By Larina Ling
Jonathan Nie, a member of the current graduating class, has been acting since Grade 7 and boasts a portfolio of works spanning 6 years. He has had roles in Collingwood plays since Grade 9 and takes part in various acting competitions, even having obtained acting diplomas from the London College of Music. Acting is Jon’s primary artistic pursuit, but he also plays both the ukulele and the clarinet for fun.
Upon discussing inspirations in acting, Nikolai Osborn, acting prodigy and alum of Collingwood, naturally sprung up as a key figure. In his own words, “you can’t really do acting without knowing Nikolai; he was the guy.” Jon also mentioned his admiration of Jaden Chase’s technique of voice projection to guide his portrayal of different roles. Since meeting them, Jon’s acting style took a turn from the dramatic to a more subtle, natural expression of his lines - “letting the text carry [him].”
Jon mentioned that his main source of inspiration comes from watching his fellow actors and emulating the methods they personally employ to keep themselves engaged in a scheme. Observing the performances of certain people who “take a step back from their role to just deliver the lines as if it were a conversation” has also been a constant educational source for Jon, who recounted the way his acting has evolved from the one-dimensional paper cut-out to a character of flesh and bone. That being said, Jon does not currently have a favourite actor.
Jon has an older sister who studies music at NYU. She is in fact a singer-songwriter with her own music group and is signed to a record label. When asked about similarities in the performing styles of himself and his sister, Jon admitted that his sister is far more reserved and that there are no applicable similarities between their crafts. Funnily enough, when asked whether she was a source of inspiration for him growing up, the answer was a resounding no.
Acting’s influence on Jon’s life has been significant. He confessed that before starting acting, he was far shyer and that acting, along with public speaking and debate, has bestowed upon him the confidence he could not have derived from other art forms. This experience has transferred its benefits to elements of his school life as well, having given him the creative headspace to formulate words better and functions as a new resource for coming up with ideas and inspiration. He praised the merits of acting abjectly and recommended it to anyone who hasn’t tried it.
To a tentative amateur actor, Jon would advise that they use their own creative vision: “It’s something that I’ve noticed since we do a lot of double casting; when you see two people acting the same role, it’s completely different. In that sense, everyone has a creative vision to interpret the text that they’re given, so my advice would be to just do it your own way, you know?” Jon’s approach when it comes to acting is quite a bit script-oriented. He states reading the script as his way of understanding his characters, and the type of people that they are; “They’re not necessarily who I want to be, but I can put myself in their shoes.” When it comes to breathing life into the text, Jon is rarely surprised when a different actor depicts the same character through a completely different lens, linking back to his previous comments on each actor’s individual creative vision. He brought up his double-casted role with Stuart Cooper as an example of this phenomenon. Watching a different actor like Stuart’s unique interpretation of a character gives Jon more insight into the character that he is playing and offers new possibilities in a scene, and he often experiments with playing scenes in various different ways before an audition. For Jon, the most important part of acting is the friends made along the way; “There’s a lot of people in acting that I meet that I probably would never have talked to otherwise, and backstage, everyone’s extra quiet but we still have a lot of friendship in auditions.”
Jon, who has been acting in Collingwood plays since Grade 9 (his favourite play thus far has been The Visit), played Jimmy in this year’s production of Almost Maine. Almost Maine is an atypical play in that the scenes are a series of unrelated events occurring simultaneously on a cold winter night in the town of Almost, Maine. The play explores the themes of love and human connection with lighthearted, comedic storytelling and a dreamy, surreal quality. Jon really enjoyed the concept of the play and admired Cariani’s unique style of storytelling. His storytelling consists of unrealistic, nonsensical events taking place in the plot of Almost Maine, which Jon believes to be another comedic tool utilized to further the plot. Creating sudden changes in tone and emotion that completely offset the preceding events “really adds to the intensity” of the scene and comedic effect.
Jon’s character Jimmy, self-described as “a depressed young man who’s kind of a loser,” attempts to reconcile with his ex-girlfriend who is discovered to be far better off than himself, and on track to marry another man. Getting into character to play a convincing role was relatively easy for Jon, as he recounts Jimmy’s simple nature and manner of rambling on about certain things. Although straightforward to interpret, Jon enjoyed playing the role and experimenting with various comedic devices in his scene. In addition to Jimmy, Jon also tried out for the roles of Randy and Chad, the stars of Scene 5 in Almost Maine. Generally, Collingwood plays are not filmed, so as an actor, parts of the play remain a mystery. Due to Covid this year the play was filmed, and Jon’s favourite scene upon watching the recording was Scene 4 with Gayle, Lendall, and the bags of love (watch the play for context). Despite the absence of a live audience, the actors all took the filming process just as seriously as they would a normal performance.
The actors of this year’s play were required to wear face masks while on set, and Jon admits that his expression of his character was limited without the use of visible facial expressions. To compensate, he makes use of his voice and resonators to give a stronger performance. Another challenge was how frequently he needed to adjust his mask as it was prone to slipping down his face during dialogue. He believes it took away from the authenticity of the scene and was difficult to become accustomed to. Had face masks not been worn, the play would have been more effective for the viewers as “a big part of it is being able to look at someone and sympathize with them.” Although the play did not resonate with Jon in any personal way, he is proud of how the filmed performance turned out and was disappointed that they were not able to do several repeat performances the way they would in a regular school year. Often, when performing the same play multiple times, he claims that the very last show they put on is “just a little bit better than all the other ones” as everyone tries just that little bit harder to perfect it. A big part of acting is also feeding off the energy from the audience, and Jon recounts that every audience reacts to scenes and humour differently, giving each performance a unique variation.
Acting is something that Jon will be taking with him for a while. Although not considering making a career of it, he is planning to minor in acting in university.
