"All the World's a Stage!"

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven stages."

William Shakespeare
All the World's a Stage

"For all the tears you've made me shed, you'll prick you're finger on something pointy and fall down dead!"

Sleeping Beauty and the Beast

The Wicked Witch

I don't know how memorization is for everyone else, but for me it's pretty difficult. When you're trying to memorize some obscure Shakespeare, or Dickinson, or whatever else, you feel like you're memorizing gibberish. Monologues are tricky, too, because once you know it, you have to add in a character. You have to step out of yourself and into someone different.

Not that it's all as terrible as my first paragraph implies. Sometimes doing things just because they're difficult can be fun. You know, when you're doing it just to test yourself. Sometimes I'm kind of quiet around people I don't know very well. (Although around my friends I'm anything but quiet!) Theater is my opportunity to try to change that. I can pretend to be someone else and escape into their character. Anything that puts me out of my comfort zone helps, no matter how badly I do it!

Mimes, for instance, are definitely not my best area! You have to remember all the invisible things around you that you have to go around. You have to make it look real. In my mimes, I've accidentally created a revolving room, stuck my elbows through a solid surface, and forgotten to get dressed while getting ready for the day. Oops! It's embarrassing, but that embarrassment helps you remember what to work on the next time.

Even though I'm not a natural pro at acting like other people are, it's still something I like and enjoy trying to improve on. No matter how nervous I am, or how badly I mess up, I still keep trying. That's all that matters, right?