Last year, Gulliver Prep senior Martin Pakciarz, who is in theater and chorus, realized the school theater, music and dance programs did not perform at the same time.
“I wanted to bring the three performing arts together,” he says.
So he created the Performing Arts Awareness Community Trio (PAACT). He not only created PAACT, he created a successful event that took place last spring.
“I want this to help other people,” he says. “We are so privileged at Gulliver. I want to help others.”
He created the March 2016 event for students at the Ruth Owens Kruse Educational Center.
“I went there with Key Club a few years back,” he says. “I really enjoyed my time there. It’s a school for mentally handicapped students.”
He put together an event that he believed would benefit the 18-25-year-old students from Ruth Owens Kruse Education Center.
“We invited Ruth Owens to come to Gulliver,” he says.
The highlight of the day was a short play called Bad Auditions by Bad Actors that Pakciarz directed.
“We had musicians sing and play music, we had dance students teach choreography, theater students played theater games with them and then we performed the play for them. They were the first people to see it.”
That night, they performed the play for the Gulliver population. The $2,000 in proceeds from ticket sales were donated to Ruth Owens.
While some people thought the event was a good idea, he had to convince some to allow him to move forward.
“There were a few people the entire time saying you can’t do this, you need this, you have to get approval from this person,” he says. “My parents told me to be a squeaky wheel. ‘Keep going at it until they let you do it’.”
In addition to getting the approvals from all those who needed to say yes, Pakciarz also directed the play. Rehearsals began in January, sandwiched in between rehearsals for the Addams Family musical that he was a lead in. Then there was a time squeeze from the play The Complete of Shakespeare Abridged, which he was also directing and from rehearsals for the state theater competition.
When all was said and done, Pakciarz learned a few things about himself and leadership. He says he came to points where he had to make tough decisions. He learned about time management and he learned that he could be the guy who delivered bad news when needed.
“I never had a better feeling than the day the students from Ruth Owens came,” he says. “I felt like a better person. It was such a good feeling.”
After all the trials and tribulations that came from pulling off the event successfully, Pakciarz plans to do it again, with modifications.
“Planning is just starting,” he says. “We might do some scenes but not a whole play.”
This year he’s also performing in the school musical, Urine Town.
Along with a love of the arts, Pakciarz loves sports. He loves basketball and football, and even spent a season on the football team. He’s been in student government, Like Crew and Key Club.
He couldn’t play football after his sophomore year because he needed to prioritize either football, arts or school. He picked arts, including theater and chorus.
In college he plans to major in business. Once out of college, he’d like to working in sports business. His college application list includes the Wharton School of Business, the University of Michigan, USC, Vanderbilt, Duke, the University of Florida. The University of Miami, and Washington University in St. Louis.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
