I remembered a thread a long time ago about the threatre. So here was my post about it.
Oh boy, since we are on the topic of theatre, where do I start?
I guess I can say that I have been performing on the stage for almost my entire life. My first “stage show” was in kindergarten. THere, I was just a xylophone player for the “Mitten”. My next role would come in second grade. it was my very first major role (even though I only had 5 lines). I played as a gardener who careed for talking plants.
My first real big stage show started when I was in sixth grade. I did “Lil Abner”. I played the part of an ensemble character and the Butler for the antagonist of the play. It was there where I got so into theatre. I loved every minute of it. THat show was the spark for my passion in theatre. My next show I performed in was the “Music Man” in seventh. I played the part of a Traveling Salesman and Ensemble. Next, in eight grade, I did Les Miserables. I was Ensemble once again, but I got the Understudy of Javert (which, i never got a chance to perform). The more shows and productions I got involved in, the greater my knowledge, experience and passion.
It wasn’t until the sumer after my eight grade year wear I first decided to audition for a junior community theatre. I did “Kiss Me Kate”, which I played the part of Ensemble and Featured Dancer. I will say that “Kiss Me Kate” was not my most favorite of musicals I have ever done, nor was it my greatest experience.
When I entered High School, I got involved with a Choir Production Play. What we did was we dawned Medieval costumes and perform and sing at a banquet (with a play in the midst of it all). I would do this for all four of my years of High school. When I was a Freshman, I started as an ensemble and waiter. I would pour drinks and serve food to the guests as a peasent slave. When I was a sophmore, I was given the part of a brave, yet cowardly knight. Junior year, I played the part of someone who was accused of being a newt. Senior year, I was the Royal Interpreter. The characters would say things in old english, and I would translate into mondern english.
My first high school musical was “Crazy For You”. It was a big, high-energetic, dancing musical. I was given the part of an ensemble cowboy and dancer. However, this musical required a lot of tap dancing, something that I totally sucked at. (I faked most of the moves I learned on the stage). But it was my first high school production where I decided to dedicate my entire high school life to theatre (and choir). The musical was so high energy and so big, It was nothing like I have ever experienced.
Grease would be the musical in my sophmore year. I was ensemble once again, but I was given the role of Heroic Male durring the drive-in-movie scene. It was nothing like my first high school production, but it is Grease, the classic musical that everone should be familiar with.
And speaking of Grease, exactly 2 years later, I auditioned for it again at a community theatre. THis time, i was given the role of Doody. It was a really energetic, funny, adorable role. I just shined when the song “Those Magic Changes” came on and it was my time to sing. I have worked really hard to find my character and get the singing down just right. Heck, I would spend a whole hour with my voice teacher just to get it right. But Doody was a real unforgetable role for me. Even though my director was not the best I have ever had, I still enjoyed the experience and learned a lot from it.
Back to my high school productions:
My sophmore year is where I accepted the social class “Theatre geek, Drama Nerd, etc”. I attended all of the drama club meetings, other performance clubs, and events. In my sophmore year, I decided to partake in our schools “One Act” festival. “One Acts” are student written, directed, and acted plays. I was casted in my friend’s “One Act” that he wrote and directed himself. It is a comedy “One Act” about this one director who can’t make the transition from silent films to movies with dialoge. It was a short, 5-person play, and the production was great. We hit the nail on the coffin all three nights, even though we didn’t win any awards for it. The point was, it was my first ever production that didn’t involve any singing. And it was a real bonding moment with my cast/crew.
My Junior year was one of my best years. It was there where I first got involved with my first ever “straight play”. I performed in Harvey, a play about a man with an imaginary rabbit friend. Even though I was an understudy, and showed up in the last 5 minutes of the show, I worked incredibly hard to get it down. Heck, I even had a special lession with one of my uncles, who happened to be a director/producer in real life. Usually, I would find myself attending every rehearsal, either watching the principle actor perform my part, or help the other Understudies with their part. In the end, when it was “Understudy night” It was showtime. I did my part to the best I could. My director came up to me after everyone left and told me that “My character was there. You did it perfectly”. I felt really proud of myself.
