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by Veronica Hayward-Mildish
“I started theatre because my older sister did it, and I just fell into it,” says senior Chaia Liebowitz, “but I fell in love with being able to entertain people and make them smile.”
This tends to be the case with actors. They start off just as another fun thing to do, but they fall in love with everything that comes with putting on a show.
“I like the community that comes with theatre,” says Leibowitz. “Everyone has something in common, and they are able to come together.”
The seventh graders and seniors have found a community within theatre, whether it is a group of friends or the cast. The actors have formed unbreakable bonds.
“I really like performing, but also I love the community,” says Morgan Weatherbee a seventh grader. “We really get to connect and fool around a lot.”
Students at Quinn Middle School worked on their school musical, The Lion King, for three months. They stayed after school up to four days a week, spending time working on the show, and with each other.
“It’s a long process. First we do our audition, then we learn our parts, then we learn what we do, we learn the songs and stuff, the dances and the choreography. It’s long,” says Weatherbee.
Everyone in the cast shows great enthusiasm when asked about the show.
“It’s really long, but it’s worth it,” says seventh grader Caitlyn Gogan. “It makes me so happy and proud.”
Seventh grader Ashley Bryan has been doing theatre for three years, starting in fifth grade as the Statue of Liberty in School House Rock, Jr.
“I’ll continue theatre at school,” says Bryan. “I’ll maybe look for stuff beyond that. That probably won’t happen, but I’d like that.”
While Gogan, Wetherbee, Bryan and their castmates are starting their high school careers soon, senior Katie Moran is ending hers, six years after starting in a similar position.
Senior Katie Moran has been doing theatre for about six years, starting in seventh grade as the pond in Aesop’s Oh So Slightly Updated Fables.
Similar to Bryan, Moran is also hoping to get on Broadway; this will most likely come sooner for her.
Moran has done about 40 shows so far, doing work both on stage and off. She will major in acting at Dean starting this fall, while also taking classes in writing, design, and directing.
“I think it’s really fun, and it can be really stressful,” says Moran about the process of putting on a show. “It’s just a roller coaster of emotions to go through.”
Leibowitz has performed in about 20 shows, doing shows in school and in community theatres. Her first role was in second grade, as a Lost Boy in Peter Pan.
Similar to Moran and Bryan, her goal is also Broadway, but if that doesn’t work out she plans to open her own theatre company.
“I keep doing theatre because I want to be able to tell others’ stories and inspire other people to do so as well,” says Leibowitz.
For some actors theatre has provided much more than they ever expected.
“It started as just a fun thing,” says Moran, “but it has become an escape for me, and I find it to be really fun, and it’s a way for me to express my creativity in multiple different ways.”
But overall the actors found a joy in theatre that they weren’t able to find anywhere else. Theatre is where people of different ages, backgrounds, and everything else are able to come together and get a similar experience out of it. Theatre is a fun thing anyone can do.
“I keep doing theatre because I’ve got a passion for it that I haven’t found in anything else,” says Moran. “It brings me so much joy, no matter what part I’m doing for a show, and nothing else has really had that effect on me.”
