The Thespian Within

I recently watched this show on MTV called Made. This show focuses on some young person whose has some aspiration of some kind. They undergo intensive training for their prospective career aspiration. I have seen episodes about girls wanting to become a cheerleader, some wanting to become a model and one who wanted to become an actress.

The episode about the latter really appealed to me. When I was in high school in my senior year, I took this Drama class. Drama and acting were things that greatly appealed to me. I had extremely remote and nonrealistic goals of becoming an actor or something like it. My favorite part about the class was on Fridays where we would do some improvisation. The entire class had to participate and it would have to create our own ideas for an improv scene and then we would put them into a box. My teacher would ask for a volunteer and they would pick an arbitrary scene (something to play out) from the box. Some of the kids in the class had real talent and some had none whatsoever. I guess I held the middle ground the talented and the non-talented. I knew that inside that I could really display some talent but I held back too much. In February of the semester, it was black history month. My teacher decided that it would be interesting to put on a show about black history and Martin Luther King Jr. To make a long account, short, me and this other guy had contentions for the lead actor who would play Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After some mini-competitions, the class decided that the other guy would be the best pick. They picked this other guy not because I wasn’t qualified but because I messed up intentionally. Instead of taking any major acting part in the play, I was appointed lighting and assistant director. Taking the director’s seat was interesting to see how a production works but I really wanted to be involved in the actually acting process. If only, I had actually tried, I could have done something I’ve never done before: become an actor, although of fame and rep as a Broadway thespian.

Acting is not the easiest thing in the world. It involves three main drives: Motivation, Desire, and Confidence. It also involves showing emotional empathy, that is, putting your self in someone else's shoes. It requires getting to know a character inside and out; What they like, what they hate, what their mannerisms are, how they respond to certain things, etc. To act like a person is easy, but to truly know a person is more of a challenge. I believed that I lack one of those main drives namely confidence.

So why I am writing about this very topic today? Well, because I saw some potential talent in myself and I failed to capitalize. Now, I will never know if I could have become what I so wanted to become. However, I have gained directorial experience as an assistant director; managing a production of any kind requires "special" people. I consider myself very special at times.

My daily advice to those who are in high school or college: If you ever have the chance to perform in the school play, don’t hold back. Perform like no one’s watching.