Mini-Project #4: Someone Who Should Be Famous - Alissa Harris

In high school, I hung around with the people who would be classified as "theater nerds": the ones who walked through the halls singing show tunes, who practiced monologues months before auditions, and who viewed cast parties as the social events of the year. Although I never auditioned for any of my high school's productions (or anything else theatrical for that matter, I'm more of a behind-the-scenes gal) my friends always seemed to make up the bulk of the cast in all of the school shows. However, a lot of them went away to college and found new interests and although many of them still do the occasional show, only one of my friends is still actively involved in theater. Therefore, I thought that she's the most likely person I know to reach any level of fame (sadly, I don't know any aspiring musicians or people with weird talents) and I thought I would break this news to her.

A few weeks ago, I went to see my friend Emily in a production of 'The Robber Bridegroom' at her school, Villanova University. She's a theater major and I knew that she had been preparing for her role as Raven for a long time, putting her heart and soul into the role, even though it's not one of the meaty main roles of the show. As soon as she took the stage, you could tell that this role meant a lot to her: she transformed into her character wholeheartedly (which is kind of scary when you think about it, as she was portraying a big black bird) and gave her all to this fairly miniscule role. A lot of the actors who had bigger roles weren't nearly as dedicated as she was (some even forgot their lines!) and could be seen joking around with one another during intermission, whereas Emily was practicing her few lines by herself backstage.

She received a wild round of applause from the audience at curtain call as she happily flapped her faux-feathered wings in delight. Judging from her expression at that moment, I could tell that she adored the audience's reaction and that theater was her true calling and her passion in life. After the show, my friends and I waited around the exit for the cast to leave and we grabbed Emily and told her what we thought about the show, gushing over her performance and telling her how great her costume was, how she mastered her lines, and other heapings of praise. She was in a rush to get going, as it was the last night of the show's run and she had to get to the cast party, but I said I would call her the next day to talk about the show.

During our call, after chatting about the show and some mutual friends, I mentioned to Emily that I thought she should be famous. I told her how she seemed much more professional than a lot of the cast, that she nailed all of her lines, and how sometimes I couldn't even believe that it was her on stage, that's how convincing she was in her performance. Emily let out a girlish giggle and said that she thought I was joking, that surely her performance wasn't THAT good, especially because she only had a minor role. I responded by telling her that she could have a serious future in theater - or maybe even movies? - if she kept the same level of dedication and genuine interest toward acting. She knew that I was obviously flattering her at this point, but I had to explain to her how serious I was, how much I thought she would be the one person I knew to really hit the big time if she truly persued her dreams.

Emily laughed off the topic, saying that she was only a minor role in a school's amateur performance, and quickly started talking about some show we both watched on TV the night before. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't swerve the conversation back to Emily's impending fame, so I guess I'll never fully convince her that I think she'll be famous, unless she keeps getting bigger and bigger roles (what she views as 'fame').