High school is never easy for anyone, seriously. If anyone ever tells you that high school was easy for them, they are a liar and you do not need them in your life. There are ways to make it easier though, people who make it easier. If you find a club, a sport, a group of people who make high school better, you are so insanely lucky. The people who not only help you through classes but who make you count down to the last bell not so you can go home but so you can go be with your favorite people. It's the people who become your family and teach you more than your classes ever could. For me, those people were from the drama club.
Ask anyone who was ever in drama club and they will tell you about how the whole club was a family. It didn't matter if you were in the show, on the stage crew, working the boards, or even if you were the director, choreographer or literally anyone involved. You were a part of a family.
When a show began, there was immediately a countdown to the performance. Everyone looked forward to show weekend. It didn't matter if it was two weeks away or six months away, someone had a countdown to the second. We all looked forward to all the rehearsals too, just secretly. Outwardly, we all complained every day about rehearsal.
Rehearsal was four days a week (minimum), five hours a day (minimum) of nonstop singing, dancing and acting that happened whether the show was a musical or not. So you spent all day saying "Ugh, I don't wanna go to rehearsal today" just to show up and instantly smile the second you got there. As soon as you walked in, someone was already doing something to make you laugh, or running to hug you even though you just saw them at lunchtime.
You went through rehearsal working your ass off to get that one scene perfect, but goofing off during little breaks - and by breaks I mean when the director looked away for half a second or the one minute water breaks that turned into a half hour. You would make faces directed across the stage and hold back all of your laughter until the moment the director stopped the scene. Every rehearsal was fun, and if you were anything like me you stayed long after the end of rehearsal. You sat around for an extra 20 minutes (more like an hour) and talked about how rehearsal went, what needs to be done and how stressed you were about your life in general with the director, stage manager and whoever else stuck around.
When you finally got home, you texted your fellow cast members, who let's be honest, were your best friends about the show and how you were already dreading the next rehearsal. Rehearsals came and went until the dreaded tech week. Oh wait, did I say tech week? I meant hell week. Hell week is nothing less than actual hell. The second the final bell rang, you were in your auditorium ready to go for the next eight hours of nonstop work.
This was when everyone went into panic mode.
The stage manager was freaking out because now the director decided that he hated the color of the set and everything had to be repainted.
The light and sound guys are freaking out because honestly this is probably the first time you've seen them in months and they barely even know what the show is about.
The tech crew is freaking out mostly because the stage manager is freaking out, and that means lots of yelling.
The cast is freaking out because they preform in less than a week and, oh look, we found a scene that we never blocked or a dance we never choreographed. Awesome.
The choreographer and music director are freaking out because they just realized how much we didn't do earlier and how mad the director is going to be.
The director is freaking out because that is literally his job. I'm serious, do not ever try to calm your director. They will stress over everything and anything while never feeling an ounce of remorse, because when the show is pure perfection, you'll understand.
Honestly the only people not freaking out are the band because they can do whatever they want and we will just have to go with it.
So hell week kicks off and, if you are so insanely lucky, you make it completely through the show once before opening night. Props break (or are just nonexistent), costumes rip or are literally impossible to dance in, sets don't move the right way and will probably hit at least one cast member, and the director probably has at least three breakdowns. This is just day one. The rest of the week gets a little better too, all leading to the show weekend.
And believe me, show weekend was crazy. Call time was at least three hours before the show started but, if you were anything like me, you were there at least an hour before that. You probably actually got ready in about 45 minutes but spent the rest of the time dancing around the room, belting out whatever song came on and I swear it was never show tunes. It was normally some intense rap song that everyone could sing while doing their makeup. I swear this is an amazing thing to witness.
Warm ups were another thing. You did weird voice things that I could never do right and really you just pretended to do it until the musical director looked you right in the eye and you felt your soul freeze. The director than started his pre-show talk which always made you emotional right before you had to run on stage and smile like you weren't just crying.
I would love to say every show went off without a hitch but it never ever did. My experiences had a ton of mishaps that led to some of my favorite memories. We had people skip entire scenes which lead to the entire cast and crew being sent into a panic without a single person in the audience even realizing - well except the director of course. We had a missed phone ring sound cue which lead to an actress making the ring noise herself. We had the lights come up with a stage crew member still on stage who just stood there for a minute before smiling and walking off stage. We had a light board break the day of the show and had to do everything with just two dimmer switches. We had our lead get sick a week before the show and had a to replace her with an ensemble member. (Always have an understudy. We learned the hard way.) We had a whole mess of mistakes and struggles but we always ended up laughing about it.
After all that, it was time for the beloved post-show cast parties. These were truly indescribable. It was all the fun of a rehearsal, except we were finally done! I had to admit though, the parties did lack the screaming of our director, which we will always miss. Sometimes there were dance parties and other times we sat around the fire chatting away about anything on our mind.
So I titled this article "How High School Drama Club Changed My Life" but I haven't really told you how it did. I told you stories, memories of my time there. That's what changed my life, every moment I had there.
In drama club, I got to become someone I would never be for just one night. I once played a stripper, and it taught me more about myself than I could ever imagine.
In drama club, I was in shows that taught us life lessons. "12 Angry Jurors" taught me to look at all the facts. "Bye Bye Birdie" taught me to embrace my inner fan girl. "Romeo and Juliet" taught me that true love conquers all.
In drama club, I learned how much hard work actually pays off. I learned this when I took that first bow at the end of the show and the audience would rise to clap and cheer. Even if I was only in the ensemble, or just had one line, it was worth it.
In drama club, I felt joy, more joy than I have ever felt, and I can't always even pinpoint why I did.
In drama club, I found my soulmates. I graduated three years ago and I am still in constant contact with the people I met there. They are 100 percent my best friends and my everything.
At drama club, I was home. I found a place that I can always go back too, no matter how old I get. No matter what I am doing, I can go home to drama club. I can go home to a place that will always accept me.
In drama club, I found myself. Even though I eventually stopped preforming, I found who I truly am at drama club. Crazy, weird, loud, energetic, whatever I wanted to be because they accepted me. For the first time in my life, drama club had accepted every single part of me.
Drama club changed everything for me and I could never thank those involved enough.
