“To be or not to be?”

That was always the question for Josh Krentzman ’17.

Joshua Krentzman ’17 is just settling into his freshman year at George Washington University. I spoke to him on a weekday afternoon after classes had ended. College life is suiting Josh well, and he was very excited to share the exciting news that he had landed the role of Lysander in GW’s Shakespeare Company.

Josh heard about the Shakespeare Theatre Group at GW and decided to try out, and to his surprise, he landed one of the leading roles. Knowing how talented Josh is I was not surprised at all. His junior year of high school at The Winchendon School he joined the musical stage crew for “Shrek,” because he thought he did not have the talent to be on stage, and he just wanted to be involved in the production in some way. Boy, was he wrong! Being backstage during the Shrek performances he sang every word to every song, and he realized that he did have the skills and motivation needed to do this and he decided right then and there he would go for it the next chance he had.

That chance came the next spring when The Winchendon School put on its first spring production for many years with its rendition of Midsummer’s Night Dream and Josh played the part of Demetrius. It took a lot of courage for Josh to get up on that stage for the first time, and he has never looked back since. The fall of his senior year he played Coach Bolton in the “High School Musical” the fall of his senior year, then he topped off his senior year in the spring with a remarkable performance starring as Romeo in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.

Josh says that the biggest two traits from the “We C²AR³E²“, that he picked up here were Collaboration and Adaptability. While at The Winchendon School Josh learned to get involved in what he was passionate about and he participated in performing arts, Model UN, Service trips to Nicaragua and more. Collaboration before his time at the Winch did not come easy to Josh, but after being in our community for four years and having the opportunity to collaborate with others in so in so many of our dynamic programs and activities, collaboration is now a way of life. When he arrived at TWS Josh was more introverted than extroverted, but he learned how to adapt and get out of his comfort zone into his new environment, overcoming his fears he adapted and became the actor and entertainer that he had always wanted to become.

He still remembers during the first performance of Romeo & Juliet last spring when Ms. Byrne was holding a sign that told him and his fellow actors to smile more for the audience. Well luckily…Josh is still smiling because he chose “To be” the performer that he always wanted to become!