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.
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