Noah’s Arc
Newly out at 17, Noah Chiet has found success in the local theater scene
“I’m glad I’ve come out while I’m still in high school,” Noah Chiet says. “Because I feel like, to the kid who’s still very nervous about it, who doesn’t feel comfortable, they can be like, ‘Hey look, that kid is class president. People can relate to him.'”
Certainly people like Chiet: The Class of 2016 at Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg has elected Chiet to serve as its president for three years running. The 17-year-old came out this spring, during the end of his junior year.
“There are a lot of gay people in my grade,” he says. “We’re fortunate to live in an area where people really don’t think twice about it.” But the real key to success is having a good support network, Chiet is quick to add after noting he hasn’t encountered bullying or outward discrimination. “I have such an amazingly supportive family,” he says. His mother responded with a shrug — “And?” — when he came out to her last summer. He told other family members one by one during a family trip last fall. “You’ve just got to focus on who’s supporting you and surround yourself with people that love and support you and keep your eye on the prize.”
The ultimate “prize” for Chiet is a future career as a professional actor. Next fall he intends to begin studying the craft at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University perhaps or New York University. “I’m applying to colleges now,” Chiet says. And the identity essays he’s writing for his applications convey the fact that acting is fundamental for him. “Acting has honestly given me my identity,” he says. “It’s given me a network of adult friends as well as young friends. And it’s just given me an outlet to express myself. I know it’s a cliche, but it’s what I was born to do.”
The baby of a family that includes a 26-year-old brother and a 24-year-old sister, Chiet started acting at age 10, appearing in community theater in Rockville. But within a couple years Chiet had moved on to performing on professional stages around D.C. In 2010 he played a pivotal part in a production of Falsettos that gained him the kind of notice actors dream about — praise from critics as well as leaders in the theater community. In a Metro Weekly review of the show, Tom Avila offered “huge applause for Chiet,” saying he “displays a brilliant comic timing.”
Of course Chiet appreciates the irony of making his professional debut in what was a big gay way, long before he was out or even questioning. Falsettos is James Lapine and William Finn’s 1992 musical about a man who divorces his wife and comes out as gay. Chiet, who at the time was in seventh grade, portrayed the couple’s son, who is struggling to cope.
“I knew I was gay in my freshman year,” he explains. “Up until that point I honestly didn’t have a clue…. I think I was just so immersed in the whole arts world and focused on acting. [But] I get into high school and obviously things start to change. Your hormones are raging.”
Another admirer of Chiet’s work in Falsettos was Mark Ramont, at the time the artistic director of Ford’s Theatre. Ramont helped Chiet secure work in the theater’s big-budget world-premiere musical Liberty Smith as well as its annual holiday production of A Christmas Carol. Chiet was part of the ensemble, playing bit parts in both shows. In the years since, he’s appeared in both musicals and plays at companies including Signature Theatre, Theater J and Olney Theatre.
“I kind of became known as the local child actor, the only kid in the shows,” he says. “In addition to having older siblings, I’m constantly working with adults — working with them and absorbing how they worked. I learned so much and I really matured.”
Chiet is currently appearing in One in the Chamber. First staged to wide acclaim last year in L.A., the play, written by Marja-Lewis Ryan, is “a grim story…about a boy who accidentally shoots his younger brother,” says Chiet. The play centers on a social worker’s interviews with the family of this boy, Adam, which will help decide his fate. “I get to come in in the last 15 minutes of the show,” Chiet says, who plays Adam and gets to upend misconceptions. “[There’s] this idea of this crazy kind of depressed kid, but he’s actually this eloquent, well-spoken kid who is just damaged.
“There’s definitely a lot of layers to the character,” he adds. “It’s not your typical child role.”
Noah Chiet appears in One in the Chamber, running weekends to Sept. 6, at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint, 916 G St. NW. Tickets are $25. Call 202-315-1310 or visit flashpointdc.org.
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