Thursday, January 26, 2017

BALANCING THEATER AND SENIOR YEAR

By MATTHEW BARBOOKLES

MATTHEW BARBOOKLES FOR WIZARD WEEKLY

Senior year is a year that contains many different emotions.  Stress is one emotion that can  come about during senior year.  Applying to colleges, getting into the right college and obtaining the perfect SAT score are all things that add to a student’s stress level.  The stress of senior year can build up quite quickly especially when participating in one of the most strenuous after school activities in the school: The Masque and Mime Society.   This particular club here at the high school requires a very high level of commitment. Two seniors who can attest to this fact are David Mosca, who plays the role of Joey in this year’s musical, Sister Act, and Nicole Quinones, who plays the lead, Deloris Van Cartier. 

Theses two seniors know what it takes to handle the stress of school and Masque and Mime but  they were not prepared for the stress of senior year and Masque Mime. When asking David Mosca how hard it is balancing Masque and Mime with the stresses of being a senior he said, “To be totally honest, at first, it’s a bit overwhelming. You just think to yourself, this is three months of commitment I need to be loyal to and it gets pretty stressful at first. But you have to fight off those negative thoughts, because it will ruin your experience in Masque and Mime. After those first two weeks when you get to conquer the negativity, it gets a lot easier to balance everything. Just never doubt yourself and your ability to balance more than one thing in your life.”  

David’s actions are a clear example of how to fight through the stress and be successful. David was also asked if he was planning to continue theater in college and, if so, how different the stress levels might be.  He responded with, “I don’t plan on taking theater as either a minor or major during college, however, I will be participating in extracurricular theater programs for fun. I will always love theater and I would never leave it completely. As for stress levels, I have no idea what college will be like with juggling my schooling and performing, but if I can do it now in high school, I have full confidence in myself that I can do it in college.”

Nicole Quinones, the lead in Sister Act has a lot of pressure on her.  When Nicole was asked how difficult balancing senior year is while being the lead in the Musical she replied, “It is much more stressful this year than in the past year being that I have a huge role, but I try to balance as best I can. I got my college applications done fairly early so I would not have to worry about that added stress during the show. The stress can get to me sometimes, but all I have to do is breathe and push through it.  After that, I can relax.”

Balancing any extracurricular activity and school can be difficult for any student, no matter what the grade.  Come see how the students were able to pull it together for an amazing show!  The Masque Mime Society’s show Sister Act will be March 2nd-4th. Tickets are on sale now in the guidance office.     


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