New Faculty Member Spotlight: Scott Caron

By ALISON BLAKE ‘22

What about Milton interested you in working here?

I actually competed [in speech] against Milton when I was a student. I graduated from high school in 2008, so I’ve known of Milton Academy’s excellence in speech and the performing arts for a long time. Being part of anything that feels like the next great level in my career has always been of interest to me, and, so, in looking for a way to expand my teaching and coaching, I thought Milton seemed like a great place to land.

What sparked your interest in acting and speech?

It’s one of those things that I sort of fell into. I just happened to gravitate towards plays and drama, and that was the thing that stuck. As I was entering high school, I had a friend whose older sister did speech. She said, “Oh, Scott. You would probably like this.” I joined the team as a freshman and have never had a year without speech in my life since.

After working as an actor, what brought you to teaching? Do you still act or have you shifted your focus to teaching?

I have been coaching ever since graduating from high school. As I moved out into professional acting, I found that I was able to balance both: different teams have different coaching needs, so I was given a lot of flexibility. Until this point, it had always been that I was acting or directing in my primary role and teaching on the side; I look at this transition as a flip of that.

What kinds of hobbies/activities do you take part in during your free time?

That’s always a tough question for me because I’m so lucky to make a living off of what is a hobby for so many people. Outside of that, I enjoy going to the theater. I enjoy reading books. And I also have found in the last year that I really enjoy group fitness, so fitness classes and stuff like that are a great outlet for me.

Does any role that you have played or production that you have directed stand out to you as your favorite when looking back on your career?

I’ve had a lot of really interesting moments of growth in both of those areas—in my acting and my directing. When I look at my directing career, I’ve been lucky to direct a couple of projects this last year, including a short play: Visions of An Eagle Atop a Cactus Eating a Snake. It’s between a father and a daughter, and they’re sitting at the Mexican-American border to help people cross. The father is finding the language to tell a 10-year-old what’s going on. It’s really touching, and it’s also really heartbreaking. I really enjoy taking a listening role when doing these pieces because I can’t say that that’s something I have experience with, but I love being able to figure out how somebody else can be the center of focus. I think we’re in a great moment for theater to do that.

In terms of acting, the role that has felt the most “me” that I’ve played is “Mark” from Rent. It’s more that Mark is figuring things out; he’s young enough to still be interested and excited by the world but also very critical of it. He’s just trying to figure out who he is and where he stands in the world, and there’s something about trial and error that always speaks to me. I also just love rock opera, and the material is great. 

After being recognized nationally for your coaching at Shrewsbury High School and the  Bronx High School of Science, do you take any lessons from your past work to teaching now?

I’ve learned a lot about individual success and how that relates to team success. The biggest thing that I draw from those experiences is that speech is so much and so often centered around “me.” It’s not really about that at the end of the day, though. Yes, that, but how do we then connect with each other through the activity? I’ve learned a lot about team, and it’s a big focus in an activity that often feels like it’s all about the individual.

Is there anything you are particularly excited to see or do at Milton?

As my big focus is the speech team, and I’m not involved in the productions, I’m so excited to see what Milton does in terms of the plays, the musicals, and the Class IV Follies. I love seeing students that I work with in one context shine in a different one, so I’m excited to see students that I have in class doing whatever it is that they do best around campus. That crossover is absolutely my favorite.

Image Courtesy of Milton Academy