Fulfilling My Own Great Expectations

 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. 

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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.”