You might be wondering why the heck I am wearing all of this gold and blue stuff around my neck, and that is
because today I am doing a theatre tag. It sounded like I said "theer". THEATRE. THEATRE tag.
I've always been into musicals, and as a kid I did a lot of church plays. But my first time actually performing was
in the seventh grade, and I played Helena in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". And everyone
who was in it that production will admit that it was pretty pathetic. [laughs] We were twelve, and we knew nothing
about acting technique or how to properly deliver Shakespeare. So, yeah, it didn't go over well.
That's an understatement. It was a complete mess. In fact, it caused me to vow that I would never get back
onstage again in an acting capacity. But in the eighth grade I went to see a production of "Sweeney Todd" at
our high school. I just fell in love with it and I told myself: I have to audition for this theatre troupe
when I'm a freshman.
Because... it's so good!
My first real show was called "The Most Massive Woman Wins". It was for a one-act festival where
seniors directed and underclassmen acted, and I was a freshman at the time.
This is our cast. I am second from the left.
Costuming, two; directing, three; stage management, one; house management, one; and then acting, eight.
So, in total, fifteen. And that's just in high school.
Belle in "Beauty and the Beast", by far. It had been a dream role of mine since I was, like, six or seven.
Honestly, it was not my favorite role just because of the size of the role. I know that's what a lot of people think.
That I liked it so much just because I was in a position to get attention. But to be completely honest,
the attention only really came at the end of the production when all the work had been put in.
And it was... nice. Like, I'll admit that it was nice. But that was not the part that I enjoyed the most. What I enjoyed
most was rehearsals that would go really late because we were wrestling with the character of Belle and
I was finding pieces of myself in the character and I was really working with how to accurately portray the
character like my director wanted, because we didn't go for a typical Belle. We made her angry and mean and
flawed, and discovering that in the character was - I don't know, it was really eye-opening for me. And I loved it.
I LOVED it. It was so much fun. And it was SO HARD. But it was - [groans] - yeah, it was really fun.
Aim high. There is no shame in auditioning for a really huge role as someone who is new to theatre.
Some people have natural talent, and some people don't, but regardless, there is always a chance that the director
is gonna see something unique in you that fits his or her vision of the role.
Divas! People who think that they are the most talented person in the room whenever they walk into a room.
I hope and pray I never become one of those people.
I think I receive criticism pretty well. I really like taking that as a challenge to apply it to my work, and improve
it, ultimately.
Biggest weakness: [sighs] I don't have the singing range that a lot of actresses my age do. I can hit a D5 on a
good day, an E5 on a REALLY good day.
I also get tired really easily. In my high school troupe, we had cue-to-cues that went until 2:30 in the morning.
After about 11:00 at night, I am just completely useless.
If they're programming a cue and it takes more than 15 or 20 minutes, I will just lie down on the stage and sleep.
On a smaller scale, a young woman from my high school named Emma. She graduated my sophomore year.
Even when things got super stressful during rehearsals and during shows, she never snapped at me.
And she was never mean to me.
And I've always respected that so much because she could be in these big high-stress situations and
and have such an air of grace about her.
She's also an incredible actress and singer. I've never heard anyone in my program sing as well as her.
On a larger scale, probably Ben Platt. He has this way of being really raw and vulnerable and open on stage,
In the video that I watched, he is crying so hard he can barely sing. And it's BEAUTIFUL.
The song isn't perfect, it's beautifully imperfect, and he's struggling with the song because he's crying so hard.
It's very easy to sing a pretty song or present a pretty scene, and have the audience go, "Oh, that's nice."
It's so much harder to give it this element of vulnerability and power. And it's something I think
Ben Platt does so well.
I kinda wish I could be Ben Platt. Maybe I just want the Tony.
Fantine or Eponine in "Les Mis", Rose in "Dogfight", Cathy in "The Last Five Years", Jenna in "Waitress,"
Eliza in "Hamilton", Heidi in "Dear Evan Hansen", Heidi in "[title of show]"... Yeah, there are a lot.
