The Eagle Eye Newspaper

By Ana Diaz, Staff writer

Quinn Reynolds (‘26), is a junior at El Camino and was the lead role in this year’s play “1776”. Reynolds has been interested in performing arts his whole life and has many people who support him. He has done about ten plays in total and four of them have been at EC. 

It all started when Reynolds’ mom did a charity benefit in San Francisco, where she performed in a play called “Songs for a New World.” She played woman number one which is the mezzo-soprano role and sang beautiful songs. Reynolds was in third grade at the time and when he saw this performance his perspective on theater started to change.

“When I saw that, that night, I was immediately swept away because it was very beautiful. It was Gorgeous,” he said. 

Reynolds’ mom and three of his aunts have also performed in a few plays at EC in the past. Their names can be found on a few placards for winning awards near the band room. His dad has also directed a couple short films but hasn’t acted in anything major. Reynolds has been surrounded by theater and performing arts his whole life so it became something that he was interested in and decided to pursue it.

His first major lead role was in eighth grade at Winston Churchill where he played Shrek. He said that he really enjoyed that role and still laughs at it to this day. He then went on to perform in EC where he understudied basically all of the male lead cast for “Bye Bye Birdie” in his Freshman year. 

“I had Bye Bye Birdie memorized like the back of my hand. It was crazy,” he said.

Afterwards, he performed as Brett in “Winter Break”, Mr. Cladwell in “Urinetown”, and recently performed as John Adams in the “1776” play.

Reynolds said that he really enjoyed this year’s play, “1776.” He felt that it was one of the most fun plays he’s performed in for multiple reasons. A key reason was that the drama club has a lot more younger actors this year and he felt that the energy they brought helped revitalize and energize the show. 

Not only did Reynolds enjoy it but others did too, one of them being Mr. Read the orchestra director. In musicals Mr. Read works with the orchestra to prepare them for their part in the performance and helps make sure that everything goes well. Mr Read really enjoyed working with the cast and orchestra for this year’s play.

“This show has been my favorite of mine for many years now, and so getting the opportunity to do it and see it with our students is really cool,” he said.

Mr. Read goes on to explain that Reynolds versatility is something that really inspires him. He also feels that his work ethic and musicality is something that is very impressive to see.

Mick Schrodetzki (‘25) plays Benjamin Franklin in this year’s play and is a very close friend of Reynolds. They met through theater in Schrodetzki’s sophomore year when Reynolds was a freshman. However, they didn’t fully become friends until last year. As a close friend, Mick sees how much of a hard worker Reynolds is, especially in something he’s really passionate about.

“He locks in on whatever it is, and that’s something not everyone can do, but he does really well and I appreciate it,” she said. 

Schrodetzki goes on to explain that because she is someone who also cares a lot about theater and the arts, she really likes the level of care Reynolds has for it. 

As a junior Reynolds has a year and a half left with EC and for the future he wants to go as far with acting as he can. His plans for college are being thought out but something he wants to try is a program called PCPA at Allan Hancock College. The PCPA is a training program for aspiring actors and theater technicians. Reynolds would love to try to go professional with acting but if it doesn’t work out he’s also interested in becoming a history professor.