The lights on the stage, costumes, and your favorite people in the crowd: this is what you see looking out in front of you, being an actor/actress on opening night. The art of acting requires serious devotion; these kids dedicate a significant amount of time out of their day to practicing and memorizing their lines for the final performance. Most people underestimate how hard it is to act, running across the stage, memorizing lines, and changing oneself for a role.
First-time performer Novae Leon-Fountain (8th grade) shares why she has always wanted to act and be part of a production, “I’ve wanted to act since I was 5, when I saw my first musical with everyone smiling and singing, I thought ‘I want to do that and I want to have fun.'”
Leon-Fountain shares that she always wanted to do this, but she hadn’t tried it before this year. We all have to start from the beginning. As previously mentioned, you have to change yourself for your role to fit into the mold.
“Probably trying to remember that I’m not playing a girl, but I’m playing a guy. I have to stop and remember that I’m not really supposed to act at all like myself,” Leon-Fountain said when asked what the hardest thing she has had to overcome so far.
CJHS 9th grader Nathan Drouin has always been an actor and has always been interested in acting.
“My whole family did it. Additionally, making all the friends I’ve met has made me want to do it again and again, as well as fueled my passion for being on stage,” Drouin said.
As we saw earlier, there are many challenging aspects of acting. It can be different for each person to determine what they find hardest to do. For Leon-Fountain, it was having to change herself into someone else. For Drouin, it’s “having to rehearse and memorize all of my lines.”
Make sure to check out their play, InnCognito on November 14th-15th.
