A flurry of makeup, pep talks, and frantic line-reviewing. Air saturated with the stench of hairspray. Personal pre show rituals complete with chanting and hand movements. Visiting the Eagle Ridge Drama Club backstage as they prepared for their production of of Twelve Angry Jurors was a foray into the artistic world of theatre.
For many actors, the time just before the show represents the culmination of all the hard work and effort that’s been put into the performance. It is a journey to find the theatre persona.
“The time right before the show is the peak of my energy,” sophomore Muthu Meenakshisundaram, who played Juror 8, said as junior Samantha Erickson finished his makeup. “It’s the peak of my energy and happiness. I love acting, I love performing a character, I love being onstage, and I love doing it with this group of people.”
“I’m really happy to be in this area,” junior Tom Dugeon said, who played the foreman.
Despite high spirits, nerves still played a big role, even for veteran actors.
“There’re always nerves,” Tom said. “Onstage, offstage, first performance, last performance. Once you get out there though, it’s so much fun that you almost don’t notice.”
For many performers, pre-show feelings seemed to follow a consistent schedule.
“I don’t feel nervous until five or ten minutes before we go onstage,” junior Shea Kulus, who played Juror 4, said.
Senior Gillian Herbert has acted in seven Eagle Ridge plays. Her nerves also follow a regular routine.
“Currently, I feel nothing,” she said. “It’s like all my emotions have just drained out my feet. Then, I’ll get backstage, and the lights’ll start to dim, and I’ll feel full blown panic like I’m about to give my speech for President of the United States, and I feel like I’m going to actually just melt.
“Then, I walk on stage, and I feel perfect,” she said. “Every time.”
“Nerves aren’t like ‘oh no what if I mess up.’ They’re more like ‘I want to do a good job.’ I’m nervous, but it’s my body’s way of pumping me up,” she said. “Within that, you find your theatre persona.”
When she’s playing a character, Gillian goes beyond memorizing lines, and tries to speak as if she herself is her character at that moment in time.
“I try not to think of them as lines,” she said. “I just exist with them so I’m living in the moment. It’s not my character speaking; I am speaking.
“Me and my character need to mesh. I’m not playing number 3, I am number 3. That’s how I think about it,” she explained.
Finding a theatre persona is a personal journey that all actors must take before a performance. For some, the journey is simply reviewing lines. For others, like Gillian, it involves a carefully-scheduled physiological routine that prepares her for a performance.
“This is the Magnum Opus of my work as an actor here,” Muthu said. “I’m really proud to present it.”