“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.” If we take Shakespeare’s words to heart, all of us have acted at some point- whether it was making up a “genuine” excuse to fool a teacher or having pretended to be someone you’re not. Some of us act to entertain others.

The thespians bring to life characters that are either historical, contemporary, or fictional. We see them on stage, and they are often unrecognizable to us, because they’re so good at what they do. Why did they develop an interest in this art form, and how do they prepare to portray their characters?

Naomi Hays (9) started acting in elementary school and has continued to do so throughout middle school. This is her first year as a thespian in high school.

“I like acting because it makes me be able to be someone who I’m not and be able to interact with people in a different atmosphere in the real world,” Hays said.

Mikayla Aiken (11), started off with doing tech due to  the suggestion of her choir director.

“After doing tech I realized I wanted to try my hand at acting, and tried out for the musical the next year,” Aiken said. She added,“It’s nice to be able to escape being my normal self and be someone else. I also think it’s so much fun to be able to “live” through so many different experiences.”

On the surface, some may think that there doesn’t seem to be anything extremely tough about acting — after all, the performers make it seem so easy, great actors are doing their job well when the audience feels their performance is effortless

Aiken believes that it’s acting itself – or having to be someone that you’re not – that’s difficult. “Although it’s fun, it’s sometimes hard to play a character that is so much different from you.” she said.

Hays expressed that  the most difficult part of theater were the actual auditions,“You have people watching you sing to get a part, and you have to prepare a lot.”

Aiken and Hays both agreed on the fact that rehearsals were gruesome. “Typically we are here later and it’s a lot more stressful because we don’t have that much time to work on homework.” Aiken said.

“You redo a bunch of stuff and you get sick of songs or you get sick of scenes– but it’s not that bad,” Hays said.

The auditions may be an individual effort most of the time, but theatre itself evolves into a tight notch community.

“What’s really fun is that you become family,” Hays said.

For Aiken, the rush that she feels from performing makes it all worth it, “Acting in front of a live audience is invigorating. It gives you so much more energy than even the dress rehearsals. And, on top of that, it’s just so much more fun,” she said. “I used to have terrible stage fright when I first started acting, but now that I’m older and more experienced, I hardly experience stage fright anymore,” Aiken added.

There’s so much more than meets the eye when it comes to acting. Hours and hours of preparation (and fun) goes  into the making of Monarch school plays. They’re currently working on their next production – Annie. Come support the show when it is performed this Spring!