 Comedy of Errors sounds like a funny show, right? Well, let me tell you, it was not only funny, it was hilarious both on stage and off. The show is your typical Shakespeare with quite a few mix-ups where not one but two sets of twins get confused with each other and a whole lot of snarky remarks thrown in. I played the character of Luciana, whom we chose to portray as an airheaded, loosey-goosey, kind of stupid woman. As a way of portraying the idea of women from the 40’s/50’s who were not quite all there, we chose to move my voice up quite a few octaves. This was quite the struggle. I had to spend hours working on perfecting the voice I was going to use. Once show week rolled around, I was doing everything to protect my vocal cords. I don't think that I’ve ever consumed so much tea in one week. The show was a massive success, and I even had a few people come up to me after the show and ask if that was my real voice.
By Grey Etue My time as Pip in Great Expectations pushed me a lot and caused me to learn about myself. I faced many challenges along the way such as the daunting task of memorizing around 350 lines, realizing I was never going to come off stage, and “mastering” a quick change on stage. Before I was Pip I had only ever been in a comedic role and Pip being my second role I was very worried about not being able to live up to the challenge of the lead. Since Pip was a very dramatic role I made sure to work on showing emotion in different ways on stage. One of the hardest things to do for me when it comes to acting is making myself feel the character. I usually just interact with my emotions as opposed to being the character and feeling them in the moment. So having to interact with Pip and feel those emotions was very scary to me. While being encouraged by my fellow cast members I pushed forward and gained more confidence in my ability, and as time went on and started to feel more in tune with Pip.  My favorite scene of the play was the final one, All of the characters in the play gather around me and say quotable lines from the play that forged my character. It gave me chills the first time reading it in the script and I worked very hard to make sure I could find the perfect way to deliver the final line and it was one I struggled with the entire process even during the other shows. The final show I spent the entire time thinking about this line and how I was going to end it all the way Pip would truly want it ended. My go to in the past had always been to try to say it in a way that conveys sadness over all the things that he had done. But in that moment as I got up to deliver the line that final time I felt like I got it right. I lifted my head up and with real tears and my eyes delivered the line closing it all, “Great Expectations.”
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AuthorWe are the drama class of the Shanan Co-op in Franklin, TN. Archives
December 2023
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