Change a Life

Something often said by the theatre teacher at Hillcrest!! Posted RIGHT above the door when you leave the room "Go Change a Life" but COME ON. No one's life is ACTUALLY going to be changed by theatre! Well actually mine was, and IS! Once upon a time I was a fairly shy fifth grader and I went to Hillcrest to see "Bye Bye Birdie!" It was my first musical! I was enthrawled. Seriously. I remember I was sitting on the right side of the balcony, sitting there and wishing that I could be one of those dancers! I wanted TO SING, and to DANCE, and TO ACT more than anything. I said "when I come to Hillcrest, I WILL do this!"

As a sixth grader I saw "West Side Story" at Hillcrest and I knew I simply HAD to do theatre!

When we were signing up for our classes at Midvale I was SO nervous about singing up for classes, how was I suppossed to know what I wanted to choose!? I was THINKING about taking dance, but I just wasn't sure that that was something I wanted to get into, and my dad told me that I should pray about it! So I prayed about it and I just kind of felt like I wasn't getting an answer, so maybe it was simply up to me to decide! But I still kind of felt uneasy about my decision to take dance still! And RIGHT before I turned in my papers... I suddenly had an impression that made me decide to switch to theatre! (which was VERY bold because no one in my family had taken theatre)

I took beginning and intermediate theatre in seventh grade, and while the classes weren't like the BEST things in the world they made me MUCH less shy!
BECAUSE I took theatre I felt like I wanted to try out for Minstrels!
I started going to productions at Hillcrest thanks to Jessica and LOVING every second of it! I seriously think I went to Beauty and the Beast four times and I loved it EVERY time! BECAUSE I took theatre I decided that I wanted to take voice lessons, and so many other things!
It absolutely molded me into a new person!

Then, I decided this year to TRANSFER out of CIS1020 and take a theatre class at Hillcrest, and OH boy has it been incredible. I'm SO glad I did. HONESTLY. GOOD CHOICE! The first day I was in their I was frightened of my mind! Mr. Long knew my sister, a lot. And my sister wsa SO good at acting! I was very afraid because of her reputation! I was so scared I would be the weak link in his mind! But I did my first monologue, and my first scene, and my first SHAKESPEARE monologue, and now my first romantic scene, and it has stretched me like no other. HONESTLY.
My first monologue I thought I was going to die, I was SURE I couldn't do it.
My first scene I was ALSO apprehensive about because I had to work with other people.
When I got my Shakespeare monologue, I was ABSOLUTELY sure it was beyond my capacity to perform it. He read us a list of monologues, and told us to cross of ones we didn't want. That was the only monologue I crossed of my list! I did NOT want it!
Then when Mr. Long explained the scenes and I heard about "Dark of the Moon". I seriously thought "I am SO glad I'm not going to get this scene! I would NEVER be able to do it!" But, that was the one Mr. Long cast me to be in. I have spent a LOT of time dreading performing it, and while I haven't performed my final, even just getting up the guts to perform it once, and to try. Has stretched me. This scene I thought I WOULD NOT BE able to do, more than i thought I couldn't be Lady Macbeth.

And honestly, I can say, theatre has
Changed my Life. And I love it so much.