My Journey As An Understudy

My first real audition and journey through the production of EAT: It's Not About the Food.

EAT: It's Not About the Food

My audition for the play EAT: It's Not About the Food was my first real audition. It was for my school theatre program, Great Oak Theatre Company. The first day of auditions was hard. My monologue wasn't strong and I struggled looking directly at the directors and stage managers. However, they called me back in and gave me some pointers. They knew my potential and luckily they took a chance on me and let me re-audition.

After callbacks, the casting list came out. I had not made the play. It was disappointing, but I knew that it was my first auditions and that there were many more "no"s to come in my future. However, the next week Mr. Morrison (the director and drama teacher at Great Oak High School) came to my fifth period class, pulled me out, and asked me if I would like to be the understudy for the play EAT: It's Not About the Food.

I was so ecstatic to be a part of the production, I wanted to put my heart and soul into it. I used color coordinated highlighters to help organize the different actors and characters. Every single rehearsal, there was always someone missing and I was able to fill in for their roles. This was an amazing opportunity for me. I was able to learn many different styles to different types of characters and learn different techniques to acting. It helped me grow a lot as an actress.

A week before the production, the director informed me that they would have me perform as the lead character, Amy, for the Saturday's matinee. The character Amy was a teen girl that dealt with extreme anorexia. It was a hard character to play, I had only filled in for the role once and I had a week to memorize cues, lines, and to understand the true emotions of the character. It's a topic I had done research on for the play and I wanted to do it justice.

After my run through rehearsal, the director and co-directors were very impressed and claimed that I had a lot of strong work and scenes.

“After my performance in the matinee, the Director Mr. Morrison had called me out on stage and introduced me to the audience.”

After my performance in the matinee, the director Mr. Morrison had called me out on stage and introduced me to the audience. It was my favorite memory in my acting journey. I was able to see how far I have come from being a girl who had no idea what a monologue was in drama class to someone who had a newly-lit fire passion for acting.

I can't wait for more productions to be a part of, more monologues to learn, and many more inspiring people to meet. Being an understudy has been the greatest opportunity for me to learn and grow as an actress and I can't be more thankful for it.