Ahh, I hate this question! I get asked it all the time and I never know how to answer! I will do my best.
When I'm doing a solo performance, I usually prefer musical theatre, and that's because if my singing
or my acting is lacking, one will usually sort of compensate for the other.
But in terms of bigger group productions, I usually prefer plays. Musicals, as wonderful as they are,
tend to get a little bit cluttered with all the music and the choreography and complicated blocking.
Especially in an actor's head, things become a little chaotic. But in plays, you don't have to think about
"Oh, am I with the orchestra?" "Oh, am I doing the dancing right?" It's just the human interaction.
Any game that requires you to look like a complete idiot in front of people you've only just met.
You can't ask a theatre kid what their favorite show is because they'll never have a straight answer for you!
Right now, it's "Dear Evan Hansen", but "Dogfight", "Heathers", "[title of show]", "Hamilton", and
"The Last Five Years"... those are all kind of tied for second place.
THERE ARE SO MANY.
In Beauty and the Beast, Belle's dad is supposed to have that invention that chops wood, and our proppies did
this incredible job putting together a mechanism that - my friend Egan, who played Belle's dad, he would
get behind it and pull a rope, and it would lift the axe up, and the axe would hit the wood. And the wood was
already split in the middle, so it was my job to hold it together so that the audience wouldn't see that it was
already cut, and then set it down on the stage in front of the axe, and make sure it was positioned right, and then
he would pull the axe back, and ideally, the wood would just fall apart on impact and it was like he split it
with the axe. I usually didn't put it exactly where it was supposed to go, so it kinda hit the edge of the wood and
it wouldn't break. One night in particular stands out to me because it was probably the most aggravating
night with the invention. As usual, it wasn't quite getting it on the first or second time, and so I was like, "Oh, it's
fine, it'll get there." And it just kept hitting it and hitting it... And I can see Egan, and he's like, "OH NO."
Eventually, I go, "Dad, Dad, stop." Or "Papa" because Belle doesn't say "Dad". And I took the axe, and with way too
much force and aggression, I slam it down right where it's supposed to be in the middle of the wood, and the
wood falls apart, and the audience is like:
"Do we applaud?"
Okay, this is really sad. To preface, my school's production of "Les Miserables" my sophomore year
is quite possibly the best production I've ever been in to date. We were in The Epilogue, where Valjean sings,
"On this page, I write my last confession." And all the ensemble members were standing behind these
Parisian walls that we had built at the back of the auditorium. At the very end of The Epilogue we all
sort of come out and surround the audience and do that really cool chorus bit. When our Valjean sang his line,
we heard him start to cry, and then we all started crying, like really hard. Because we realized this was our last
time in this space, and with these same people, and with these costumes, and with the lighting cues, and
the orchestra, and all those different things. I've never felt that much of a deep connection to my cast
members than I did in that point.
Mrs. Bennet in the stage adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice". There's just so much energy contained in
her body whenever she's doing anything. I was just physically and mentally exhausted by the end of
each night. And it's a miracle I didn't get sick.
I would struggle to understand myself and relate to others. And I would be singing a lot worse music.
Anyway, that was my theatre tag. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any funny theatre-related anecdotes you want
to share in the comments, please leave them. I will read all of them. If you enjoyed the video, please like and
subscribe for more theatre-y content. I do plan to do a lot more theatre-related videos in the future.
Because I could talk for days about my theatre experience. And yeah! I will see you all next time!
[clicks tongue]
This is an award I got for being theatre student of the year my freshman year.
This was for getting a superior on my I.E. at Nationals.
These are my graduation cords, which are gold and blue because those are the theatre colors and there's a little
theatre pin at the end and it's really cute.
This is my lanyard for one of the Thescons I went to, I think it was the 51st.
And this is my letter, with all of its wonderful pins and bars. I'm gonna take it off now, it's strangling me.
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