Dressed in a light gray Harker Conservatory sweatshirt, light-washed jeans and worn gray sneakers, Emre Ezer (12) rehearses his monologue to an invisible audience, his low and calm voice echoing around the grove. Unlike most public speakers, Emre is more comfortable presenting in character than as himself.

“I don’t really remember getting stage fright for any performance necessarily, but sometimes when I’m talking in front of large audiences as myself, I tend to get stage fright, which is kind of the opposite of most people,” he said. “It’s much easier to be open and just in front of a large audience as someone else, as a character or as a singing, dancing and showy guy.”

When Emre gets into character, the mundane aspects of daily life fall by the wayside.

“Performing arts is one of my main ways to de-stress,” he said. “Sometimes we get downtime to work on homework for practical and logistical reasons, so we don’t stay up all night doing homework, but when I’m actually in rehearsal and reading lines or rehearsing with scene partners and I’m fully in it, that’s where everything else falls away.”

Emre’s love for performing arts first began while he was taking elementary school music classes, which inspired him to participate in fifth grade choir as well as middle school choir. From there, he joined dance and theater arts in high school.

“I’d say performing arts is literally the most fun you could have at Harker,” he said. “It’s a really really good way to sort of release the stress and burden that Harker academics puts upon your shoulders, and it’s just a great break from all the work.”

His passion and dedication do not go unnoticed by his peers, especially since he is one of the four directors of the Student Directed Showcase.

“He’s very sweet, [and] he’s very passionate about everything he does,” his sister Dilara Ezer (10) said. “He’s really dedicated—extremely dedicated, he’s always on top of things, and he’s very flexible: In any role he gets, he goes all out.”

Aside from performing, Emre also enjoys playing the piano, and he recently began to learn to play guitar as well.

“It’s hard when you’re first doing it,” he said. “Just as long as you have patience and keep the mentality that although it’s really tough right now, eventually it’s going to get better, eventually it’s going to get easier and eventually you’re going to be comfortable with whatever you’re doing, then you can find motivation to keep going and to get past that initial frustration.”

Even though Emre is most comfortable in the spotlight onstage, he values his peers and his teachers who have shaped him into the performer he now is, and hopes to give back to the community that has guided him.

“I would very much like to be remembered in the performing arts community as a guy who was always supportive and always gave his best,” he said. “I also want to be remembered by my teachers, because I think it’s really important to make an impact on the teachers that make an impact on you. It’s good to have that sort of relationship.”