A Shining Star: Gaby Meckley

Gaby Meckley has astounded all of Exeter with her wide range of talents, including acting, singing, instruments and studio art. She is a part of many clubs including Fermatas, DRAMAT and the Exeter Association of Rock. Meckley plays a wide range of instruments and has been pursuing art since kindergarten.

Meckley has been involved in DRAMAT performances and musicals since coming to the Academy. Recently, she was involved in DRAMAT’s Darth Vader in “Star Wars: Verily a New Hope” as well as the winter musical. However, her acting career started long before coming to Exeter. Since kindergarten, Meckley has been a part of her school plays. By fifth grade, Meckley grew tired of waiting the year between each play and started taking theater classes in Philadelphia.

Meckley’s performances have not only been based at school, but also in the outside world. One of her proudest performances was two summers ago as the lead in “Chicago;” she had the opportunity to be Velma Kelly with her group. “I’d never really had any formal dance training, and it’s a really big dance-focused musical. I remember at the end my director sat us down and he told me that I had really pulled myself together,” Meckley said. “I had done everything he had asked me to do, and he was proud of me.”

Not only a thespian, Meckley plays a number of instruments including guitar, piano and voice. She played violin for seven years, took piano lessons for three and played harp for a few years. She picked up guitar upon starting at Exeter and continues to play piano on her own time. “I’m kind of teaching myself,” she said.

Meckley’s guitar teacher, Robert Squires, said that Gaby’s abilities and talent make her enjoyable to work with and teach. “I knew right from the start that she was self-motivated and would be very fun to teach, and her effortless singing was so wonderful,” he said.

Most people recognize Meckley’s voice from her thrilling performance of “Skyfall” at the EAR assembly. She has also sang at several Evening Prayer services. Her sisters even came up to sing with her once. Surprisingly, Gaby didn’t start taking voice lessons until coming to Exeter.

“Gaby’s greatest talent is her singing; she’s been blessed with an amazing voice and she really knows how to use it,” senior and fellow co-head of Fermatas, Dana Yu, said. The other members of the all-female a capella group share Yu’s admiration of Meckley.

“My favorite thing about Gaby is the way that she owns every role she takes,” senior Liz Hoover said. “Whether she’s playing the Earth goddess in the mainstage or belting Taylor Swift in an a cappella rehearsal, Gaby takes every role she gets and absolutely rocks it.”

Lower and member of Fermatas Audrey Hahn echoed Hoover’s appreciation for Meckley’s enthusiasm. “I admire so much about Gaby. She is just so bright, and I aspire to that,” Hahn said. “She’s someone you can’t go without noticing. She’s never afraid to rock out, and I love that about her. She’s all in, all the time.”

“I admire her passion; it feels like she puts a lot of herself into every note she sings and line she reads, and with anything she does,” senior Jad Seligman said. “I also admire her resilience.”

While Meckley’s artistic talents are very impressive to those around her, most of her friends believe that her “greatest talent” lies in her personality.

“She pumps everyone else up with her bubbly personality and enthusiasm,” senior Yasmine Kaya said. “Gaby Meckley is a diva in the best way possible.”

“She has a tremendous capacity for friendship and for kindness and she utilizes it constantly,” Seligman said.

The faculty here on campus also agree with these sentiments. “Gaby is very inspiring. Her enthusiasm is infectious,” Squires said. Meckley is a very involved person on campus, and students and teachers alike admire her personality and talent.

Currently a co-head of Exeter Association of Rock, Meckley adds to the club with her strong musical ability and her great personality. Upper and co-head Sean Taylor expresses his admiration for her as both a friend and as a performer. “When it comes to performance, she’s really fearless, and that’s why she succeeds,” he said. “She’s got a bright, bubbly personality and is always very kind, giving and sweet. She makes performance arts fun.”

This year Meckley has taken up a new hobby: printmaking. The first non-performance art Meckley has enjoyed, printmaking has added a new talent to her already vast pool of artistic abilities. At the beginning of this year, Meckley began printmaking and this term is doing an Art 444 project on the art form. “It’s a project based on Snapchat. For a while I’ve been making little doodles on my Snapchat pictures. For instance, I made myself look like Taylor Swift and my art teacher saw and got really excited about it,” Meckley said. She plans to make a collage of the different doodles she’s done and screenprint on them.

Meckley hopes to continue pursuing her art after Exeter. She plans to double major in theater and philosophy. “I’m not ready give up learning in pursuit of a full career in theater, but I’m not ready to let theater go, either.”