The Road Less Traveled: Big Steps of Bravery

Joel Halbedl

Bursting through the curtains, Mr. Mark Sasse exclaims, “Doors are opening! 10 minutes left!” This statement sends actors and tech people alike into a frenzy, checking to make sure everything is ready.

Every year the RLT players manage to astound their audience with funny analogies, sad plotlines, and deep meanings. After the departure of many legendary RLT performers, this particular group struggled to fill the shoes left behind. With a large group of new players, there left only veterans Aaron Chand (11) and Lexi Zimbulis (12) to whip the new recruits into shape. As described earlier, the opening night of the RLT players was a nervous step of faith for many amateur actors. I speak for most of the other actors when I say that the tension was visible in the air that night. The only thing that held this group of ragtag performers together was courage—the courage to step out of the box, and do something incredible.

I myself struggled with controlling the shaking and twitching of my limbs that first night. The sheer knowledge that the audience is watching you, studying your every movement, is indescribably strange. For someone with many hours spent in drama, I had nearly no experience with on-stage performing. As a technical assistant, it was easy to sit in a chair comfortably and observe the show from above. But being on-stage brought a whole new dynamic to the experience.

During three out of the four performances that the RLT players had from December 3-5, a mistake was made. A mistake does not have to be large for it to become significant in drama. Forgetting to bring a prop onstage, or even missing a simple line, can lead to disastrous repercussions from the other actors, who rely on each other to perform their roles.  At the end of every performance, actors grouped together with Mr. Sasse to discuss the mistakes and how to improve the performance. This is why the last performance is commonly known to be the best one. The only question the RLT players had to ask themselves was, “was it worth it?”

Hours and hours of memorizing and practicing lines led up the performances those nights. To truly perform well, one must need to have a strong motivation to get on the stage and act. I asked a new RLT player, Lilian Li (11), what she got in return for all the hard work she put in for RLT. She said “The best thing I got out of RLT was getting out of my comfort zone. And through that, I really got to experience the joy of drama, get closer to fellow actors, and have people randomly come up to me and tell me how awesome I was in acting and how much they enjoyed it.”

I have to agree with Lilian on this one; the experience of being in drama was simply enough to motivate me to try my best and put on a good show.

The actors in RLT were elated at their success on-stage, and even though it lasted for only a few days, the performances that night will be something the actors will remember forever.