Even though we didn’t have a musical that year, I did participate in our “One Act” fesival. Once again, I was casted into my friend’s play.
THis time, the story was about a Kingdom that just got taken over and a ruthless Captain, after he took over the kingdom, killed the real king, and captured the queen and young prince. I was given the role of the heroic romantic prince. It was one of my biggest and most tresured roles.
My character, after an opening scene with his lover:a maiden girl who works at the castle, gets kidnapped by the Captain’s guards. I refused to bow to him, and lets just say I got my butt kicked all over the stage. In the next scene, I was beaten and lashed. Then thrown in the cell. It was uncertain that my character died or lived, but who’s to know except the actor and the writer.
I was incredibly satisfied with my performace. In fact, durring our high school’s annual award ceremony, I was given “Best Male Supporting Actor” for that role. In addition to that, our play also recieved a total of 9 awards. (Best Male Lead Actor, Best Male Supporting Actor, Best Female Supporting Actor, Best Script, Best Ensemble, Best Overall Play, Best Female Minor Actor, ( and I forgot the others).
Here comes Senior Year, my most busiest theatre year of my life. The Fall Straight Play production was the first thing that came. The Play was called “The Diviners”. It was about a little boy, who is mentaly challenged and ifs afraid of water and his time with his sister and a priest, who has seemed to have lost all faith. (The lead-boy in this play was also in the Tooth Fairy movie, starring Dwayne Johnson). I was given the role of Melvin, a brash and “full-of-himself” farmhand. My role was more of the comic relief in this tragic play. I search for water, help my best friend with his girl troubles and teach him how to dance. It was a fun play, but I was sad at the same time as this was my last Fall Production of my high school year.
My senior year is where I took my first ever Drama CLass. Since the advance drama class conflicted with my advance choir class, I had no choice but to enlist in the begining class. Now I was disappointed that I had a conflicting schedule, but I found that working with the new, inexperienced freshmen, and people who just don’t care about drama could have its advantages.
Instead of learning with the best, the class saw me as one of the best, especially the freshmen, who some looked up to me as a role model or a leader. With them, I shared with them my knowledge of the theatre and had a few delightful conversations in between.
It wasn’t until we we given our project, doing a scene from a play in front of an audience. I was confident and it didn’t scare me much, so I focused on myself when I practiced at home, and worked with my group as best as I could. Our play was about 3 kids playing a game. The game was for one person to hold their breath for 3 minutes. I was the lead boy, and my part was the kid who gives the person who had to hold his breath some senarios to think about while accompishing this task. I think our play was the best project out of everyone in the class.
My next project didn’t happen until one month before school was out. I was given 2 parts this time. THe first part was the role of an angel who attends a funeral and decides wheather the man who died should go to heaven or hell. This was a really big challenge because half of the cast I worked with did not care about their grade and cramped everything at the last minute. Ultimately, I had to save their butts a lot, but not much. I was qute surprised when they showed me that they could do it.
The second one I did was about a man and a woman just leaving for work. I played the part of a sleezy man who complains about the new boss that was hired, not realizing that the woman that I talk with is acutally the new boss, and I get in so much trouble at the end. I was given this part about 1-2 weeks before showtime. THis meant I had to a lot of lines to memorize and a lot of direction to remember. It wasn’t easy, but I pulled it though, with the help of my friends. It all paid off. At our award ceremony, I was given the award “Best Actor” in begining Drama Class.
The musical came and I could sy that it was my most favorite show I have done ever. You all want to know what I did? HELLO DOLLY!!! I was given the part of Barnaby, a young, high energy, adorable, loving character. I was disappointed that I didn’t get Cornelius, but I was happy to have gotten Barnaby in the end.
My director told me that this role required a lot of energy on the first day of rehearsal. So when I showed her what I got, she told me I needed more. That was quite a challenge for me. In addition to a lot of line memorizing, a lot of dancing steps to remember, and the songs and notes to the songs, I had to be the most energitic person in the entire show, in addition to being a leader. (the entire cast and crew to be precise).
