Death and Doom (Title inspired by a friend)

143. First experiences can be defining. Cite a first experience that you have had and explain its impact on you. (University of Pennsylvania)

I’ve acted in plays before.
I’ve sung in choirs before.
I’ve danced on stage before.
Never in my life had I done all three together, until the day I decided that I didn’t want to audition for Brigadoon – our fall production. I had decided on signing up for the stage crew or props crew, and told myself I would audition next year or next semester when I was better adjusted to the school. That is when my all-time-favorite friends came into the picture. Both sat by either side of me and, with various different points, worked at persuading me to try out. I was adamant at first, saying, “I have too much on my plate already” or “I can’t dance anyway, so what’s the point?” They probably didn’t hear a word I said and tried to convince me by saying that there was no harm in trying. So I changed my mind and decided to try out just for the sake of having the satisfaction of having tried. I never thought I would get in, and never even in my craziest dreams did I imagine I would be one of the dancing girls (JPUGs).

Then again, the world has a wonderful way of coming up from behind you and biting you in the rear end. So, of course, I was picked and was officially part of the production. I was under contract not to skip any rehearsals nor break any bones. If I died, the director would have probably done worse things to my soul for letting down the production. I pretty much signed my soul away to the devil. None of us got a good night’s sleep for the following three months until the end of our 6 performances. After that, we all got even less sleep because we had so much work to catch up on.

Now that I’ve said all I can to mock the production, I can’t bear it anymore. I can’t continue talking about it without saying every positive word I could possibly think of. I can’t sit here and not compliment the efforts and the success of the most extensive team I have ever worked with. Brigadoon took over the entire school whether they were part of the cast, crew, orchestra, prop crew, house crew, costume crew, hair & make-up crew, A.V. crew, or even just the audience. People ranging from 12 to 50+ were helping out and we were all out to be as perfect and as professional as we possibly could.

Being a part of the production was the best thing I’ve ever done or experienced. I never have had that much fun or worked that hard on one thing for 3 straight months. Food and sleep have always been top priority to me, but they all became lower down than Brigadoon because that is just how much it meant to all of us. It was by far the most professional theatre experience I have had so far and I now I can’t stop wanting more.