Jonah @ PGT: Chiara Klein

Jonah @ PGT: Chiara Klein

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Jonah'sYears@PGT.2013.11.BlogAd.Final.large“Jonah’s Years at PGT” is The Jonah Maccabee Foundation’s autumn fundraiser for 2013. Throughout November and December 2013, we’ll be remembering, mainly through the writing of his friends, some of the great fun and growing Jonah experienced at PGT. We’re hoping you’ll be inspired to help us provide other kids with similarly loving direction along the road to wholeness during their own childhood years. Please consider making your tax-deductible gift at jonahmac.org by Sunday, January 5, 2014. Okay, or any other time. Thank you. You’re the best!


 

Chiara Klein remembers …

Chiara KleinChiara Klein grew up in Edgemont and performed in PGT shows for six memorable years. After graduating from Dartmouth in 2010, Chiara founded MaineStage Shakespeare, an outdoor summer theater in Kennebunk, Maine. She is currently in New Haven pursuing an MFA/MBA joint degree in theater management at Yale.

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When I look back on my years at PGT, I have very few memories that do not somehow involve Jonah. Whether or not he was in your cast, Jonah was a huge presence at PGT. He was always full of surprises ranging from whipping out his ukulele necklace and making up a song, to completing a challenge to eat a ball of wasabi, to talking about his latest adventures in detention, to sneaking up on someone for a big bear hug. His infectious energy, when channeled for good and paired with his acute sense of compassion, gave him an uncanny ability to create truthful and moving characters.

Man of No Importance Dec 2005

A Man of No Importance
Dec 2005

The two shows that we did together were The Laramie Project and A Man of No Importance – two challenging productions in which Jonah played multiple roles (and, coincidentally, multiple gay-bashers). In both cases, I admired him not just for his ability to seamlessly transform into complex characters, but by the way that he could go from goofing around offstage to playing these troubled, layered, emotional characters onstage. I have never met anyone else who at the same time could be as irreverent, fun and gregarious offstage and as thoughtful, serious and moving onstage.

A Man of No Importance Dec 2005

A Man of No Importance
Dec 2005

I will always cherish getting to watch Jonah grow as an actor and a person from the unique perspective of having graduated two years before him and seeing him only in short bursts. Every time I saw him after I graduated, it was as if he had grown years in maturity, confidence, and craft. I will always remember being stunned by his kindly and complex portrayal of Ben in The Secret Garden, how I did not recognize him in his riveting, chilling portrayal of Doctor Otternschlag in Grand Hotel, and the tremendous joy with which he became Woof in Hair.

The last time I saw Jonah he told me how excited he was that he would be going to Buffalo in the fall, and I told him how impressed and amazed I was by the confident and grounded young man he had become in the five years since we first met. It has been another five years now and I still expect to see him at every PGT gathering and show. Jonah’s life was much too short, but the impact and legacy that he leaves is immeasurable. He was and always will be larger than life.

Chiara

 

P.S. Please give generously to our Autumn 2013 campaign at jonahmac.org. As always, we are ever grateful for your friendship and support.

BillyJonah @ PGT: Chiara Klein

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