One Act Play: Pillowman - A Partial Success Story of Love, Lust, Drama and Triumph (part uno of deaux)

Since being unintentionally cast in Kennedy's speech program my freshman year (an experience I was initially not very pleased with), my passion for theater and drama has grown immensely. My first year at this lovely high school, my best friend Andrew Hanzelka dragged me to watch a practice for a group mime he had been enrolled in by the even more lovely Danny Yuska, strictly to spectate. However, when I got there it became apparent after some time that Andrew's fellow mime-r was not going to show up for practice that evening. I stepped in, just for one practice, to keep the natural flow of things... We made performing all-state that year, an incredibly distinct honor that I did not recognize the magnitude of at the time. The next year, I was cast as the supporting role in an ensemble acting, again with my friend Andrew, and again we made all-state. My first taste of spoken acting since being the lead in my 5th grade play was incredibly sweet, but I couldn't help but be unsatisfied with my role. I wanted to be a damn lead more than anything.

i get roughed up a lot.

This year, I got my opportunity. I was cast as the lead, Katurian Katurian, in a one-act adaptation of Martin McDonagh's Pillowman. I was absolutely ecstatic; upon reading the script I was euphoric. It was an absolutely fantastic piece and I already felt I knew exactly how I was going to play the character. And sooner than later, things got underway. Practices began, slowly at first, and we didn't have our lines memorized until the week before districts, but it began to come together beautifully. Sophomore Matt Larson, who played my mentally challenged brother incredibly tactfully and movingly, and I developed fantastic chemistry. Juniors Luke Gibbs and Jonah Heskje were phenomenal in their roles as detectives in the play's first scene. All I had to do was put it together myself.

It wasn't immediately easy. It was clear to my director, Mr. Hayes, who was so freaking great at what he did, that I was in my first lead role; though with new theater regime this year I had done my very best to avoid letting him discover this. I had to learn to speak more concisely, slow down my delivery, and really get myself comfortable. It didn't happen overnight, hell, it didn't happen for a while. I'm not even sure if Mr. Hayes thought we could put it together that night before districts, which is usually an incredibly shallow hurdle for most Kennedy speech events on the way to state. I wouldn't have been, we had been inconsistent at best, consistently mediocre at best. But it did come together, and at districts, in how often seems to be the case, we delivered our best performance to date. We received straight 1 ratings from the judges, not really an altogether impressive feat for districts, but encouraging none-the-less. We still had work to do.

TO BE CONTINUED, GOT-DAYUM.