Star power: McQuarters on the move with theatre group
Manteca High alum Raleigh McQuarters and friends at Dave’s Hot Chicken in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Oct. 9 2023. (Photo contributed)
By AUTUMN WAGONER and SHANIA PINEDA
The Tower
Raleigh McQuarters, a 2023 Manteca High graduate, is a young man with a bright future, and a shining personality that lights up every room he walks in.
McQuarters is a sociable person who never fails to get involved. When on campus, McQuarters was in Thespian Club and took Multimedia. On the school’s YouTube channel – @MHSBuffTV – he is the first voice there.
After dabbling in acting his senior year, McQuarters realized it was what he wanted to spend his life doing. He’s currently living in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he's attending Central Piedmont Community College and participating in the Theatre Gap Initiative (TGI). TGI is a nonprofit that helps students of color with college applications, prescreens, and auditions.
“I’m going to be a household name, faces on everything, people are going to get tired of seeing me on movies and TV shows. I’m going to be everywhere,” McQuarters said. “That’s just a little dream of mine, and so far, I feel like it’s very possible. It’s very possible with the road I’m on.”
McQuarters has left a mark on everyone who has had a chance to meet him. Dawn Coyan, the theatre teacher at Manteca High and the person McQuarters gives credit to for preparing him for the real acting business, said this in a recommendation letter she wrote for McQuarters.
“In summary, Raleigh is a young man who applies himself to tasks at hand with a cheerful spirit and willing attitude. Without complaint he learns his part and performs consistently. He has brought an infectious personal warmth and spirited energy to my department. I am sure Raleigh will bring these attributes with him on his next endeavors.”
The Tower facetimed with McQuarters to see what he has been up to since graduation.
The Tower: What did you decide to do after high school and how does your life look like right now?
Raleigh McQuarters: So, there I was, sitting at my kitchen table, about to fill out a Target application and I get a call from my auntie. And my auntie tells me, “Raleigh, I just saw the Kelly Clarkson Show, and there’s this program that I’m thinking that you might be interested in.” And I go, “Okay.” So, I looked into it, and it’s called TGI.
Manteca High alum Raleigh McQuarters poses in front of a scenic duck pond in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Oct. 9, 2023. (Photo contributed)
TT: How did Manteca High prepare you for where you are right now? How’d it prepare you for the real world?
RM: Shoutout to Ms. Coyan, she was my theatre teacher. She really gave me the foundation of what I needed out and about in the world and in acting and film departments and life. Shoutout to Mr. Burns, the multimedia section. Going into film and television, I needed that experience of being on screen because acting on stage you must be big, amazing, and outstanding, and have body language. For film, most of the emotion you portray is on your face, and I learned that when I was doing news reports and whatnot for his class.
TT: What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced after high school?
RM: The biggest challenge that I’ve faced after high school was indubitably picking a passion. For basically most of my life, I was going to school doing work, day after day. But after school if you don’t have a passion, your life is going to be miserable. I think you have to have something that you love, something that can push you to wake up every day, and chase after it. You need ambition and passion, so the hardest goal for me was to find something that I can live for. I found acting, and it’s working really well for me so far.
TT: What have you learned about yourself in the months after graduation?
RM: For one, I am a very patient person. I learned that because in my time after graduation, you have to understand that your future isn’t going to come to you overnight. That’s something you have to work for day after day.
TT: What inspired you to get into acting?
RM: Well, for the most part it was my older brother because I was watching this show and—I don’t know if any of you guys have ever went and watched a movie that was so terrible, but you continue to watch that movie because of how bad it was and that’s what made it good. It’s movies like those that really inspired me to even try to get on the screen. But even beyond that, there was a time where we were watching this really silly movie, and I was imitating one of the characters. My brother was like “Woah, that was actually kinda good.” And I was like “Was it?” So he was like “Yeah, you could—do that again.” And I did it again, and he said it was good. And I was like “Alright.” My grandma told me that I was pretty charismatic, and I was pretty cool. She said I had a TV personality. So that’s what got acting into my head. But the event that really triggered me was when I went to go see Ghost of Canterville, they put that on last year at Manteca. When I saw that, just seeing everybody having fun on the stage getting to be their character personality, it seemed like something that I would like to do. So again, shoutout to the theatre department of Manteca High and Ms. Coyan.
TT: What’s your favorite thing about acting?
RM: My favorite thing about acting is being able to put your own personal spin on any character. There’s a wide variety of characters that you can play. If you take people like Jim Carrey, somehow, he can slip a little bit of comedy into any role he plays, just a little bit of his personality into everything he does.
TT: So last year you were in the Mean Girls musical here on campus. Do you intend to establish a musical career along with your acting?
RM: I think that a musical career would actually be super fun. If I was given the opportunity to be in more musicals? Absolutely I would, because it’s incredible getting to work with everybody and seeing how other people portray their characters as well. And let me tell you there are people in this industry with beautiful voices. You get to say that you know these people because you work with them like, that’s amazing. The acting industry is huge, and you’re going to get to meet people that you never thought you’d be able to meet before. Like for instance, one of my acting teachers is Maria Howell, and she’s been in quite a bit of things. She’s a lady who has smaller roles and bigger things. Believe it or not she was in Hunger Games, and I see this lady every week.
TT: What are your next steps?
MR: I’m currently sending thank you notes to the colleges that gave me a call back. To the ones that I’m interested in, I’m going to set up a Zoom meeting with them to get more information about the college. A lot of the time they’re going to give you an application fee waiver, so you don’t really have to pay to apply and some colleges would accept you on the spot if they liked your audition. That’s amazing.