Becoming an actress

Acting has always be so much fun for me. While I never participated in real plays as a kid, I always loved watching them. I would love to go to the annual shows at Wallingford's public high school, Sheehan. One of my favorites that they performed was The Wizard of Oz. I would really look up to the high schoolers in the play. My first real play was a musical. It was Peter Pan, which I performed in the Wallingford Community Theater. I knew a couple people going into the theater that I danced with, but I really did not know anybody at the theater. I remember the first few weeks of rehearsal I was so shy and nervous of the people around me. I became friends with some girls my age, but I still was very introverted. However, the last month of rehearsal began to change me. I had always had fun at rehearsals even if I was not extremely outgoing. But towards the end of the musical I had grown with everybody and was a lot more comfortable with what I was learning. I remember the last week before we took to the Sheehan stage for dress rehearsals we were in one small, crowded room. We were all really upset that we couldn't get a bigger room at the Park and Rec at first. But after five hours a night of being in each other's company, we really grew close and bonded as a cast. By the end of that week, I had made a lot more friends in the theater and was much more comfortable than I had been before. The last two weeks, including show night, were the best part of my summer. We were all having such a great time and the costumes were truly fitted to the story. On the closing night, we were all really sad to leave each other. When school started, I decided it would be fun to do the school's musical which also turned out to be Peter Pan. The school's production was much different because it was based off of the Disney movie Peter Pan and not the original English play. It was still very fun, and I got a lead in the play. This summer was my third musical called Happy Days: A New Musical. It has definitely been my favorite musical so far. However, I was very sad when it started because a couple of my good friends had left and a lot of people I knew left as well. We gained a ton more children in place of them which was not helpful because the musical is based off of teenagers and adults. The kids, however, really grew on me and I became very good friends with the new people that joined the theater too. I loved the songs, storyline, and background of the musical. All of us had a really good time performing. Acting is about being clear, understandable, and most importantly, being your character. In this acting class, I hope I can learn to grow into my character, be louder and clearer, and be confident in my character. I look forward to my next performance!