Act Out

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just this is your first musical, these things apply to you.

Sight reading, dancing, endless hours of rehearsing, unbreakable bonds with the other people in your ensemble… Such is the life of a musical theatre kid.

1. Sight reading is literally the most stressful thing in the world.

Do, re, mi, fa, so done with trying to figure out all of these skips & meter changes.

2. “I can’t, I have rehearsal” becomes your life motto.

*gets rehearsal & show schedule* “Well, there goes my social life for the rest of the semester…”

3. You live for the look that your director gives you after you nail a piece.

4. Learning that one dance move your choreographer likes to put in everything…

“Drunken Sailor” anyone?  Or “Wizard of Oz”?

5. Or the one dance move that’s supposed to be easy, but no one gets it.

It’s traditionally a dance move the choreographer has named themselves, “Peter Pan” or “Flip switch”

6. Losing your voice is a fate worse than death.

If an instrumentalist gets sick, they can still play, but if a vocalist gets sick? May the odds be ever in your favor… Might as well start planning your career as a mime.

7. There are no secrets among the ensemble, everyone knows everything!

And if one person gets sick, everyone goes down.

8. You constantly have one of your pieces stuck in your head.

Or more accurately, one line from one of the musical songs. And that line is almost never the melody.

9. The fine arts wing is essentially your home away from home.

If you’re MIA, your friends know where to find you.

1o. You sing the most beautiful renditions of “Happy Birthday” known to man.

Complete with five different harmonies & a bunch of cadences.

11. If you forget a pencil in rehearsal, you’re up a creek without a paddle.

And don’t even think about trying to get away with marking your music in pen.

12. There’s always that one soprano that can NOT blend.

So. Much. Vibrato.

13. It’s a miracle when the altos get the melody.

They’ve been waiting all their lives for this. Let them have their moment.

14. You’ve mastered the art of acting without speaking.

And you are the best at Charades now!

15. You know you look (and sound) ridiculous during warm-ups, but you don’t really care.

If you learned anything from “High School Musical”, it’s that we’re all in this together.

16. You have to swear off dairy products before every performance.

My head says to drink water, but my heart really wants a milkshake…

17. If something goes wrong, the tenors usually get blamed for it.

It may not always be their fault, but they’ll usually take the fall for it anyway.

18. Everyone who isn’t a bass secretly wishes that they were.

We really are all about that bass (no treble).

19. You have an existential crisis every time you’re asked what your voice part is.

“Well, I’m singing Alto 1 in this “Belle”, but I sing Alto 2 in “Human Again”. Oh, & I sing tenor in “Be Our Guest. And my voice teacher thinks I’m really more of a Soprano 2…”

20. When you tune a chord perfectly, it feels like the heavens open and God is smiling down on you.

Just let it ring & then bask in the glory…

21. There’s always one person that your section relies on, and if they get sick, you’re doomed.

“Our section leader is out sick. I guess we actually have to learn our music now…”

22. Your most embarrassing moment will always be that one time that you came in early during a piece.

You hope & pray that your director didn’t notice, but deep down, you know they did.

23. You’re jealous of all the attention that the athletes get.

Singing is just as much of a workout. Do you know how hard it is to sustain a note on pitch for 16 counts without having good core strength?

24. Show days are your equivalent of game day.

You didn’t practice hours upon hours each week for nothing.

25. The people that you sing with end up feeling like family.

Fun fact: Your heartbeat literally syncs with the other members of your ensemble when you sing together so that they all beat as one. Talk about bonding.

No matter how many ensembles you’ve been a part of, you know that there are certain things that make them unique, but that music is a universal language that connects all kinds of people, and that’s what makes it all worth it.

Adapted from: Sarah Grace Bloyd in The List on Feb 1, 2016