Meet Lucas. Lucas Brisbois graduated from GHS in the class of 2022, keenly aware of his love for writing and film and determined to find ways to cultivate that love. Lucas was accepted into Hampshire College, a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts known for its unique approach to education that favors student-led community learning over conventional, rigid structures. Lucas is a man of many talents, and is inspired by the works of creatives like Neil Gaiman and Monty Python. His love of writing, film, and theater began early in his childhood, and was nourished in GHS classes and after-school programs funded by GEF. Along with attending college, Lucas has been out in the field getting valuable work experience, both freelance and at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport. Lucas is beginning his sophomore year full of love for the creative arts, and endlessly excited to keep expanding his creative abilities.
Q. What are you studying in college right now?
A. I’m studying creative writing and mass communications, so I’m doing a lot of media analysis, film classes, and of course writing classes. I’ve absolutely loved every class I’ve taken, and engaging with the problems and questions that each professor ties into their lessons.
Q. If everything goes according to plan, what would be your ideal career path?
A. I see many paths for myself. I’m not tied down to just one idea of what my future could be. I think when you start thinking in terms of one fixed path, you close yourself off to a lot of open doors. I see myself doing something I love. Anything I love.
Q. What kind of work have you been doing in the professional world, along with attending college?
A. At the Shalin Liu Performance Center, my official position is as a production assistant. This really means I get to be a jack-of-many-trades. I’ve dabbled in a variety of things at the company, from parking attendant to lobby manager, and more than a handful of times I’ve stage managed the live shows. I recently got the news that I’ll be going back to my college campus to work as an Orientation Leader (OL), which I’m really excited for. The point of that job is to help first-year and transfer students in the process of adjusting to college life and life on our campus. Throughout the last year I’ve also been submitting work as a writer. I’ve submitted poems and satirical pieces to on and off campus publications. Just recently I’ve moved forward in the interview process as a scriptwriter for a game company, and while it isn’t official yet, I do have my fingers crossed.
Q. At Gloucester High, what were your main areas of interest and extracurriculars?
A. I was mainly interested in writing, as I am now. And I absolutely loved my time in the drama club. I met some of my best friends there, that I keep in contact with and will probably talk to and cherish forever.
Q. What was good for you about the drama club? What do you feel like being in drama did for you?
A. It really taught me how to work collaboratively with others, more so than a class environment could. In drama, there’s this thing where, if we don’t build something, don’t know our lines, don’t get this right, we don’t have a show. Then no one’s happy, which is why when it works, everyone’s happy.
Q. You were also on The Elicitor, GHS’s literary magazine. What was that like?
A. I loved my time with The Elicitor. It was a very small, very tight-knit crew when I was a part of it. It was just this handful of people who were happy, passionate, and excited to be there. I feel like no one was there because they felt like they had to be.
Q. Where did your passions for these interests begin? What spurred your love for film, drama, and writing?
A. I’ve always been a lifelong reader. I remember reading chapter books as a little kid, around age 5. On some level, I’ve always wanted to do the same thing for others that reading stories did for me. I think that passion started before I even really knew what it was. I was also introduced to drama young. I hadn’t performed in anything until my 5th grade school play, a show called “Twinderella”. It’s a story about Cinderella and her surprise twin brother, Bob. I was Narrator #2. I met a lot of amazing people then. It really took middle school for it to cement for me that drama was something I enjoyed doing, and that these were the people that were going to be my friends. Film as an interest for me is funny because I’ve always liked film. As a baby I would fall asleep to Jurassic Park, which is 100% true. By the time John Williams’ score would start, I was out. My passion for studying film came from a class I took in high school, called The Art of Movies, because it put words to things I knew. It let me explain why I liked something, not just that I liked it.
*This article is part of a series funded by the Gloucester Education Foundation. An abbreviated version is published on the GEF website.
