Student Blog: Back to School - Create!

The first few weeks back at school as a Drama major can be hectic; they seem to always come with a swirl of sign-ups, auditions, callbacks, and cast lists. At my college, auditions for that semester’s season typically occur on the evenings after the very first and second days of classes, with callbacks being on the third evening of classes and cast lists being released that weekend. This means that preparation for auditions must take place during the break before classes begin, which both allows for focus on audition preparation and can feel overwhelming as a student ready to begin a new semester. However, I always looked forward to audition week and loved that having it immediately upon beginning a new semester meant getting the show-ball rolling as soon as humanly possible. 

This year, I had the privilege of being cast in a fall semester show at my college in advance as an acting senior thesis member. Being cast ahead of time meant I did not have to prepare for another audition in the weeks leading up to the start of classes, but it also meant not having that excitement that comes with the uncertainty of not knowing whether I would be cast. Instead, I could jump straight into the anticipation portion, waiting for rehearsals to begin. Being the only acting senior thesis member in the show I was cast in, Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage, meant that I was the only person cast in advance. Waiting for the rest of the actors to be cast was stressful, as the play requires very specific character demographics that may be difficult to fill at a small college. However, once the cast list was released, revealing a cast made up of both professional and student actors, my excitement returned and grew tenfold. 

The start of the school year for me also meant returning to my on-campus job managing the student-run theater. As a senior, this is my fourth year working for the student-run theater and my second year as the theater manager. In beginning the year and preparing for our show season, my staff and I were intent on making the theater easier to work in, more accessible, and all-around a better place to be. Our first step in doing so was to install an entirely new lighting grid full of LED lights. These new lights would be easier to focus and allow for more colors, shapes, and structures of lighting on the stage. The installation took a total of about sixteen hours between two other staff members and myself, and this all had to be done in the course of a few days during the first week of classes. 

Between starting a new semester and my last year of college, preparing for my acting thesis, and taking the time to install new lights and prepare my theater for this season, the beginning of the year was hectic for me, to say the least. What kept me going through the work and preparation was simply the excitement. The excitement of beginning anew, the excitement of my senior year, and most importantly, the excitement to create art. Theatre-makers, especially those in college or just getting out of it, are often reminded that to “make it” in this career requires an intense amount of constant effort. Whether you are an actor working a night job and auditioning during the day, a playwright trying desperately to reach the last page, or a stage manager taking a thousand notes, this industry is one that no one enters into without truly wanting it. In both my current theatrical roles as an actor in Intimate Apparel and a manager of a theater, my motivations remain the same: create. This is the motivation that bonds all of us who come together to create theatre, and without it, I do not believe the industry could exist at all. This is why I find it crucial to hang onto that excitement that comes with a new season or a new project. One thing for sure is that while working in theatre, you will get tired. You will fear burnout, you will struggle, you will feel as if you’ve run out of creativity. But it is the yearning for creation that can fuel us all forward, and for that, I am eternally grateful.