Act Out

Who are you?  What year are you?  What are your interests?
My name is Abbi and I am a junior in high school. I love playing soccer in spring and showing everyone that I am strong.  I got very interested in drawing during COVID-19 and it has stuck with me as I love being creative and doing crafts with my hands. I also was in gymnastics when I was younger so I love doing cartwheels and back handsprings. I love animals a lot. We have three dogs at home and a turtle (which is very cool to have). Another thing I do is I am in Band and I learned color guard for marching season.  I am also in both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and I am currently working for the highest rank in both. I really like being able to do anything and everything I possibly can. I love acting too.  I love just being able to express emotions, being dramatic, and acting in different ways. I think there is always something to learn and in shows, I am always learning something new.

What exactly do you do for Oklahoma!?
I am in the ensemble in Oklahoma! as well as a featured dancer, I do a lot of the dance scenes in the show. I act with all the different actors on stage for the different scenes; I am a boy in a few and a girl in the rest. At one point I am even a little girl who runs around which I find super fun.

Why did you join Oklahoma!?
I joined Oklahoma to be with all of the friends I have created in the past shows so I can create stronger bonds and meet new people. I also joined because I really like acting even if I do not have any lines.  I love the feeling of accomplishing something and being a part of something. I have also grown to love dancing and in the musical, there is a lot of that so I get to learn so many new things.

Tell us a story from rehearsal, pit practice, or crew session.
My best friend Rachel and I found this cool trick and we thought it would be fun so we learned it on our own time and then brought it into rehearsal to show Figg. Everyone loved it so it has become part of the show. There is a fight scene where Rachel and I have to be really mad at each other and even fight at one point. This is a funny sight to see because we get along so well and are both the kind of people who don’t want to hurt anyone. While we were learning our fight scene everyone kept thinking that I was actually hitting her but I was not and then I went to get over her back.  One time when we were practicing the flip she leaned forward and we heard her practice skirt rip and then I fell over laughing.

What is Oklahoma! about? Why should people come to see it?
Oklahoma! is about a cowboy named Curly who wants to take a girl named Laurey to the box social. But there is another guy that is in love with Laurey too, the farm help, Jud. There is also Laurey’s friend, Ado Annie, who is in love with Will but Will is trying to buy Ado Annie from her dad to marry her. 

People should come to see the show because there are so many cool tricks that happen throughout the show and the show has a lot of emotions that pull you in and keep you intrigued to think about what is going to happen. People should also come to see all the hard work we have put into the show. It is entertaining and has lots of action.

What do you hope the audience will think about in the car as they drive home after this show?
I hope the audience will think about how cool all the different tricks that we learned are and how hard they were to learn. I also hope that they think it was very fun to watch and that everyone did a great job and put all their effort into it.

Anything else you want to talk about?
The musical is such a fun and nice environment to be around. You can volunteer to be seen as much as you want and that gives you lots of opportunities to learn new skills. Everyone is super nice to each other and helps you in any way that they can. It’s an experience I am glad that I am a part of.