THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 13, 1994 TAG: 9409140664
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Poised at the Threshold
The Class of '95 is roaring to get going in life's race
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
THE RED VELVET curtain rises soundlessly, and Will Dickerson stands alone on the stage against the black background.
From the back row, the 17-year-old looks even smaller than his 5-foot-6 frame, dressed as he is in a long black shirt two sizes too big, his hands nearly hidden by the long sleeves.
In a quiet voice, he introduces himself and his monologue to the 600 students seated in the Virginia Stage Company theater in Norfolk.
Then he looks down at his feet, takes a great gulp of air, and becomes Prince Hal, pleading angrily with his father, King Henry IV, for another chance to prove his worth.
``I do beseech Your Majesty may salve
The long-grown wounds of my intemperance. If not, the end of life cancels all bonds,
And I will die a hundred thousand deaths. . . . ''
It is an apt monologue for Will, a senior at Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach, one he will use later this year as he pleads with college officials to admit him to their theater programs.
On this day, the first of the new school year for the Governor's Magnet School for the Arts, he is pleading with his peers for a chance, hoping the teens will make the effort to decipher the difficult Shakespeare, to see in his energy, his voice and his movements the result of three years of arduous work at the school.
And they give him that chance. When he finishes the one-minute, 32-second monologue, there is a moment of silence, then the audience erupts into applause and cheering.
Will smiles, but inside he is already starting the analysis. His shoulders hunched just a bit, he thinks: I pulled my neck in too much; my foot was tapping in that ``Elvis'' way; the kneel at the end just wasn't deferential enough.
Will - son of Billy Dickerson, a Virginia Beach firefighter, and Annette, a computer-aided drafter at William C. Overman Associates - is a kid with a mission. He knows just what he wants, just how to get it and just where it will take him. His goals are:
To act professionally on the stage - NOT on television or in film.
To garner a theater degree from one of the top such schools in the Northeast, schools such as Bennington in Vermont, State University of New York at Purchase or Juilliard.
To eventually perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company in London.
Lofty goals for a boy who used to sit on his right hand so people wouldn't see the way the fingers curled inward, wouldn't notice the way he couldn't quite control his right side, the result of an in-utero stroke that left him with partial cerebral palsy.
Here's a boy who doesn't shy away from the difficult - like playing the lusty, athletic Prince Hal despite his disability; who is confident in his ability to make people forget the reality, to create with his body and voice the illusion of huskiness, of strength and of perfection.
It was cerebral palsy that inadvertently led Will to acting. Shying away from physical activities as a young boy, he concentrated on academics, bringing home a string of A's and moving into the gifted track. Then, in the third grade, a teacher turned him on to drama.
Now, he's addicted.
It has a lot to do with growing up in the materialistic '80s, he says, of wanting to strip down to the reality that lies beneath the glitter and hopeless whining.
``Being an actor is like being naked. Everything you do is who you are. You're posing in this position and letting people see everything that conveys that message.''
It isn't for fame that Will puts in 15-hour days during the school week, starting with classes at Princess Anne at 7:30 a.m.; arriving in downtown Norfolk by 1 p.m. at the Magnet school, which opened Thursday; then often spending the hours after school rehearsing for whatever play he's in.
``It's a hunger for some kind of meaning in my life.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by Bill Tiernan
Will Dickerson
by CNB