More About Theatre

Hello readers, my name is Juan Dunlap and I will be filling you in about various aspects of my college life as a freshman at Muskingum University. I hope you enjoy and happy reading!

Theatre has always been of great interest to me. I have studied acting at Oglebay Institute since second grade, and I have been cast in several roles including Shakespeare plays for the last three summers. I was and still am considering theatre as a minor concentration. When I toured the campus last winter, I was able to speak to someone in the theatre department. I visited the theatre and saw the costumes they would be using for the play. I was impressed by the building that housed the theatre. When the opportunity came to audition for the play Almost Maine, I jumped at the chance. I have a friend who attends here and she also auditioned for the play. We were both cast and we were both excited. I would be acting with people I had never known and with a director with whom I had never worked. I enjoyed every minute of the experience. Since I commute, practice did not start until 7:00 PM and would not end sometimes until 10:00 PM. I would stay on campus and use the time waiting for practice to start to complete my homework and study my lines. The director was very nice, was very talented, and had much experience as an actor himself. It was very enjoyable working with him and as usual, I learned much from him and the other actors as well. I have not been able to participate in many activities since I don’t live on campus, so this was a good experience for me to meet people here. There is much preparation involved to make a play successful and since I had been involved in acting, I was used to the rigorous schedules. Another reason I liked doing the play was the fact I was able to act with my friend in a different setting from what we had done at Oglebay. This was a new experience for both of us. Opening night is always exciting and the whole cast was absolutely thrilled to see such a large crowd in attendance. What made this really exciting was the fact our drama coach from Wheeling came to see us in the play. He was able to talk to the director and they exchanged many ideas. I found this experience to be rewarding, and I hope to audition for roles in the future. 

Well that's about all for this post. This blog will be updated rather regularly throughout the remainder of my Freshman year. See you next time!

Juan