Meet Eliana Cetola, clay’s 2022-2023 Theater columnist! Eliana is seventeen years old and being a missionary kid has lived the last ten of them in Italy. Returning for her second year with TPS, Eliana’s class schedule will include US Government and Economics, Psychology and Counseling from a Biblical Perspective, English 4/5/6 Advanced Comp, Spanish 2, French 4, and Astronomy.
One of Eliana’s favorite activities is blogging about various books she has read. In fact, her first choice for columns was the Book column, but she jumped at the chance to write about theater, since she had been debating about which one to apply for. Her love of books plays into many areas of her life as her dog is named Toto after the dog in The Wizard of Oz, and her turtle is called Hazel, taken from Hazel Levesque in The Heroes of Olympus series. She also has several house plants in her bedroom named after various authors and fictional characters. Additionally, Eliana enjoys photography, baking, and word games; she is proud to say that she is nearly impossible to beat at Scrabble.
From playing the guitar in church to frequently listening to Ben Platt, The Gray Havens, and Taylor Swift, Eliana thoroughly appreciates music. Besides those artists, she is partial to show tunes and musical soundtracks, including Dear Evan Hansen, The Lightning Thief, and Hadestown. She has also achieved the covetable skill of roasting marshmallows, giving her the ability to make the ideal s’more. This year, Eliana hopes to develop a clear idea of what interests and paths she plans to pursue after high school, as she is quickly approaching her penultimate year.
If Eliana woke up one morning and found that aliens had abducted her family and left behind a ransom note, she has an interesting plan of action in place. She would first make an alliance with her middle school art teacher, who fully believes in the existence of aliens, and would know all about them. Together, Eliana and her teacher would threaten the aliens with cats (which are known to aliens as Great and Terrifying Floofballs of Terror). The aliens would be so scared of the Floofballs that they would have to give her family back and return to their planet to survive. Eliana would then turn her adventure into a short story, sell it, and achieve her dream of being an author.
Join me in a round of applause as we welcome Eliana to clay’s staff this year!