When someone hears that I’m a student actor, the response is often something infantilizing, like, “Aw, that’s so cute! What else do you do?” The question always gets on my nerves because, truthfully, I do a lot. The moment people hear “theatre,” I’m suddenly reduced to someone playing dress-up for 20 hours a week.
So let me answer that question once and for all: what else do I do, and why does theatre remain such a constant in my life despite my increasing responsibilities each year?
In addition to theatre, I’m a full-time BFA Graphic Design student at UCF. With five remote classes this semester, my coursework already takes up a significant amount of my free time. Fortunately, I have incredible professors, and each course focuses on a subject that genuinely interests me, which makes the workload feel both engaging and rewarding.
You may be thinking, “Why all the remote courses? What are you doing with your days?”
I’m so glad you asked. I was a graphic design intern in UCF Athletics’ content department for the academic year, and I truly loved every moment of the experience. My last day was April 7, and I had the opportunity to present my final project to a room full of mentors and supervisors. It was terrifying, but incredibly rewarding.
On the days I’m not interning, I work as a graphic designer at a marketing agency. While exhausting, I remind myself that I’m going straight from doing what I love during the day to doing another thing I love at night, which makes the hustle feel worth it.
However, exhaustion has to be fixed somehow, and for the sake of transparency, I’m not fixing it with sleep. Getting more than three and a half hours lately has felt like a miracle. Instead, I recharge by being in the theatre, doing what I love with the people I love.
Certain moments in the theatre fuel me in a way that sleep just can’t. The first full dress, hair, and makeup rehearsal is when the show comes together for the first time. After rehearsing in leggings and sweatshirts each day, seeing myself as my character for the first time is a feeling like no other.
Everything is smooth sailing after that, and it becomes easier to leave who you are outside of the show behind and transform into someone else for a few hours. Yes, my eyes are still stained blue from eyeshadow, but I say it was worth it.
On the days we didn’t do a full dress, our incredible production team created spirit days to pique our engagement. The cast and crew get to dress in a different theme each day that we’re not required to be in costume. Some highlights include “Colors Wars,” “Dynamic Duos,” and “Pajama Day.” It cannot be understated that everyone is happier when dressed ridiculously.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, theatre kids are weird, but that is the best thing about us. When a bunch of weirdos get to be weird together, it’s lightning in a bottle. One such scenario involves Samantha Lambert, who plays SpongeBob in the Pineapple Theatre’s upcoming production of The SpongeBob Musical, getting stuck in a prop tire for three minutes.
The most rewarding part of the theatrical process is seeing the best people every single day. I could have one of the most nauseatingly terrible days and suddenly laugh hysterically in the backseat of my castmate’s Mazda in a Sonic parking lot. That’s the best part of these shows. They grow friendships beyond the theatre and make you want to spend more time together with your castmates, even if you just spent five hours straight singing gospel music about Patrick Star.
At the end of the day, being a student actor is exhausting, inconvenient, and sometimes a little weird. The grind requires you to balance classwork, jobs, rehearsals, and a faulty sleep schedule. However, it also brings laughter, friendship, and the opportunity to be part of something bigger than yourself. That is the controlled chaos of being a student actor, and I would not trade it for the world.