BWW Blog: The Art of Acting

A little girl walks into an audition at the age of ten. She is quiet and timid. There are teenagers all around her. They are loud, rambunctious, and oozing with confidence. They have loud voices and bright smiles plastered across their faces as the director recites lines to each individual and then repeat from their own lips. When it's the little girl's turn to speak, her voice is small. Her personality is petite compared to the taller personalities towering over her. When the cast is announced, she waits anxiously wanting to impress her mother. A smile crosses her face when her name is called. She didn't know getting a role mattered until she realized how her name sounded as part of something bigger when called out amongst a list of others.

She felt a pulse of exhilaration and a rush of strength shoot through her body.
Up on that stage she grew up. She turned into one of the rambunctious teens that helped shape her first audition. She runs around the stage with passion and fire. She is wide eyed and all smiles when she takes a step onto center stage. The lights hit her face and she takes a minute to close her eyes. She can feel all eyes on her, ears eagerly awaiting a new turn in the plot, and a proud mother smiling through it all. The ability to be grounded in someone else's thoughts and feelings, always fascinated her beyond belief.

Even as she walks backstage, she can't help but feel an admiration towards everyone waiting to enter the stage. She grew up with the people around her, they have grown not only as people, but as actors. For just a moment she doesn't have to be confused about who she is, because on that stage she can be whoever she feels like. She can walk in someone else's shoes and have the ability to embody them completely without ever faltering.

After the show her hair is wild, her eyes are bloodshot, and her feet ache. Her stage makeup is smudged and she looks like a wreck, but she couldn't feel more on top of the world. She looks in the mirror to take off today's persona and smiles at herself. She remembers the little girl she used to be, shy and afraid to speak up. But now, there is nothing else she'd rather be doing than standing up on that stage, becoming real. Because once you have the ability to become someone else, you can finally start realizing who you are. Imagine that you're standing in a dark room and all of a sudden a spotlight flickers to life. It's shining directly on you. At first it's too bright-intense even-and you can't see a thing. But after your eyes finally adjust you see others around you. You join together to make a machine that functions both on and off stage. You become a family. No matter what kind of day you've had, it all slips away each time laughter spills from your lips.

At the end of the day you can't bare to stand on your own two feet for another second. Exhaustion takes over and all you want to do is collapse. But personally, I wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world.

Acting is a beautiful art; it has shaped me into the woman I am today. Thank you to every stage I have stepped upon and to the characters that have helped me cope with reality. And at the end of the day, I know that this is what I want to spend the rest of my life doing.

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