Patrick Resolved: Junior Patrick Simas's Independent Study

It is a show written by an actor about an actor writing a show.

Patrick Simas '10, actor and writer, performed that show Monday afternoon in the Ronald Perry Gymnasium. The fruits of eight months of an independent study in drama, Abbott Resolves was a new opportunity for Simas, who has performed in countless CM productions before this (aside from soloing in concerts and Masses), to step forward and play many parts.


The play is a simple reflection of an actor in his later years, reflecting on both his theatrical life and his real life. As the hour-long monolouge progressed, Simas stepped into Abbott's celebrated roles and reinvented himself as good actors do.
"So much of me went into what I did that I almost lost myself," Abbott says at one point. It's a fitting line for a teenager who has found what he loves and pursues it. In his performance and his script, Simas gave the audience many such authentic moments in the performance.

CM Art Department Chair and director Craig Spaner guided Simas through the writing process in the independent study. "The hardest thing for Patrick was figuring out what he wanted to do, and keeping it in a reasonable time frame," said Spaner. "He wanted to encompass and keep a coherent story line together and he did--he's matured a lot as a writer."

For Simas, acting came easier than writing. "The hardest thing was establishing a fluid story while having all these stories of Abbott intertwine," he said. "Composing is more difficult, it's hard to come up with things off the top of your head."

Taking Woody Allen and the stories of King Arthur and The Dark Knight as models, Simas worked Abbott's story into a dramatic arc, finishing with a man resolved to deal with delusions of grandeur and achieving as much humility as one can expect from an actor.

"There's always a deep satisfaction that one is discovering who one is," said CM president Paul Sheff '62 after the performance. "I'm especially impressed with Patrick, and I deeply applaud him for this. He is an incredible young man."