BWW Blog: Nanjibah Khan - Trying New Things

Summertime. For theatre kids that aren't attending something like theatre camp, this season is complete agony. Even when you're on vacation, it's weird... Not getting the daily dose of rehearsal that your body feels like it needs after years of it. Yet, I feel like summertime is a perfect opportunity to try out new things in the theatre itself. It can help you understand what other parts of theatre you're interested in, because even if it doesn't seem like it, it's not all about the singing and the acting and the dancing! There are people behind all of that, and without their abilities, there wouldn't be a show at all.

Try writing a play or musical. If you haven't thought about it, the writer is one of the most important people that make a show happen. If it weren't for their brilliant ideas, their edgy dialogue, and witty humor, a show wouldn't be half as good as it is. The summer before I started seventh grade, I had written my very own musical about a small group of teenagers and adults competing for a job at the local "Grape" (much like Apple,) store at the mall. I entitled it "Going for Grape," complete with a playbill and all. I read over it and it seems foolish sometimes, but I know that if I revised it and worked on it a bit, it can make it big someday, but only with a lot of hard work and dedication into it.

Try writing one with a friend! It turns out to be a lot of fun when you both put your ideas into the same project to make something wonderful as the final product. My dear friend Allyssa and I tend to write a play together every year, and it's a great experience. We took a small scene out of the one we're currently working on, and entered it in our thespian competition this school year. With our hard work, it ended up going to the state level and gaining a score of an excellent. Not only did we have fun, but our work did get somewhere. We got lots of critiques from the judges that taught us about how we could improve our work.

Collaborate with your friends to make a show happen. With someone as the director, someone as the playwright, a few people as the tech crew, and a cast, you could put on a show or have it filmed. It's a very entertaining pastime, and it really helps improve your abilities as a student in the theatre, especially when you learn about how a small group of people could work together to make something big.

Watch local performances that are put on in nearby performing arts centers. Observe and listen. Watch how the actors move their body, listen to the tone of their voices. Observe how different things such as the projections and the lights are working. Watching other people indulge in something you claim as your very own personal craft can really change how you do things. When you see professionals doing it, your brain observes and takes in what you learned, and tries to improve your skill.

There are so many more things you could do, these are only a few. I am currently going into my first year of high school starting this summer. That itself is something new, something I'm going to have to adjust to. It's weird leaving one big theatre family to another one, but change is good. Trying new things is a way of evolving, and with hard work and dedication, we can all evolve in what we do best.