Personal Essay: Being Involved With The Theatre Program In High School

One of my more vivid experiences of public speaking was when I was taking a class at a community college. While taking this class I would often have to give speeches and demonstrations in front of the class. As I was waiting for my turn to give my very first speech, I was very certain that I would have no problems at all, it would a piece of cake, or so I thought. All of a sudden, I hear my name being called as it was my turn to deliver a knockout performance, but as I stood in front of that small class of people I just blanked out. An overwhelming amount of anxiety came over of me. I could feel my heart beginning to race and my hands starting to sweat. I could not for the life of me remember what I was going supposed say. In addition, the

Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I have searched and searched for a talent that would give me a unique identity to make me stand out from my peers. When I was five years old, I was given the chance to be in a musical in our city's community theatre, PMT. This musical was "The Wizard of Oz", and I played the role of a munchkin in the Lollipop Guild. This initially sparked a great interest in theatre, and I fell in love with acting. I had an amazing mentor for my youth acting career, the late Jack Ewing. He played Harold Hill in PMT's production of "The Music Man", while I had the opportunity to play the role of Winthrop, the young boy that helps Harold Hill become a better person. (Jack later died a year before I had the chance to play the role of Harold Hill in my high school's production of "The Music Man Jr.") When I was about nine, PMT dissolved as an organization and therefore there was no community theatre around me for years, which put a setback in my interest and talent for theatre.

Before my senior year of high school, I was a very shy, closed-off individual. However, my last year I wanted to change that. The primary way I sought to do this was through participating in high school theater. If I was given $10,000 and 30 days, I, Jacob Smith, would put forth these resources towards the improvement of Roxana High School’s drama department.

It was a just weeks before the production of my first high school play. The crew and I were still trying to finalize lighting arrangements, with our limited school resources, our small auditorium could not satisfy our needs. Our mentor Mrs. Roundy gave her usual morale-boosting spiel, that essentially meant “Folks, live with it, and let’s keep going”. And we went on with our rehearsal. In between scenes, sitting in dark control booth, I decided to try something. I opened my laptop to modify my experimental random bubble generator Java program. I made the background completely dark and changed the aspect ratio to fit the theater projection. Suddenly, the colorful bubbles appeared like many moving spotlights. While the cast was still rehearsing

Watching a theatrical production come to live is one thing that I can never grow tired of, and being part of the process gives me a warm feeling that can never be replicated by anything else. I always jump up to the opportunity to stage-manage a show or help produce it in a way. Majority of the time, theater is my therapy in where I’m always in my happy place.

“Oh God, I’m bleeding!” There I stood, being crucified while hanging from a light rack at the end of the play. When I was on stage that night, singing and making the audience believe all the pain felt real, I demonstrated the greatest talent I am known to have: acting. My skill peaked at the time I took part in my high school's musical, Godspell, and I played the main role: Jesus.

Step four: It’s show time, finally, after six weeks of rehearsals, its go time! Now it’s normal to get nervous before shows, but don’t get so nervous that you stress yourself out. Here’s a few things, you can do to calm yourself down, so that your performance is amazing. Make sure that all your props are where they should be, all of your costumes are in order and ready for you to throw on, and make it back on stage on time. Go over all your lines only once before you get in your starting place so it’s fresh in your mind.

Acting isn’t for me, but theater is. I know that statement might seem a bit contradictory but hear me out.

My interest in theatre started when I was living in Spain. My parents started a theatre company with other military and US teachers. From the ages of 4-9, I got to play small roles or work backstage on plays ranging from Shakespeare to Neil Simon.

Today I will be talking about my growth and what I have learned in this theatre class. We have done a lot in here and I think that I have grown a lot over this Semester! Here are some reasons why I believe I have grown and what I have learned.

Theatre in the Community Britain in 1979 was a place of great change and division. Although the country had united in the election of Margaret Thatcher as the first Conservative woman Prime minister by the early 1980’s one could say that the country was spiralling into a state of decline. This was largely due to the disarray of the previous Labour government and the implementation of the Conservative government’s robust style of economic management. All spheres of social and cultural life were to be judged on their economic terms and values. This is particularly true within the Arts.

Anyone who has seen a musical theatre production has seen the world through new eyes. They have most likely oohed and aahed at the scenery, the bright lights, the simple, yet effective costumes, and of course, the talent of the performers. The way the actors melodic voices carry out over the crowd, the way the choreography emanates their emotions, pouring heart and soul into their role. An audience member at a musical theatre production is whisked away into an alternate universe, where “troubles melt like lemon drops”(Harburg) and where “anything can happen”(Sherman). The troubles of the world fade away, if only for those few hours. To create this alternate universe, metaphorically speaking, is not a simple task, however. Multiple components go into producing a musical, including music, characters, and dialogue. Many people enjoy watching musical theatre, but do they really know how the magic happens?

Your chest is tight and you feel like you’re on fire. Your chest is tight ant you’re burning up. The flash cards in your hands are crumpled from you squeezing them obsessively. You look up and see dozens of eyes staring at you, waiting expectantly. Taking a deep breath, you stumble through the speech. When it’s finally over, you practically run back to your seat, cheeks flaming bright red. You slump down, already dreading the next time you’ll have to deal with your upmost fear: public speaking.

Throughout the years ,I’ve experienced various times when I’ve had to speak in front of others and sometime the results were better than others. One of the first times, I can remember speaking in front of my class was in sixth grade for a project about different counties in Arkansas. I was assigned a small county I had never even heard of before but after a little research I found out some interesting facts about the county that fascinated me. This caused me to be very involved and proud of my work. When it came time to present my speech I was very prepared and excited to share what I had found out. Through my experience I have learned that being proud of what you are saying or the work you put into the assignment affects how

My grandmother, Annie was a seanchai, an Irish storyteller. She was the only great actor I have known intimately. Her stage was the kitchen of her cottage in the West of Ireland and her stories were about her friends and neighbors. She recreated their trials and triumphs and with her talent for mimicry accorded each a speaking part. Her one woman show held me spellbound. She commanded my tears and fits of laughter depending on the content of her story or dictated by a whim. It was she who made me stage-struck years before I even saw a stage.