A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Become a Shakespeare Professor

Eleonore Desmond on her passion for drama and Shakespeare

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Watanabe, Lauren

STAR: Desmond actively acts in all of Oakmont’s shows.

Lauren Watanabe, Staff Writer

Sophomore Eleonore Desmond has been pursuing drama since she was five years old, when both her and her mom performed in “A Christmas Carol” as the soup lady and the soup lady’s daughter. When moving to Roseville, there was a theater program for young kids and she decided to join. 

“I’m currently in a production of ‘Into the Woods’ at Sacramento Theater Company. I’m playing the witch, so that’s exciting,” Desmond said.

Desmond is also enrolled in the advanced drama program at Oakmont and recently performed in “The Importance of Being Earnest.” She is also looking forward to their spring musical, which is still to be decided, and is also expecting to direct some shows. 

Desmond is also very interested in Shakespeare and his work and hopes to turn her passion into a career. 

“I would really love to be an actor at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which is a theater company kind-of like the Broadway of Shakespeare,” Desmond said.

Desmond also mentioned that if being an actor specifically for Shakespeare, she wants to get a PhD in Shakespearean studies and become a professor. 

“What I really find interesting and compelling is that all of his stories are really relevant to today’s society,” Desmond said. “Like themes of divorce, betrayal, power hungry, they’re all relevant to today’s society even though they were from hundreds of years ago.”

Although Desmond agrees to the fact that his work can be really hard to understand because of the way it is written, she can read his work easier than most because of how much time she’s put into it. 

“The man doesn’t make sense, and even people back then didn’t understand what he was saying because he made up words,” Desmond said.