When senior Parth Agarwala first moved from India to the United States three years ago, he had no idea he wanted to get involved in acting —much less dancing, singing, or modeling. Now, he is pursuing all of these and more.
“When I moved from India … I was still trying to settle in and get adjusted over here,” Agarwala said. “And just for funsies, for my elective period, I chose acting because I’d always been interested in films and stuff like that.”
Agarwala said Pancho Morris, his theater teacher, helped him get into acting and made him feel more comfortable, whether through taking more acting classes or reading for self-tape auditions. Morris played a large role in helping him sign up for auditions, which led to Agarwala being cast his sophomore year in the fall play She Kills Monsters, Agarwala said.
“Once I got involved with theater, I got super attached to it,” Agarwala said. “And then I just kept on doing shows after that, back to back, the musicals, the fall plays.”
Morris first met Agarwala when Agarwala was a freshman, which was also Morris’ first year at MVHS.
“My first impression of [Parth] was that he was a go-getter,” Morris said. “He was very comfortable speaking with adults, and not only speaking with adults, but doing so with sort of a respect and consideration that I think is incredibly rare for a freshman.”
Agarwala’s passion for acting soon led to other ventures in dancing, singing, modeling, and even cross country. Agarwala described acting as a jumping-off point for many of his other interests due to its interconnectedness with many other art forms.
“All of [my activities] are really important to me,” Agarwala said. “The way I select what I want to do is actually based on how much I care about it and how much it means to me, and sometimes I just like to try out things, and then I eventually get really attached to it.”
Morris believes that Agarwala has been able to take skills from various activities outside of acting and channel them back into his performances, such as dance, helping Agarwala with spatial awareness and fluid movement, and his academic pursuits benefitting him in interpreting and acting out messages a playwright would want conveyed. Overall, Morris believes this rich variety of experience in general contributes enormously to Agarwala as an actor.
“Actors need to have context so that they can create realistic behavior on stage,” Morris said. “So they quite literally need to experience things and understand things so that they can replicate like a human who’s in those given circumstances.”
With these commitments, one of the biggest struggles Agarwala faces is balancing his time between school, acting, and other extracurriculars. Agarwala uses various methods to help manage his time, such as consistently going to bed by 9 p.m. and waking up at 5 a.m. for a run. Additionally, Agarwala suffered a bike accident in his sophomore year, causing him to break his left elbow, need a cast on his right wrist for two months, and get seven stitches on his chin. This accident forced Agarwala to quit the cross country team, but he continues to run today.
“As negative as the experience was, I think it was also positive, if I look at it from an optimistic point of view,” Agarwala said. “[It helped me] find the good in bad situations and face challenges bravely.”
Morris commented on Agarwala’s resilience and strength, and how he constantly strives for self-improvement.
“Not only is [Agarwala] resilient, he seems to [seek out] experiences that will make him more resilient,” Morris said. “Because, I think ultimately, his goal is to be a very highly competent, accomplished person.”
Agarwala’s resilience and ability to adapt tie in with his interactions with others, where Morris said he is a natural leader but also consistently practices humility.
“He’s willing to make a fool of himself at times and laugh along if he makes a mistake,” Morris said. “He’s also willing to let someone else drive and share the burden of responsibility.”
One of Agarwala’s favorite performances was in his own original screenplay titled Invisible, a film centered around immigration. Agarwala wrote the screenplay with his friend Elizabeth Fey, and worked on it over this past summer, filming for five to six days. Agarwala hopes the film will reach a larger audience to convey the story about the struggles that immigrants are facing right now.
“It’s really close to my heart,” Agarwala said. “I think Martin Scorsese said that the best screenplay is the one that is the most personal, and this one is really personal to me, [given] what I see today in the world. So I’m really proud of the project.”
To Morris, Agarwala’s most memorable performance was Prodigal Son by John Patrick Shanley, which Agarwala took to the Lenaea High School Theatre Festival, the longest-running and most prestigious drama festival in the country, where he unfortunately did not win. The monologue was so profound, it immediately came to mind when asked about Parth’s most memorable role, Morris said.
“That was one of his greatest roles,” Morris said. “And even though he didn’t medal, he deserved to. What was so interesting about that role is it’s about a student telling off his headmaster, and it was so real [that] when I first saw it, I thought Parth was speaking to me directly.”
Looking to the future, Agarwala hopes to continue acting in college and beyond. To him, a place where he could continue to learn and practice acting is his dream.
“Sometimes I really do wonder if he wants to be an actor or if he wants to be a leader,” Morris said. “I’m not sure. People who want to be leaders are often drawn to acting. There are plenty, countless examples of Supreme Court Justices and politicians who were thespians before they became leaders. Time will only tell with Parth.”
