By Andrew Lococo
Prior to our District competition, personally, I was feeling overwhelmed. However, as a whole, I think that our class just went along with it. I didn’t know exactly what I was getting myself into. I was not aware of how this system or competition works. How would the judges rank our play? What type of venue were we performing in? If we advance, where are we off to next? These questions and several more, went through my mind during that day. Overall, the experience was really quite interesting. We kind of came together and supported each other and acted as a team. Dare I bring sport terminology into this! But we did. I felt that connection somewhat between the cast and crew. This experience and our future competitions should bring us all together. District was our first, we need to continue this bonding.
Initially, I was surprised to see the auditorium itself. The auditorium was not much by any means but compared to ours, we should be grateful for our space. Our auditorium, regardless of its current state, has many advantages that we are able to use. Upon viewing the first one act play, Bubble Boy, the overall atmosphere of the stage from the audience’s perspective seemed very tight. The space is only suited for only so many set pieces and I noticed this in particular. When our class performed, I was right in my initial thought and realized that the space was not what we were used to. We had to adjust accordingly to the stage with our large and abundant set pieces. It wasn’t easy and required work, but we managed to pull it off. As a group, we went along with what we had to work with and simply performed our very best for the judges. Be mindful, there is most certainly room for improvement. The size of the theatre did not affect our ability to draw the audience into the story.
For the show, I acted in my role but did so much more. In addition to portraying “Miles,” I also helped along the sidelines (another sports reference) with the set, the cast, and the crew. We work as a team to create magic that lasts for thirty minutes. It’s out in the open for thirty minutes, and then it is gone. The class all pitched in to create this magic. Personally, I thought I performed as I would any rehearsal in the James Barr Auditorium on a typical weekday. I was not in my performance-mode, there were too many things on my mind at that point. Personally, I have grown sick and tired of this play. I can literally recite every line backstage. But I can’t do that, I have to bring a fresh, new flare to this character every time I walk onto the stage. That is what we have to do. As actors, that is our job. We are to reinvent our characters and I have to learn to do that. This is something I hope to improve upon for sectionals. I also intend to make my relationship between “Agnes” and “Tilly” more evident to the audience. We, as a whole, have our work cut out for us. I truly believe that we have the potential to win this competition, but it’s not going to be easy. To get there, we have to dedicate ourselves to this play and its members.
Act Out 