fellow cast-mate of six years, Lindsay Bialosky, who said, “He is a dedicated, hard working actor who never gives up and is not afraid to try new things. He has a perfect pitch for singing and is an amazing dancer.” According to Bialosky, Gabe possesses the necessary qualities to be a successful actor.
Not only does Gabe perform on stage, but he also finds himself singing and acting on both the radio and television. For the play “Godspell,” he was interviewed and sang four songs for the radio station, Ideastream. For the play “Les Misérables,” Gabe was on Channel 3 News. He recalls going down to the studio and singing live on set, an experience that he describes as “incredible, unbelievably fascinating.” Gabe was on TV two more times for promoting the plays “Urinetown” and “Batboy”. For these productions, he was taped at rehearsal and later shown on TV.
Take 4. “I don’t want to live the life style of a struggling actor looking and competing for work. Acting is a passion,” Gabe said when asked about his future. But, Gabe does see himself pursuing theater, as he wants to work in the field of theater design and technology. This field of work includes lighting design, costume design, set design, sound, and the technical and mechanical aspects of making a show work. Thus, as of right now, his number one choice for college next fall is Emerson College in Boston.
To chase after his dreams of working in this field, Gabe stage-managed a benefit for the Great Lakes Theater Festival in downtown Cleveland. He has been the stage manager for the past two years and is doing it yet again this year. This past year, he helped organize the play “An Evening With Jon Leiken and Friends,” which raised money to revamp the Hannah Theater. “It was an amazing experience. Behind the scenes, I basically called the show as I acted as the assistant to the director. I made the production flow, told people when to go on and off stage, said when to turn the lights on and off, and organized the dinner.” He said that the benefit raised $20,000 and the Hanna theater is now “beautiful and the new official permanent home of the Great Lake Theater.” Gabe has also found himself stage-managing and directing Cabaret Night at Beachwood High School.
Gabe took directing into his own hands when he worked at the Cleveland Clinic last summer as a creative learning intern. His job description was to work on high profile marketing projects with four other interns. Each intern was given a main project and his was to create a children’s music video to teach hand hygiene and health to kids (up to 2nd grade). For his video, Gabe made his very own hand puppets and wrote an original song. His music video can be seen on the website, that he created, www.clevelandclinic.org/powerwashers. Gabe’s project won the gold and platinum 2008 MARCOM international award for marketing and communication professionals and was an official honorary for the 2009 Webby awards.
Final Act
Not in Gabe’s case. This is only the beginning of a bright future. His family fully supports him now and will continue to be his biggest fans. See you at the Emmy’s.
