A Letter From America

Some of our year 8 students wanted to write to Peterson Toscano to thank him for his recent performance at Shimna (see previous blog post!). Here is an extract from his (very long!) reply.


Peterson Toscano Hartford, CT, USA 20 July 2008

Dear Year Eights,

Wow! Thank you so much for your wonderful letters. I finally got home after six weeks of travel to find a packet with your work in it. I’ve read through them several times and shared them with some of my actor friends here who all say that you sound like a very special bunch of students. I told them that you are. I wish I had time to respond to each and every one of you, but I go on the road again in a few days and have much to prepare. Several of you did ask me specific questions, and I want to answer these.

Timothy Annett asked,

What movies have you been in lately and what were you in the movies?
Currently I am in two movies that are being shown at film festivals in the US and Canada. Cure For Love premiered on Canadian national TV in April and Chasing the Devil premiered in the US at a film festival the same month. In both of these films I play myself and talk about my life experiences. I was also in the Be Real TV program on the Logo network here in the States. Again I play myself and talk about my life but they also show some of my performance work. I just released a DVD of my play Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House in which I play seven different characters.

In your show you spoke some languages, what was that you were speaking and what else can you speak?
In the show I spoke Spanish. After I left Northern Ireland, I went down to Spain to give a speech in Spanish and was interviewed five different times for variuos TV programs. It was hard work but lots of fun. I can speak some French, Swedish and Italian, but not as well as I speak Spanish.


Steven Power asked:
What inspired you to become an actor?
At first it was the fun of it. Later in life though I realized it serves as a wonderful tool to reach out to people in creative ways. Sometimes we cannot talk about certain issues that we can learn about through a play, and especially a comedy.

Samantha Parke asks:
I hope you enjoyed it here and you mentioned it was your first time in Northern Ireland. Did you like it?
Yes! I only stayed a week and most of that in Belfast, but I really enjoyed myself. I especially liked the people I met. Very friendly, very interesting, and very intelligent.

Why do you always wear a hat?
Hahaha. I get this question a lot. I wear a hat as part of my religion. I am a Christian and have been all my life, but in 2001 I began to attend a Quaker meeting (also known as the Religious Society of Friends). The faith started in England in the 1650s. At that time men were expected to take off their hats and bow down to other people of a higher social class. The people in the higher class did not have to bow. It made it seem like some people were more important and special than other people. The Quakers said that everyone is equal—men, women, rich and poor. They decided they would not remove their hats for anyone except God when they prayed. Most Quakers do not follow this practice today, but I like it a lot because it reminds me that all people are equal.

Rachel Robinson asks:
Do you like our accents?
Oh yes! VERY much!!! But I can’t do it yet :( I have to practice :)


Orlaigh Magennis writes,
I heard that you are a vegan and I would like to know what that is like because I’m a vegetarian and I think that it is great but you do get bullied a lot by the way you are .Do you get teased by being a vegan?
A vegan is someone who doesn’t eat any animal products at all—no meat, dairy, eggs, fish or honey. I strict vegan won’t use any animal products for clothes or in life—no leather, wool, etc. I am almost a strict vegan. I won’t use leather belts or wallets, but I do use some leather shoes because I think plastic ones are worse for the environment than leather ones. Yes, I do get “teased” for being a vegan, well in the way that adults tease each other. Sometimes they are just being funny like friends do to each other, but other times I know some people are doing it to be mean or because they don’t understand why I choose to be “so different!”

Thank you again to all of you there at Shimna Integrated! I enjoyed meeting all of you and believe that you will work hard together to create and maintain a school where people can be themselves. That is good for everyone.

Have a wonderful summer holiday! I hope everyone is safe, has a lot a fun, and reads some books!

Peterson Toscano

Peterson Toscano

Year 8 recently had a visit from American actor, Peterson Toscano. Peterson came in to share some humorous one-man performance pieces (in English and Spanish!) on issues surrounding self-acceptance. Year 8 had the opportunity to ask him about his story and share some of their own experiences and we were all very impressed with his range of accents and voices, not to mention wigs! You can visit Peterson's website here.