Additional ACTS shows give students opportunity to shine

photo by Sarah Haynes Students rehearse for their upcoming play. For the first time, ACTS decided to produce three shows rather than the usual two.

Traditionally, ACTS Drama has only had two shows for high school students, but this year, a new show has been added. This third show gives all students enrolled in the class an opportunity to perform and discover their creative sides through acting. The shows are scheduled for November, January and March, giving students multiple events to look forward to.

“ACTS Drama Club has grown to about 60 high school students, and has maintained this number for a few years,” ACTS advisor Mrs. Meredith Cloud said. 

The ACTS program has always been popular, but has grown in popularity over the past few years. Many students enjoy displaying their talents by participating in shows and portraying their characters with a personal twist. 

“We have a huge range of talented actors, singers and dancers, and we always want to give each student a well-suited role,” Mrs. Cloud said.

Mrs. Cloud and Mrs. Jamey Wood, the Academic Dean, Business Officer and ACTS sponsor, both feel that casting the shows every year is like finding the pieces to one puzzle, and finding the correct place for each piece. They agreed that it was tougher this year. 

 “The decision to add more shows is really exciting to me,” senior Bronwyn Becker said. “I think that, even though it will be a little more stressful and there will be a little more pressure, it will be completely worth it to have the extra creativity and fun of the three shows.” 

This new decision has given students a better opportunity to explore their talents and learn more about who they are through the character they perform. It will benefit the students who want to learn more about themselves by giving them more chances to find a character who fits them and their acting style.

“We had so many people interested in being in drama that the number one reason we added the third show was to give more performance opportunities to the students,” Mrs. Wood said.

Mrs. Wood finds preparing the students for three shows difficult because the preparations for the shows overlap. 

“I think that the life skills that you learn in theater are super helpful,” Mrs. Wood said. “You learn to produce something together and to problem solve, because things go wrong sometimes in a show, and so you learn how to quickly come up with solutions and work it out.”  

Mrs. Wood thinks that an important skill that students learn is empathy because they look at life from another perspective in order to portray their character.

“There are different types of shows that people would want to be in, because there’s ‘12 Angry Jurors,’ there’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Little Women,’” sophomore Daniel Loudermilk said. “These are all different types of shows, so if someone doesn’t want to be in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ or ‘Little Women,’ they could audition for ‘12 Angry Jurors.’”