In the background, a church choir sings hymns softly. Further downstage, Dilara Ezer (12) stands on top of a table, bathed in pale light in the shape of a window frame. With her hair pulled back and her costume complete with a midi blue skirt, thick tights, a blouse and dark brown boots, she is dressed as a turn-of-the-century daughter for her role as Emily in the Conservatory’s production of “Our Town.” Gazing out at the audience and filling the theater with nostalgia of childhood innocence with her gentle and carefree talk of the moon, she brings Grover’s Corners to life.

“Just her genuine joy and love for performing—it really comes out when you see her on stage,” Dilara’s friend Abigail Wisdom (12) said. “It just makes me happy seeing her perform. She’s such an amazing actor and she works so hard too, so it’s great to see.”

This isn’t Dilara’s first time in a Harker production, or even close. “Our Town” was her thirteenth performance in high school, having been in every main-stage production since freshman year. Moving forward, Dilarais looking to reach for a theater minor or double major in college.

Dilara’s affinity for performance extends beyond just theater, and in fact, she is best known around campus for her work in performing arts. She was first interested in gymnastics at the age of four, an activity that bridges sport and art, but as she developed her performance skills on stage, she drew a connection between her work in theater and dance and her work in gymnastics. As a result, she found herself improving in both fields as an all-around performer.

“Floor [event] was always my favorite because it was the most like performance. It was like a dance and gymnastics combined,” she said. “So as I would perform and get more extroverted and being more comfortable on stage, I became more comfortable on the floor as well in gymnastics.”

Now, Dilara enjoys any kind of performing arts, whether it be playing guitar, ukulele and piano; participating in the school dance show or even directing her own production of “The Complete Work of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” as part of this year’s Student Directed Showcase (SDS)—an experience that was inspired by her past experiences as an actor in SDS.

“I wanted to see more aspects of theater than just being in shows and teaching shows. I wanted to be on the other side for once,” Dilara said. “Being able to do that is really really amazing and really opened my eyes to a lot of aspects of theater that I didn’t realize were there.”

Dilara’s choice to become a student director this year was inspired by her older brother, Emre Ezer (‘17), who was a student director in 2017 and who has always been a role model for Dilara, both inside and outside of the theater. He was the one who inspired her to delve into theater in the first place, and even though he is currently at New York University in Manhattan, they stay close in touch.

“My brother is my everything. He’s my partner in crime, and the closest person to me,” Dilara said. “We’re not the same person, but we listen to the same music and we get along very well… We’re super, super close. I love him a lot.”

Dilara’s entire family is very close knit, whether it be eating dinner together or taking annual summer family trips to Turkey, where her extended family lives—trips that she especially enjoys.

“The biggest value that we have as a Turkish community is family,” Dilara said. “We have huge, huge, huge families, and even people that you’re close friends with, they’re part of your family too… we’re just all family.”

Not only is Dilara proud of her Turkish heritage, but she is also unafraid to share its values with her non-Turkish friends. For instance, she extends this value of family to her friends and her community as a whole, and the most distinguishing trait of Dilara’s personality—and arguably the most memorable—is her neverending positivity, which radiates around her and can be described as “contagious,” as her friend Sonal Muthal (12) notes.

“She has such a great bond with her own immediate family and she kind of translates that family relationship into all of her friendships too. When you’re friends with Dilara, it’s almost like you’re part of her family,” Sonal said. “What inspires her to be really happy and positive is [that] she treats her friends as if they were her family.”

Though Dilara currently self-identifies as an extrovert, she describes her journey through high school as one that did not start with extroversion and rather built up to it through her work in performing arts.

“The more I grew into acting and the more I began liking it, the more I was prone to doing really embarrassing, weird things and coming out of my comfort zone to perform something,” Dilara said. “The more I did that, the more comfortable I got doing that, the more comfortable I became with myself and then the less shy I became, and I was able to put myself out there.”

Dilara’s bubbly personality stems largely from the values that she grew up with, including that of family and love, as well as her personal aspiration to make others happy. To advance this mission, she leaves marks both big and small, whether it be hosting a scavenger hunt during her SDS cast retreat or leaving puzzles near the couches in Shah for students to enjoy.

“When I stay positive, it makes other people happy, which makes me even more happy, and it’s like an endless cycle of happiness,” she said.

Dilara’s optimism has shone out in her friends’ eyes as well, and her efforts to maintain a positive aura don’t go unnoticed.

“She works so hard at her friendships and I think she uses the compassion and the joy she gets from making friends with people to inspire her and to drive her to be even more open,” Dilara’s friend Aditi Anthapur (12) said.

Reaching beyond her school community, Dilara spreads her message of joy through her annual volunteer work at Walden West, a summer camp program that she attended as a kid. There, along with Emre, she became a counselor through their Leaders In Training (LIT) program, in part because she found herself connecting with the message of positivity and inclusion that Walden West embraces.

“What’s unique about Walden West is [that] they’re so accepting of everyone, no matter what racem, gender, or what kind of people come there,” she said. “They’re just so, so accepting and positive constantly.”

The effort that Dilara invests into her relationships with friends and family alike has inspired those around her to take similar actions of positivity and compassion.

“She has taught me the importance of really actively being a good friend. Especially as you become more and more comfortable at high school, it’s really easy to just be cool with your friends and not put as much effort, but she really inspired me to go above and beyond for my own friends,” Sonal said.