The first indication Melissa Dalbert-Weiss had that her younger son, Ari, had an affinity for the stage came early on.
It was 2004 or thereabouts, and Dalbert-Weiss’ older son, Leo, was taking part in the Hawaii Home School Association’s summer Shakespeare festival. Ari, just 4 years old at the time, made a habit of sitting in the front row at rehearsals, watching with rapt fascination as the older kids walked through their parts.
"At first we thought he was just watching," Dalbert-Weiss says. "But he was actually memorizing all the lines. When someone would forget their part, everybody would turn to Ari."
A decade later it’s become abundantly clear that Ari Dalbert’s gifts include not just a knack for memorizing complex soliloquies, but the ability to evoke powerful emotions through voice and movement and a talent for personalizing the Bard’s words and bringing 400-year-old characters to vital presence.
Such was on full display at the recent English Speaking Union Hawaii Shakespeare competition, where Ari, 14, took top honors among a talented field of 19 high school competitors.
"It hasn’t fully sunk in yet," Ari says. "The best part was that it was less a competition than a celebration of the different choices performers make and the personal interpretations everyone brings to the works."
He credits his parents for encouraging his interest in a range of creative and performative forms, from singing to dancing to acting.
Dalbert-Weiss and husband Thomas decided to home-school their two boys upon moving from Switzerland to Makaha a dozen years ago.
Dalbert-Weiss said the arrangement has made it possible for her to cover all of the requisite core subjects with her sons while also allowing them the flexibility to delve deeper into particular areas of interest.
In addition to his theatrical performances — he played Michael in Diamond Head Theatre’s 2008 production of "Peter Pan" — Ari has also distinguished himself as a promising singer, dancer and musician.
Next month Ari will play Benedick in the Hawaii Theatre Center production of Shakespeare’s "Much Ado About Nothing," the same role he performed at the ESU competition. In May he’ll travel to New York as a semifinalist in the national ESU Shakespeare competition at Lincoln Center.
"Singing, dancing and all the other performing arts are all connected," Ari says. "It’s about being able to connect with an audience and make them feel what I feel."
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