Jonathan Nie, a member of the current graduating class, has been acting since Grade 7 and boasts a portfolio of works spanning 6 years. He has had roles in Collingwood plays since Grade 9 and takes part in various acting competitions, even having obtained acting diplomas from the London College of Music. Acting is Jon’s primary artistic pursuit, but he also plays both the ukulele and the clarinet for fun.
Upon discussing inspirations in acting, Nikolai Osborn, acting prodigy and alum of Collingwood, naturally sprung up as a key figure. In his own words, “you can’t really do acting without knowing Nikolai; he was the guy.” Jon also mentioned his admiration of Jaden Chase’s technique of voice projection to guide his portrayal of different roles. Since meeting them, Jon’s acting style took a turn from the dramatic to a more subtle, natural expression of his lines - “letting the text carry [him].”
Jon mentioned that his main source of inspiration comes from watching his fellow actors and emulating the methods they personally employ to keep themselves engaged in a scheme. Observing the performances of certain people who “take a step back from their role to just deliver the lines as if it were a conversation” has also been a constant educational source for Jon, who recounted the way his acting has evolved from the one-dimensional paper cut-out to a character of flesh and bone. That being said, Jon does not currently have a favourite actor.
Jon has an older sister who studies music at NYU. She is in fact a singer-songwriter with her own music group and is signed to a record label. When asked about similarities in the performing styles of himself and his sister, Jon admitted that his sister is far more reserved and that there are no applicable similarities between their crafts. Funnily enough, when asked whether she was a source of inspiration for him growing up, the answer was a resounding no.
Acting’s influence on Jon’s life has been significant. He confessed that before starting acting, he was far shyer and that acting, along with public speaking and debate, has bestowed upon him the confidence he could not have derived from other art forms. This experience has transferred its benefits to elements of his school life as well, having given him the creative headspace to formulate words better and functions as a new resource for coming up with ideas and inspiration. He praised the merits of acting abjectly and recommended it to anyone who hasn’t tried it.
To a tentative amateur actor, Jon would advise that they use their own creative vision: “It’s something that I’ve noticed since we do a lot of double casting; when you see two people acting the same role, it’s completely different. In that sense, everyone has a creative vision to interpret the text that they’re given, so my advice would be to just do it your own way, you know?” Jon’s approach when it comes to acting is quite a bit script-oriented. He states reading the script as his way of understanding his characters, and the type of people that they are; “They’re not necessarily who I want to be, but I can put myself in their shoes.” When it comes to breathing life into the text, Jon is rarely surprised when a different actor depicts the same character through a completely different lens, linking back to his previous comments on each actor’s individual creative vision. He brought up his double-casted role with Stuart Cooper as an example of this phenomenon. Watching a different actor like Stuart’s unique interpretation of a character gives Jon more insight into the character that he is playing and offers new possibilities in a scene, and he often experiments with playing scenes in various different ways before an audition. For Jon, the most important part of acting is the friends made along the way; “There’s a lot of people in acting that I meet that I probably would never have talked to otherwise, and backstage, everyone’s extra quiet but we still have a lot of friendship in auditions.”
Jon, who has been acting in Collingwood plays since Grade 9 (his favourite play thus far has been The Visit), played Jimmy in this year’s production of Almost Maine. Almost Maine is an atypical play in that the scenes are a series of unrelated events occurring simultaneously on a cold winter night in the town of Almost, Maine. The play explores the themes of love and human connection with lighthearted, comedic storytelling and a dreamy, surreal quality. Jon really enjoyed the concept of the play and admired Cariani’s unique style of storytelling. His storytelling consists of unrealistic, nonsensical events taking place in the plot of Almost Maine, which Jon believes to be another comedic tool utilized to further the plot. Creating sudden changes in tone and emotion that completely offset the preceding events “really adds to the intensity” of the scene and comedic effect.
Jon’s character Jimmy, self-described as “a depressed young man who’s kind of a loser,” attempts to reconcile with his ex-girlfriend who is discovered to be far better off than himself, and on track to marry another man. Getting into character to play a convincing role was relatively easy for Jon, as he recounts Jimmy’s simple nature and manner of rambling on about certain things. Although straightforward to interpret, Jon enjoyed playing the role and experimenting with various comedic devices in his scene. In addition to Jimmy, Jon also tried out for the roles of Randy and Chad, the stars of Scene 5 in Almost Maine. Generally, Collingwood plays are not filmed, so as an actor, parts of the play remain a mystery. Due to Covid this year the play was filmed, and Jon’s favourite scene upon watching the recording was Scene 4 with Gayle, Lendall, and the bags of love (watch the play for context). Despite the absence of a live audience, the actors all took the filming process just as seriously as they would a normal performance.
The actors of this year’s play were required to wear face masks while on set, and Jon admits that his expression of his character was limited without the use of visible facial expressions. To compensate, he makes use of his voice and resonators to give a stronger performance. Another challenge was how frequently he needed to adjust his mask as it was prone to slipping down his face during dialogue. He believes it took away from the authenticity of the scene and was difficult to become accustomed to. Had face masks not been worn, the play would have been more effective for the viewers as “a big part of it is being able to look at someone and sympathize with them.” Although the play did not resonate with Jon in any personal way, he is proud of how the filmed performance turned out and was disappointed that they were not able to do several repeat performances the way they would in a regular school year. Often, when performing the same play multiple times, he claims that the very last show they put on is “just a little bit better than all the other ones” as everyone tries just that little bit harder to perfect it. A big part of acting is also feeding off the energy from the audience, and Jon recounts that every audience reacts to scenes and humour differently, giving each performance a unique variation.
Acting is something that Jon will be taking with him for a while. Although not considering making a career of it, he is planning to minor in acting in university.
Photo from The Visit
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Photo from The Crucible
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