“I like the art of acting, becoming a different character. I think it’s really fun.”

Senior Natalie Pereira has been involved with theater since coming to Loomis Chaffee.

“We have created a very supportive community,” Natalie said, “and I like the art of acting, becoming a different character. I think it’s really fun.”

This fall she played Hero in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing on the Norris Ely Orchard Theater stage. She said learning the lines in Shakespeare plays “is not as difficult as some make it out to be, especially because you have a rhythm, the iambic pentameter, and you can follow that.” (Iambic pentameter is a poetic meter commonly used by Shakespeare.) “And in any show,” Natalie said, “it comes down to knowing why you are saying the lines. Once you know your motivation, it makes the actual words easier.”

The week before Much Ado About Nothing, freshmen and sophomores performed Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Natalie was there on opening night in the Black Box Theater to support the younger students.

“I remember going into my freshman year — it’s a whole new world, and you’re kind of the underdog again,” Natalie said. “I remember that having support from upperclassmen allowed me to feel I could see myself growing here.”

Year: Senior

Hometown: Grand Rapids, Mich.

Clubs/activities: Founders Award recipient as a junior. Junior Dance & Theater Arts Award. Language, History, Math, and Science department honors for 2024–25 school year. Resident assistant (RA) in Culbert Hall this year. An editor of The Log. Tour guide. Co-president of Fashion Club. 

Favorite course: College-Level Junior English Seminar. She said it was a small class, six students, taught by Sangyeop Kim. “It allowed me to find my voice. Going into junior year, I was confident as a writer, but I stepped into the classroom and realized just how much I didn't know.”

On being a recipient of the Junior Dance & Theater Arts Award: “It represented that I love theater and is something I’m really passionate about.” She said she was thankful for “all the great cast members, directors, the people around me who supported me and the shows.”

On what being an RA in Culbert Hall means to her: “It is getting to know everybody in the dorm and being someone you can talk to, whether it’s about issues or just having fun, hanging out, chatting, sharing stories.”

Favorite meal: “Any pasta dish. I love pesto pasta. That’s probably my go-to.”

If you could have a robot do any chore for you, what would it be? “Cleaning my room. I'm a little bit of a messy person, I'll admit it. I heard that messiness can sometimes be related to creativity, so maybe that just means I'm creative. But I do procrastinate cleaning my room.”

What is something people might not know about you? My go-to fun fact is I have a twin [brother].”

Describe yourself as a freshman and now as a senior: “I feel I have changed a lot through my four years. As a freshman, I was not as sure of myself. Senior year, I’m more sure of my identity, who I am as a person, my beliefs.”

If you could live in the past or future, which would you choose: The future. “I think it would be more interesting. In the past, you know everything that is going to happen. The most exciting part is not knowing — living life not knowing what is going to happen next.”