Student Blog: A Look into the First Few Months of School as a Performer

When people think of a new school year, they mostly think of the stress of students or the anxiety (or excitement) of starting a new year. However, compared to students who just complete their extracurriculars, theatre kids and performers have a little bit of a busier schedule during a show season. I sat down to talk with Colin Welch, a senior and performer who also takes an EMT course about his year so far and the challenges he has faced.

I started off by talking to them about the beginning of the school year, which is normally one of the most stressful parts of the year. When talking to Colin about the start of the year, he said “The beginning of the year has been going good so far. Some of my classes are hard, but that’s good. The start of rehearsals have definitely been different than past years, but I’m super excited and they have been going very good so far.”

Along with starting the school year, as always, challenges will come. However, since we’re all used to challenges, we have a good know-how on how to face them. Colin talked about the challenges he faced as a student and talked about his way of facing them. “Trying to manage acting with choir and my classes and also being a part of an EMT Academy is a lot to tackle at once, but I manage them by organization. The biggest challenge has to be that my girlfriend is a freshman in college and I am still a senior. So, it’s tough not seeing her and having so much free time to myself, but it’s all good because I overcome it by making myself busy with the gym or working on music”. 

As we inch closer to November, which is when we open the secret play, the excitement for everyone involved ramps up. For me, the excitement of keeping the play a secret from everyone involved is such a thrilling feeling! As a senior, Colin expressed her excitement for the show since this is the first time we’ve done anything like this. Colin said, “I’m really looking forward to helping advertise it because it’s a play that we aren’t allowed to tell anybody about. I’m also really excited to get into my character development, finding my character traits, and going off book”.

In my opinion, I am super excited for this upcoming production, because this is the first time I’ve been involved in a show that has to be kept a secret until we open. I really enjoy having people come up to me to try to guess the show or get me to accidentally spill what the show is. However, I have been really good at keeping the secret. It’ll be really interesting and fun to see people’s reactions to the show on opening night. 

These past few weeks have been going pretty smoothly for us here at VHS! Especially with us who are involved in the play! So overall, whether you’re a student, teacher, or just a performer, I hope the first few weeks have been smooth for you as they have been for us! 

Chicago Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. HAIRSPRAY (Uptown Music Theater of Highland Park)

6.6% of votes

2. RENT (Highland Park Players)

6.5% of votes

3. DREAMGIRLS (The Drama Group)

6.3% of votes

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