Editor’s Note: “Hawks Uncovered” is a series that tells the often unknown stories of Hebron students and staff.

There is a common theater saying in which actors are told to perform for the back of the room. For senior Keane Nair, he’s performing beyond it. 

He’s upholding a promise he made to his older brother, Nic Nair, in his freshman year: he was going to stay in theater for all four years and lead a show his senior year. 

Keane is playing the main character, Gomez, in this year’s school musical, “The Addams Family.” What was once putting on skits with his brothers became sitting in the audience watching them in their roles at the school. Now, he faces the audience as he plays the biggest role in his acting career. 

When this year’s musical was revealed to be “The Addams Family” in May of last year, Keane was at a crossroads: which role would he audition for? As he pondered the question, he decided to honor the promise he made, take a risk in his final year and try out for the role of Gomez. As the auditions got closer, Keane began connecting with the patriarch of the iconic family. In his research, he analyzed six actors from various renditions of the musical, as well as those who played him in various TV shows and movies. 

One of Keane’s biggest hurdles was developing his Castilian accent, as he does not come from Latin descent, nor does he interact with an accent similar in his day-to-day life. In his audition, he said he was too focused on using the accent, so his overall delivery weakened. Once the directors asked him to recite the monologue without the accent, he was able to focus on his performance. As he would walk around the house, his dad would randomly ask to hear his accent, and once Keane would say a line, his dad would tell him what to work on. 

The accent wasn’t the only thing Keane’s dad helped his son with. Throughout the musical, Gomez has tough conversations with people in his life while maintaining an air of comedy in the scene. This is something Keane has watched the funniest person in life, his dad, do first-hand. One of the main things Keane’s dad said was to find humor in the small things. This taught Keane to work in jokes, even when it is a sad or emotional scene. This has allowed him to channel his father in the role, maintaining the family-centric nature of the show. 

The further he immerses himself in the role, the more Keane has felt return to him. He said his favorite part of the journey in becoming Gomez is the responsibility that comes with it. Keane wanted to take as much time as he can to refine his character, ensuring people will not see himself on stage, but the character Gomez whom people have grown to love. 

As he completes his four performances, Keane will be completing the promise he made to his older brother before his freshman year. Even though Keane has become accustomed to the audience’s cheers, there are two people who though he may not be able to hear, he can always feel in the audience: Nic and Keane’s friend, JJ. They may not be able to see him in the show, but Keane knows they will cheer the loudest at each performance. 

Keane will perform not only to the audience members inside the auditorium, but beyond it, to his biggest supporters.