GALA SENIOR PROFI LES CLASS OF 2010:


A GALAXY OF GIFTS


“Biology is so


fascinating, the idea that everything is


connected and we all came from one ancestor. Everything


that lives and breathes and moves is all so tied together.”


— Larissa Pham When she enters


Yale University in the fall, Larissa hopes to take a lab, an English


class, an art class, and “some random thing I can’t imagine.”


Larissa Pham ’10


publishes a blog of art, poetry, and


ephemera. Below are two works of art that she created.


LARISSA PHAM The Writer


she is one of those people. Not that it would surprise anyone. She has published her poetry in the online journal Four and Twenty, she has directed a one-act play she wrote, and she can often be seen scribbling in her journal in spare moments. “Writing is how I process my


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thoughts,” she said. “It is in the act of writing that I realize how I feel about something.” From her public work, one


might conclude that Larissa has some very troubled thoughts, but she says that is not true at all. She has many happy thoughts, but they just don’t make good literature. “Sadness is more interesting


than happiness because when you’re happy everything is resolved,” she explains. “In an unhappy story there’s something eating away at the root of the story that you need to find. That’s the pull you get from creating it or reading it.” That is evident in “Catharsis,” the one-act play Larissa wrote


14 OES MAGAZINE SUMMER 2010 14


ertain people feel the need to write, and Larissa Pham admits that


and directed. The lead character is Cassandra, based on the Greek myth of a woman who sees the future but whose predictions no one believes. She leads the audience from sympathy for this misunderstood woman, to horror at the fulfillment of her prophecy, and then to musings about how much of our own destiny is determined by how we envision the future. When Larissa


began Art Ward’s playwriting class, she didn’t know where it would take her. An “enduring obsession with Greek tragedy” prompted her to write her own tragedy. She started with a monologue and it evolved, changing as the actors inhabited their roles. “It’s incredible the


transformation you make as a leader and a writer and an artist when you direct a play,” she


said. “I have so much respect for theater, and to be able to envision an idea and then see it turn into this full-blown living, breathing animal on the stage is awe-inspiring.” Besides writing, Larissa also


creates art with watercolor, graphite, oils, and collage. She has won awards for her art, and she chose to work with Portland resin artist Julia Gardner for


Some of this year’s graduates have been at OES since Kindergarten, others have come here from other elementary or middle schools, and some have arrived from distant countries. During the time they were together, they have developed their own distinctive voices and have shared their ideas through written words, in class discussions, and in their interactions via teams, clubs, and social events. Below are the stories of seven of the graduates, but all 72 have interesting tales to tell about the journey that brought them together and the places they plan to go. They will all remember the special time they shared at OES, and their teachers and classmates will remember the gifts they brought to this community.


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