"The Rare Opportunity"

With our first weekend of performances over, I could not be any prouder of my fellow cast and crew members. Being one of the oldest in the cast, seeing the younger people learn more and more throughout the rehearsal process has been amazing. With such a wide variety of ages, different members of our ensemble have learned different things. I, a 15 year old, discovered completely different things than what an 11 year old discovered. This doesn't mean that our acting skill depends on age - because it truly does not; it's simply that, for certain ages, it's easier to see certain things. For example, when I was 11, acting with honesty really wasn't a well-known concept for me. Now, being four years older, acting with honesty is an extremely important factor of performing. As we continue with theater, this concept of "honesty" is drilled into our heads. Though "honest acting" sounds like an oxymoron, it begins to make perfect sense as you experience and learn more about it. Instead of putting on your "acting face" and *telling* people a story, you must become a part of, and wrap yourself up in, the story you want to *show* the audience. With "Honk!", being based off the well-known story "The Ugly Duckling", it's easy to just tell the story. Since everyone already knows the plot, where's the need to be honest? In a way, because everyone knows the story, it gives us a reason to be honest on stage. It gives us the rare opportunity to *show* an audience a new version of a classic tale.

"Honk!" has definitely had a different rehersal process than what the other musicals at STC has had. This Summer, we have truly been closer as an ensemble throughout the whole process. Rehearsals were almost always with the whole cast there and we very rarely got split into different groups. This definitely made for a closer ensemble. Unlike other productions, we were asked to have our lines completely memorized earlier on in the process. This gave us much more time to block and become more comfortable with our scenes, letting us be more confident in giving our audience honest, thought through performances.

With every performance, we improve and continue to explore our surroundings, making us stronger as an ensemble


Morgan Reetz
(Ida)