Okay, so I know that I talk way too much about music and acting in my Free Write Posts - it's just who I am. Plus I can't ever think of other things I want to write about. Well, lately I've been feeling quite nostalgic as two weeks ago I performed in my last musical at Black River. I've been in plays and musicals at this school since fifth grade, and they've really shaped me into the person I am today.
So, what I wanted to talk about was how important I think acting truly is, for the audience, yes, but also for the performers themselves. Let me explain. At least for me, there's no doubt that I love watching musicals and plays performed by others, but in all honesty, I find much more enjoyment in participating in plays myself. The feeling you get when you perform like that - it's just amazing. Being up on stage is something that is a reward in itself. That's why so many people choose to be in shows that don't pay them any money. They do it because they love to act. It allows them to express themselves in such a way that both the audience and the performers enjoy. I don't know much about the experience of performing professionally (like in movies or TV shows, etc.) but I know for sure that all forms of acting productions have huge impacts on the audience (of course), but even more so on the actors themselves.
I honestly love plays and musicals. They allow actors to continuously hone their skills in both dramatic techniques, as well as in memorization. When I was in eighth grade, I didn't get into the musical Grease that our school put on. The next year, the choir directors switched halfway through the year and we therefore had no musical. At this point, I was so stressed out because I didn't have any lines to memorize. I know this may sound weird to some of you, but not having anything to memorize can be devastating for some people. It makes you feel like your mind is out of shape and needs a work-out to regain its full capacity. That's why I ended up getting involved with the Holland Civic Theatre that year. It felt so good to have something to memorize and block out again. Luckily, those were the only two years I didn't participate in a show at BR.
It's also the people you meet along the way that draw actors to their hobby. Being involved in a show usually causes you to grow close to the cast you are working with. That's also why no show is ever the same experience. Different people are involved and it's always so sad on closing night when you realize that you may not ever be in a show with these exact same people again. I'm sure there are casts that some people can't stand to be around, but I've been fortunate enough to have great people to work with in all of the productions I've been in so far.
Sometimes I wonder why I love acting so much. I guess it's because something about becoming a different person - a character in a story - is just so intriguing to me. You end up getting so enveloped by that new persona that they almost become a part of you. Sometimes they even effect your daily life. For instance, after playing Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, I couldn't stop saying things with "Oh" in them because I said them so much in the play (seriously, I said "Oh my!" and "Oh dear!" and just plain "Oh!" like fifty times in that show). I still, to this day, say "Oh my goodness!" instead of saying "Oh my gosh" like I used to before tenth grade. Another example is how in the months before performing "The Boyfriend", me and my friends would always accidentally say certain phrases in a British accent before realizing that we were doing it. The things we pick up from plays...
Okay, so by now I'm probably boring you from going on a tangent about the impacts of acting on actors, so I'll leave it at that for now. For any of you who haven't participated in any theatrical productions, I challenge you to do so sometime in the future. Acting is one amazing experience. It may seem strange or hard if you've never really done it before, but you never know, maybe you're amazing at acting and you never knew because you never tried. Haha! Well, I'll stop writing now. :)
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