BWW Blog: Diana Sanchez - How I Came to Be Involved in Theatre

My freshman year of high school was the first time I heard about my school's theatre department. I thought it sounded like the coolest thing ever, and I really wanted to get involved.The only problem was, I'd never done anything theatre related before, so I was afraid I wouldn't be good enough just to join the club. So instead of joining, I signed up for my school's intro to drama class and hoped that I would get in. The whole year passed by, and nothing. Skip forward to next year: my sophomore year. Again, as I looked on my schedule for the year, I noticed that I had not gotten into the intro to drama class. At this point, I was accepting that i wasn't going to be involved in the theatre department, and I was okay with that. Mainly because even though I wanted to be involved, acting terrified me. For some reason, imagining myself on stage acting was something that I dreamed of doing, even though it also frightened me at the same time.

As I was beginning to forget about theatre, October came around and I heard that they were doing a haunted house. I decided this was the first step and I helped out with the haunted house. Then in January, my friend convinced me to take a duo comedic acting piece with her to regionals. I was absolutely terrified. I hadn't been in any show, and I hadn't been in an acting class. What made me qualified to compete? Despite this doubt, my friend and I rehearsed countless times and went to regionals. This was really a turning point in my love theatre. When we first performed our piece, I got a rush of excitement and nerves all at the same time. We got through our performance, and I felt such a jolt of happiness that after so long, I had finally performed. Not only that, but everyone was extremely supportive. I've learned that the people in the theatre community are such honest, kind, funny, and awesome people.

After this, I became much more involved in my school's theatre department. From being involved the entire school year, to becoming our troupes president, theatre is what I have committed my time to. Theatre has become the reason that on those very tiring days, I still look forward to school. Even on those days where I have loads of homework, I look forward to those three hour rehearsals. I have made some of my favorite memories during rehearsals. Theatre is something that has become my passion, it's important to me. Of course it's taught me how to become a better actor, but it's also taught me so many life lessons that I wouldn't have learned anywhere else. It's taught me how to work as a unit with those around me. It's taught me how to commit and put all of my efforts into everything that I do. It's taught me how to tell a story and while showing someone else's emotions, how to connect with people that come to see this story. Theatre has given me a second family, I've created close relationships that I'll keep with me forever.

I have now become one of those theatre nerds that reference musicals everyday, and love breaking out into random musical theatre songs with other theatre kids anywhere, at anytime. I've traded in books for plays, and bands for musicals. Theatre has become a major part of my life. I hope to continue my theatre career after high school, and do theatre in college. Possibly even major in theatre or theatre education. Who knows, because there's a million things I haven't done, but just you wait...

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