The Show Must Go On
Ever since I was a little kid, I knew that my calling was to perform. The first show I ever did was The Wizard Of Oz with Theatre Arts For Kids. I was cast as the Mayor of Munchkin City and Nikko the monkey.
Fast forward a few years when we were starting rehearsals for the Beauty & The Beast with Theatre Arts For Kids. I was cast in the role of Belle. I was so happy that I could have cried when I found out I had earned this role. I was living every little girls’ dream - to be a Disney princess. At the beginning of March, the whole first act of the show was staged and choreographed and in my opinion, it was pretty solid. The second act however was not. This was completely fine at this point because we had a whole month to complete the show, or so we thought.
Thursday, March 12, 2020, I got a text at school. It was from our Director, Leah Kolar. It said, “We were moving the show up a month." We would perform Beauty & The Beast that weekend! When my mom picked me up, she filled me in on all the details of why this was happening. Leah, being the smart woman that she is, knew that if the schools shut down, there would be no way that we could do our performance in April. Leah decided to try and do the show THAT weekend and what came next was an experience you only get once in a lifetime.
That weekend consisted of two rehearsals, one on Thursday for three hours and the other on Friday for twelve hours and then performances on Saturday. I woke up on Saturday morning and could hardly believe that I was going to go on stage as Belle that day. I was super excited and couldn’t wait to get to the theatre.
After that day, I had a chance to reflect on the whole experience. It truly taught me so many lessons that I will take with me for the rest of my life. COVID - 19 may be a tough thing that everyone in the world is enduring right now but we all need to find the light in the challenges it brings. Everyone in that theatre gave it their all which made the show as amazing as it could have been. I will always remember this experience and the lessons it taught me.
