Anjali Bose ’20:
McKee Bond ‘19 has been awarded the November Artist of the Month for his exemplary skills and contributions to theatre at the Episcopal Academy. In just a few weeks, Bond will be co-leading the Upper School’s fall play Inherit the Wind, but he has been acting for the majority of his life. “Ever since I can remember, I’ve just loved performing and loved acting,” Bond says, “I’d say I’ve been acting since Lower School.” Throughout Lower and Middle School, Bond has been in a variety of school plays and musicals such as Free to be You and Me, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, and Alice in Wonderland. “When he came to the Upper School, we knew he was going to continue theatre, and we knew he was going to be a great asset to our department, even before he came,” Daniel Clay, Theatre Department Chair and Teacher, begins.
Bond has been in three Upper School productions to date. “In freshman year, he starred as one of the male leads in You Can’t Take it with You and then he played Mrs. Bumbrake in Peter and the Starcatcher his sophomore year. This year he’s playing Matthew Brady in Inherit the Wind,” Clay says. “What really impresses me about McKee is his enthusiasm and his professionalism. He likes to be serious when we’re rehearsing and get things done… which really helps to contribute to the productions as a whole.”
Photo courtesy of Michael Leslie
Phoebe Barr ‘19, who has performed in numerous productions with Bond, enjoys his energy during rehearsal and says, “McKee is super energetic at practice. And he’s always ready to go and is super cheerful.”
“He’s also a great physical actor,” Clay continues, “and he likes to really try and understand the physicality of the character. For that reason, he’s a very versatile actor. He’s played a variety of extremely different roles in high school alone.”
Bond elaborated on Clay’s comment, noting, “One of the things that draws me to acting is the idea that I get to play different people and it’s really fun for me to get into the different characters mindsets and feel everything in their mind.” Students who have worked with and seen Bond perform can clearly see how he immerses himself into each character and as Emma Humann ‘19 says, “He’s a really good actor because he fully delves into the characters that he needs to play.”
Last fall in Peter and the Starcatcher, Bond played British nanny Mrs. Bumbrake. As he explained, “I played a woman, which was really interesting. It was a fun character to play because it was something new to find out, and get into a totally different mindset than I’m normally in. It was just so fun because the character itself is this old British nanny, who had this British accent and says a lot of really funny and over the top things.” For his work, Bond was awarded the prestigious Cappie Award for Best Comic Actor. “It was honestly so cool. I didn’t really expect to win. It was just such a great moment hearing my name called. I got to go up and give an acceptance speech. It was really amazing.”
“It is definitely an honor to win a Cappie as a student,” says Clay, “It means that a bunch of students went to see a whole bunch of plays and musicals in the greater Philadelphia area thought he gave the strongest performance out of all the high schools in the area.”
Bond’s current role as the spirited Matthew Brady has brought a new challenge for the actor. “I would describe [Matthew Brady] as a character who fights for what he believes in to the fullest extent,” Bond says. “I’m super excited that this role allows me to play somebody that I’ve never had the chance to play before. He’s a character that I find it hard to relate to because his beliefs are so opposite of what I believe. I find it really interesting to get into that character’s mind and try to find and understand in a nonjudgmental way the way that he thinks.”
Clay concludes, “I hope McKee continues to act. I really hope his passion for theatre remains as strong as it is now into his senior year, next year. He’s a really smart and talented kid.”
Looking towards the future and acknowledging his passion for theatre, Bond states, “I think it would be really cool to major or minor in theatre in college. I’d definitely be interested in trying to pursue it as a career when I’m older. Acting is definitely something that I enjoy and really love to do.”