Dialog reporter
WILMINGTON — Madison Breske has been acting and singing since elementary school, and this past summer the St. Mark’s High School senior was able to take her talents to an entirely new level.
Breske participated in the Delaware Shakespeare Festival’s six-week high school summer intern program with other high schoolers, college students and professional performers. She understudied for the roles of Biondella and Nathaniel in “The Taming of the Shrew,” which was performed at Rockwood Park.
“We were like the understudies for the understudies, but we also did pre-show entertainment,” she said last week at St. Mark’s. “It was so cool. It was like a complete immersion in a professional production, which I had never been involved with.”
Breske has been a fixture in theater and musical programs at St. Mark’s since her arrival. In fact, the reputation of the theater program was one of the factors in her decision to attend St. Mark’s. A north Wilmington resident, she certainly had other options that were closer to home. She attended some of the productions put on by the public schools in her area, but they weren’t what she was looking for.
Then she went to see “My Fair Lady” at St. Mark’s when she was an eighth-grader at P.S. DuPont Middle School.
“I was like, ‘This is fantastic. I need to go here,’” said Breske, whose father, Stephen, is a St. Mark’s graduate.
“Every student who does the theater is so committed and so passionate about what they do. They don’t take it as a joke. Everybody is really there to put on a great show. And even though we take it seriously, it’s really like a second family. It’s just fantastic, and it’s one of the best environments I’ve ever been in.”
Breske is currently rehearsing for St. Mark’s production of “The Game’s Afoot,” a comical whodunit set in Connecticut in 1936 in which a party hosted by an actor for his castmates goes awry when one of the guests is stabbed to death. She plays Madge, one of those cast members.
“It’s a comedic murder mystery, which is really fun. Lots of laughs, lots of blood. Intricate set pieces. And the cast onstage is just really fantastic,” she said.
The show will take place Nov. 20-22 at St. Mark’s.
Breske, who turns 18 on Nov. 4, takes advantage of the drive to school some days by reading her lines into her phone, then listening to them during the commute. “It’s a good way to memorize my lines for the show.”
Her relationship with performing was not love at first sight. In second grade, she said, her class was forced to do a production, and she hated it. She tried again in middle school, and this time, she caught the bug. When she arrived at St. Mark’s, she started with the one-act festival. She missed the fall play her freshman year because she was on the volleyball team.
Breske gave up that sport, but her interests still range far beyond the stage. She is a member of the concert choir, Mock Trial, Model United Nations, Science Olympiad, and the National Honor Society. She is also the vice president of the Key Club.
“A lot of early mornings and late nights,” she said.
She plans to continue her theater work in college, but her professional aspirations lie elsewhere. Her intended major is animal science, concentrating on animal behaviors.
