While pondering a topic for this week's article, I was sitting at dinner with my friends. Suddenly, I heard the all familiar words to "Master of the House": a well known song of a popular musical known as Les Miserables (small note, it was a miniature sing-along). An idea popped into my head instantly: explaining the highlight of my summer and how it has prepared me for school in many ways. Yes, I'm talking about my time in the cast of Les Miserables, because if you had told me earlier in the year that I would be in a summer theatre production of "Les Miserables: School Edition" playing Enjolras, I would be calling you insane.
For my non-theatre friends: Les Mis is an opera-esque musical that is three hours of straight singing. Quoting the all reliable Wikipedia: "Set in early 19th-century France, it is the story of Jean Valjean, a French peasant, and his quest for redemption after serving nineteen years in jail for having stolen a loaf of bread for his sister's starving child. Valjean decides to break his parole and start his life anew after a kindly bishop inspires him by a tremendous act of mercy, but he is relentlessly tracked down by a police inspector named Javert. Along the way, Valjean and a slew of characters are swept into a revolutionary period in France, where a group of young idealists make their last stand at a street barricade." Sounds pretty intense right? Yep, I was a part of this cast.
Earlier in the summer, before I left for Marist, I was literally at the mercy of time. I had no plans, and no worries yet that worried me as I hated being idle. Earlier in the year, I had heard that the West Haven Council on the Arts was putting Les Mis on in our town. Originally, knowing the extreme difficulty of the show, I pondered how the hell it would be pulled off. And so, I didn't audition for it. A few weeks after the audition, I get a text from a young lady (who would have eventually play Eponine) that a part needed to be filled. She told me that I was going to play Enjolras (apparently he had a bigger part than Fantine). I was hesitant, but I went anyways.
As soon as I walked in, many of my friends I have made over the years were in the cast. A young man to my left was a boy I grew up and we both became Eagle Scouts. To my right was a young girl who was a good friend of mine in middle school. Around me were my classmates, and in front of me were young children and other teens I had never met. I felt, in a sense, welcomed. Even the director (who I have known for years) was welcoming to me. I fit in in a matter of five seconds.
As the weeks went by, I learned how to adapt. I learned how to transform a military style teen into my own operatic style without killing my voice. I also learned a second part in the greedy Thenardier as we were left without one for a few weeks. As an actor, it's very hard to be an understudy after becoming accustomed to one role to pick up another one rather quickly.
The night of the show made me feel confident in front of a big audience with a larger role. I never performed in front of a large crowd with a solo role. Yes, I've done solos in front of crowds, but never done a large role before. On top of that, we were in pouring rain waiting for a rain delay to let up. My anxiety built up immensely. Plus, I had my best friends who traveled an hour to come on both nights. I got nervous. When I got out on stage, my fear let up. I channeled the character and executed "Red and Black" nearly perfectly. I gave it all up until my death on stage (I also learned that banisters hurt, and moving to get comfortable looks awkward from the audience).
The question still remains: what has this production done to prepare me for college? Simply: it gave me skills that I took to college. I learned how to analyze and make a character my own. I learned how to be more comfortable on the stage. I also developed better public speaking skills through memorizing the songs as if it was a monologue or a speech.
To all of my cast who read this: thank you for allowing me to share this time with you guys. It truly means a lot that I got to work with you guys (even though this article is coming out late October and the show ended early August). To my non-theatre friends, I encourage you guys to read this and take away that theater is a wonderful program and all should at least try it.
