This semester at school, I decided that I would take an acting class. I figured it would be an easy A and that I would enjoy it as well. Theater kids are great, so I wasn’t too worried. I have to say, I completely underestimated how much I would enjoy the class. This was one of the greatest classes I have ever taken. The people in the class were so much fun to be around and interact with, the teacher was great, the exercises and performances were fun, and it created an environment where I actually wanted to get up and go to class every Monday and Wednesday. It’s something I would recommend to any college student.
Performances
We got to do multiple performances on stage during the course of the semester. The first was a personal statement, where we picked one thing we were really passionate about and talked about it on stage for five minutes. I chose to talk about cosplay, which everyone seemed to really like. One guy in the class came up to me afterwards and we talked about conventions and Persona. It was awesome. We also had to perform two monologues in the class, one dramatic and one comedic. I did a monologue from Buried Child for the dramatic and one from I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change for the comedic. There was also an observation exercise, in which we observed someone in a place we’ve never been to before and pretend to be them in class. We had an object exercise where we brought in an object in class in a bag, then had to take a random object and pretend that it was yours and be as convincing as possible. There was also a partner improve scene that I performed with the other Rebekah in class. My favorite performance was the Lip Sync, though. I chose to perform Sally’s Song from Nightmare Before Christmas, since my performance date was on Halloween. It seemed fitting.
There Is No Final
There isn’t a paper, final exam, test, or anything of the sort at the end of the semester. In our class, there was a final scene, in which we performed a scene between 3 and 5 minutes with a partner from any published play. My partner Carolle and I performed a scene from Traces Of Memory. It was a lot of fun. I got to play a badass named Phoebe who had recently killed the girl her boyfriend was sleeping with. Carolle played a woman named Ruth who just left her house burning to the ground with three kids and a dog tied up in the kitchen, watching a microwave containing a coffee cup full of gasoline. It was a fun time, and it was especially great considering that was our final, not some exam.
Theater Kids Are Great
Theater kids don’t give a fuck. They do not care if other people think they’re weird, they’re not afraid to make a scene, they make friends very easily, they’re extremely nice people, they’re welcome, they’re funny, they’re fun to be around, I could go on for days. I made some fantastic friends in that class. There was not a single person in the class that I disliked. Sadly, I am moving, so I can’t take acting 2 with the rest of them, so I’ll miss them dearly. I hope that I can keep in touch with them as time goes on and visit them when I come down to visit.
If this hasn’t already convinced you to go take acting, what are you thinking? If you have stage fright, this class will help. Memory problems? This class can help. Inexperienced? Well, the point of a class is to help you get good, so that’s an invalid excuse. I rest my case. Go take an acting class!
