Theater

When I was in high school, I was always in the band, and as an extension of that, I found myself in the pit during my high school's musicals, rather than up on stage. I could sing, and I could act, but I always found myself more drawn to the musicians in the theater. But suddenly, when I arrived at Dartmouth, something inside me clicked and I had a profound desire to be in the spotlight as an actor.

The theater program here is terrific, because there are ways to get involved on a variety of levels. If you have the time and the desire to commit yourself wholeheartedly, you can participate in one of our theater mainstage productions, which require several hours of rehearsal every day, and several performances every weekend for about a month. I was fortunate enough to land a spot in one of these plays during my sophomore year, and for ten weeks, I ate, slept, and breathed theater.

For those with less time to spare, you can easily get involved in one of the student directed (and often student-written) plays. These are pretty rehearsal heavy too, but require much fewer performance days.

In addition, you can also work on the crews of the various shows - on lighting, sound, or on stage crew. The best part is, you don't need any experience! The amazing tech people will teach you everything you need to know to be a certified backstage expert.

Some of my best memories at Dartmouth have come from a once-a-term experience we call WiRed!, which is a twenty four hour playwriting experience. Three pairs of playwrights and directors start writing a play at 8PM on Friday night, and it has to be finished by 7AM on Saturday morning, at which point the plays are cast. (The catch is, there are certain restrictions that are unique to that term - for example, when I wrote, my restriction was that we had to include a bucket of cheeseballs and a can of Tab soda.) They rehearse all day Saturday, and then perform at 8PM on Saturday night. I've written, as well as acted in plays, and while it's exhausting, it's definitely one of the most fun activities in which you can participate. And the best part is, it's less than a day of commitment!

This week, we have the 10 Minute Play Festival, which is where students submit plays that run no longer than ten minutes. Each play gets two 45 minute rehearsals, and then all the plays are performed together on one night. I'll be acting in this term's production, and I'm excited to see what other plays have been written!

Even if you've never acted, directed, written, or stage managed before, the Dartmouth theater program has some pretty amazing opportunities to get involved, even if you're not a Theater major (and in fact, most of the people who participate in the productions aren't).