by Chanel Shum
At just 16, junior Emmanuelle Nadeau has already been written about in The New York Times twice. The first time was when she was only 12, for her role as Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in 2011. More recently was this year, for her role as Anne Frank in the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s production of The Diary of Anne Frank.
At just 16, junior Emmanuelle Nadeau has already been written about in The New York Times twice. The first time was when she was only 12, for her role as Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in 2011. More recently was this year, for her role as Anne Frank in the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s production of The Diary of Anne Frank.
Nadeau, who attended WHS for two years and is currently taking online classes at Keystone National High School, has been acting since the 5th grade. She said: “The coolest thing about theater is that you can bring any story to life and allow the audience to forget about anything else they have going on in their lives and enjoy another person’s story for a while.”
Nadeau cites Anne Frank as her favorite role to play. “[She] was just such an incredible and unique person… and I learned so much both times I worked at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. It feels like a second home.”
Her other roles include Puck in NJPAC’s production of Midnight Madness, Anne in NJPAC’s The Magic Tree House: A Night in New Orleans, Sivvy in Columbia Stage’s More Than One Good Way to Drown and many others.
Nadeau considers her role as Reenie in Tar Beach at Luna Stage last spring her most difficult in terms of preparation. “It was a super intense and emotional show…. My character goes missing in the first act, and when she comes home in the second act, we find out she was sexually assaulted and now refuses to talk to anyone,” said Nadeau. “It was hard to get to that dark place every night. Also, I had to do a Queens accent, which took me a while to get right. To prepare I did a lot of research about the time period and about people who went through similar experiences as Reenie.”
In the future, Nadeau said she would love to play a plethora of roles, including Mary Warren in Arthur Miller´s The Crucible, Joan in George Bernard Shaw´s Saint Joan, Miranda in William Shakespeare´s The Tempest and Juliet in Shakespeare´s Romeo and Juliet. Said Nadeau, “There are so many important stories that need to be told, and theater allows people to hear them and learn from them.”
Nadeau cites Anne Frank as her favorite role to play. “[She] was just such an incredible and unique person… and I learned so much both times I worked at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. It feels like a second home.”
Her other roles include Puck in NJPAC’s production of Midnight Madness, Anne in NJPAC’s The Magic Tree House: A Night in New Orleans, Sivvy in Columbia Stage’s More Than One Good Way to Drown and many others.
Nadeau considers her role as Reenie in Tar Beach at Luna Stage last spring her most difficult in terms of preparation. “It was a super intense and emotional show…. My character goes missing in the first act, and when she comes home in the second act, we find out she was sexually assaulted and now refuses to talk to anyone,” said Nadeau. “It was hard to get to that dark place every night. Also, I had to do a Queens accent, which took me a while to get right. To prepare I did a lot of research about the time period and about people who went through similar experiences as Reenie.”
In the future, Nadeau said she would love to play a plethora of roles, including Mary Warren in Arthur Miller´s The Crucible, Joan in George Bernard Shaw´s Saint Joan, Miranda in William Shakespeare´s The Tempest and Juliet in Shakespeare´s Romeo and Juliet. Said Nadeau, “There are so many important stories that need to be told, and theater allows people to hear them and learn from them.”