It’s A Balancing Act

By Katie Michel

Being in a play that takes exorbitant amounts of your time every day can get a little tough, especially here at CCA. With the four by four schedule and being at school until seven or nine every day makes it hard to keep up with your school work…and sleep. You make think, “Oh it’s just a play, there isn’t any physical activity, you shouldn’t be that tired.” But really, it’s more exhausting than you would think. Being at school from eight in the morning until nine at night takes a lot out of you. That’s thirteen hours spent at school. Half they day is the schoolwork that some may dread every day, and then you have the grueling hours of rehearsal where you repeat the same thing over and over again until it’s right. That drains you mentally, physically, and in general just takes that spark of energy out of your body.

Don’t get me wrong, just because I’m awake during the night doesn’t mean  I’m not enjoying myself. Yes, it gets stressful and there are times where I just want to hide and pretend that school doesn’t exist.  However, being in a play is a really fun experience, especially when I get to hang out with my fellow cast in the Rimers of Eldritch. My director is nice, the cast is energetic and fun to be around, the tech crew is devoted to making the play run smoothly, and we are all working together to make these shows go off without a hitch. We are all exhausted, we are all stressed, and we all have a ton of homework. But we work through it and try to make the best out of the opportunity we have.

We have put our whole bodies, minds, and time into this production…and it shows. Within one week we had to people pass out! One right on stage and one backstage. It’s either exhaustion or dehydration, but either way our tech crew and director are shoving bottles of water down our throats or trying to get  us to get some sleep. Each one of us drinks probably as much water as a classroom would in one day.

Whether it be passing out, falling asleep backstage, being stressed beyond repair, or doing our homework in every moment of our free time, we love what we do. We love our show, our cast, and we’ve become a family . We have put every ounce of our being into this production and it paid off. Our opening night went amazingly and receieved positive feedback, and the show runs till next Saturday so all should come attend!