The show that the Theatre 3 class had put together was performed on Friday, January 17, 2025, with Leo Monroe, a senior at SRV, as the stage manager. This class wrote their script from scratch, did the blocking for the show, figured out costumes, and performed the show, all by themselves! The only people who helped them were Ms. Thirlwall and Jack Mitchell.
Sebastian Munday, who played Liam, explained what it was like to write a script from scratch with his classmates. He commented, “It was very challenging. It was one of those things where it’s so much easier to do a script when it’s split up with different groups because it is with the people you want, and this is something that is all together, so does that mean it being more challenging makes it worse? No. I think this was something that we definitely needed to do once in our life because we have some disagreements and having all of that makes us learn more on how to talk with people, especially for our future. So I think that this was something that was really good for ourselves and I think this was a really good experience.”
Their mentors that helped them through this all were Ms. Thirlwall, who is the theatre teacher here at SRV, and Jack Mitchell, a man who had mentored Ms. Thirlwall in college. He was a professional actor in the 80s and was on a television series. He has been in theatre education for over 30 years and he helped create and develop the California Theater Arts State Standards.
Sophia McGiffert, who played Maggie, stated, “It was honestly really cool to get another perspective from someone who has been teaching theater for a much longer time than Thirlwall, and hearing someone who has done it for longer and from someone who also mentored Ms. Thirlwall, to hear his perspective and to hear his advice about our show was honestly really helpful. It was honestly really cool to work with him.”
These actors had to work extremely hard in order to create a script that everyone agrees on, which was tremendously difficult considering that they are a group of people who each have their own different views and opinions. Another thing that is hard to do in acting is working to embody your character. In acting, it is not enough to learn the script and say the words, you have to become your character. This can be challenging for actors.
Although some actors have techniques to do this exact thing. Sophia McGiffert, a theater 3 student, commented, “To get into my character, or to develop my character, I try to see what my character’s day to day life would be. I try to differentiate from myself because personally, especially when I am writing a character, I try not to play myself because that is kind of boring. So I like to do things that are sometimes the opposite of my character, sometimes there are similar traits. When it comes to developing my character, I just like to think of, ‘what is her purpose for this show and what is she thinking?’”
This is just one example of some excellent techniques used by actors to get into character. Different actors use different techniques to be able to embody their character. Embodying a character means to become your character and to immerse yourself in your character. Instead of just reading the lines, you have to apply physicality and blocking, and you also have to say the dialogue in the way that your character would say it in order to create a good character and perform well. This can be extremely difficult for actors, but many have certain techniques and can become easier if they are taught well.
These students also had to interview someone older than them that they looked up to. They were given 10 interview questions, and after they interviewed their person, they had to choose one question that they would develop a monologue around. After writing the monologues, they had to create characters based off of the monologues and had to weave the stories together through lots of discussions as a class and figure out how the story and play would go. It took the class about two and a half months of work before they finally had a play and started rehearsing and performing.
Actors need all of the support that they can get, because without an audience, there would be no show. I interviewed a couple of students who had watched the theatre 3 show and asked them what they thought of it. Reid Abramowitz, a freshman who goes to SRV “thought it was very well written and that it was very impressive that they wrote it themselves,” Another student, Emily Mock, a freshman who is currently attending SRVHS, stated, “I thought the ideas were very creative, and it was sad with a lot of undermining themes, like it had a lot of different regrets and emotions with it,”
All of the student’s hard work had paid off, because the show was incredible and ran smoothly. They proved that it is possible to create an entire play from scratch in just a few months, and that is truly inspiring. To any aspiring actors out there, just know that it is not impossible. If you want to join theatre, but you are afraid of performing on stage in front of an audience, just know that you are not alone. Some of the actors in Theatre 3 have some advice for you.
Sebastian Munday, one of the actors in Theatre 3, says, “The firs
t 20 seconds being in front of people is scary but after that, it goes away. Being in front of the audience for a bit gives you comfort and that is what we need in life. We need comfort to express how we feel. When you get that feeling of comfort, then you’ll forget that the audience is there. When the audience is laughing and clapping, that gives comfort knowing that the audience loves your play and loves what you’re doing, so it’ll make you feel more comfortable, and the fear of being on the stage for that night is gone. Stage fright is annoying and doesn’t go away, but doing this process will help so much and if you don’t do the opportunity that is given to you, then you’ll regret it. It’s scary for a bit but it’ll be 100% worth it,”
Sophia McGiffert, another performer who contributed to the play, commented, “Honestly, just take it one step at a time. If you are someone who is new to theatre and really scared about performing in front of an audience, I think the best thing I could say to someone who is new to theatre is take it one step at a time. Maybe incorporate a little more people, like performing in front of family, or performing in front of friends and getting their feedback. Also, there are going to be tech rehearsals and there are sometimes going to be people watching there. So then it just gradually gets you there. And before a show – pre-show jitters are the worst – just take deep breaths, you got this, you are absolutely going to rock this show, whatever you are doing, and just give it your all,”
Theater can be frightening, and the thought of performing in front of people can make some people want to run and hide. But the theatre community is truly amazing. The friends you make and the support you have from your class makes everything worth it. Take it one step at a time and work your way up. It doesn’t matter who you are, or if everyone in the class enjoys your company. In the end, you are one big group who will support each other, at least on performance night, endlessly. It is an extremely special place where you can express yourself and be surrounded by people who have the same interest as you, and it is truly incredible.