WHat I did was jump up and down every day to get something going, and not stopping. (and drinking energy drinks that would have me crash at the end of every rehearsal would help as well. When opening night came, everything clicked. It was the best, cleanest opening night I have ever experienced. The show would go on for 2 more weeks. For a total of 7 shows. If I can recall 3-4 of those shows were done perfectly, with a lot of full houses. It was the best musical I have ever performed in. I never felt so high on excitement, energy, laughs, applauses, and cheers.
Sadly, everything had to come to an end. When it was closing night, I found myself crying before the overture was played and after we had our final bows. Durring our final awards ceremony, I was given “Best Male Actor in a Feautred Role” for the character of Barnaby.
One Acts came after that. THis time, I was picked to perform in our Drama Club Presiden’ts directed play about a girl who dies and goes to heaven, which turns out to be one giant factory. (Think of it as Monsters Inc of heaven.) I was given the role of Head of Population control. I oversee everything that goes on in the department. I count how many people are there in each country, decide if it is too much or too little, then do something about it. It wasn’t the best role I got, nor was it my favorite production to be in, but it was quite an experience.
In addition to Drama Club, I also participated in our school’s Improv Club. There, we play a lot of comedy sports games. Think of it as Whose Line Is it Anyways for school. I started in my sophmore year. I sucked back then, but the more meetings I attended, I gained more experience and got a lot better at it. In my Senior year, I was chosen to be on the roster for our school’s Improv tournament. It is like our city championships at Improv. Our School won. Not only did we recieve a cool trophy, we got a chance to play the professionals, (which we beat as well!)
The International THespian Society is something that I am incredibly proud of. It is a theatre society that I joined that emphasises the love a threatre as well as applying skills learned in theatre to school and everyday life. I first joined when I was a sophmore and by my senior year, I was one of few student who recieved one of the most prestigous awards any theatre person can get. I was inducted as an International Honor Thespian. What did I do to deserve that? I participated in between 1800-2000 hours of theatre in 4 years. (I basicly lived in the threatre.) DO the math. 1800-2000 hours for every 4 years. That is 450-500 hours a year, and about 1.23-1.37 hours of theatre a day!
In addition to performing shows, I also love to watch shows. I have seen Oliver Twist, High School Musical, Cinderella, Annie, Oklahoma (which I also performed in my high school career), South Pacific, Peter Pan, My Fair Lady, Evita, Phantom of the Opera, Aladdin, Jersey Boys, Hairspray, A Comedy of Errors, Pound, Don’t Drink the Water, Noises Off, Rebel Without a Cause, The Foriegner, Camelot, and Footloose, How I Learned To Drive, Light Up The Sky, and A Streetcar Named Desire.
My favorite show that i have ever seen is Camelot. I love watching all of the swordfighting, and I love the story between Arthur, Lancelot, and Gwenevire.
I have been asked many times what would I love to perform and what would my dream role be. To tell you the truth, I really don’t know. I love to perform comedys, but to really be a balenced actor, I would love to participate in more tragic stories. I would love to play the role of a romantic hero. And someday, I wish to have a Lead Role in a play instead of someon in the back or next to him.
My goal is to be a professional performer (wheather it should be singing or acting or both, film theatre or any medium). If not, I would love to be a teacher and hopefully share my knowledge and experience to young people.
From school plays to musicals, from working with newbies to profesionals, my carrer in theatre has been an incredibly one so far. And hey, I am still young, I have just gotten started!
My first college work was with a play called “How I Learned to Drive”. I missed the auditions, but the director didn’t want to turn me down. So he invited to be be an assistant director. It was such a fun experience.
Since my freshman year od Jr. College, I have taken a numerous amount of threatre classes. I believe that I have grown exponentially as an actor and as a person because of it. I have bonded with amazing people who share the same passion, intensity, and desire as I do about acting.
And there is my rant on theatre.
