A Week Full of Theatre

Though every week of my life is a week full of theatre, this week was jam packed. I had the pleasure of attending multiple different performances on top of my everyday rehearsal and acting classes. I was able to travel home and see my younger brother in his school’s living stations of the cross production (he played Jesus, which was amazing), as well as my sister in her high school’s production of “A Chorus Line.” Along with those two, I was able to see the Student Directed One Acts, “Love’s Fire,” here at ONU.

I have seen and participated in many plays and musicals since my very first one when I was five year old. This week especially during everything I saw, along with the thoughts and emotions which were provoked in me by the content of the show, a few memories struck me during each experience. First during my brother’s reenactment of the last hour of Jesus’s life, as I watched the middle-school-aged kids onstage I was reminded how powerful children’s theatre can be. Some people scoff at it because it is usually not as well produced and the young actors don’t have a lot of training. But I don’t think there was a dry eye in the theatre by the end of the show. To have young kids very simply represent these events which were the painful end of someone’s life was incredibly moving. Then I got to see my sister’s high school’s production of “A Chorus Line.” The show I saw happened to be their last performance and it took me back to the feelings I had during my last musical performance in high school. Even though I was going into musical theatre after high school, I still wanted to soak up every moment of my high school experience; it got me to the point where I knew theatre was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, the show itself was so special to me and I was sad I wouldn’t be able to perform with the best friends I made again in the near future. So when I watched the seniors in my sister’s show belt out the last note of their final solo of their high school career, I got a fluttery feeling in my heart for them, thinking about how they must feel. Lastly, I got to see the Student Directed One Acts here at ONU which was titled, “Love’s Fire.” Besides seeing the product some of my fellow classmates created with their directing debut, I also got to see some freshmen musical theatre majors perform for the first time. I was really enchanted with the stage presence of one of the freshmen so I went up to them after the show to make sure I let them know and congratulated them. Much to my surprise, they became very emotional from what I said. It was a very simple compliment, so I was taken aback at how grateful they were. But then I remembered what it felt like to do my first college performance and how nervous I was about what people would think of me, if I was on the right track, if I was the least bit talented or if anyone could see how hard I was working. So when my peers who I looked up to so much gave me even the slightest compliment it meant the world to me, it still does. This made me think about how far I’ve come in my journey with musical theatre and my journey with myself. The little moments I experienced this weekend while seeing some great performances caused me to self-reflect a bit and reminded me how much I love musical theatre and how blessed I’ve been in my personal experiences.

I am so grateful and happy I feel called to this profession and theatre is a part of my life every single day. Even if it is small, what is a positive experience you’ve had with theatre (participating, watching, learning about it)? Please comment below!