Celebrating World Theatre Day by Being a Bratty Emperor and a Silly Goofy Teacher

Yesterday was a bit of a wild ride! Typically I spend Friday’s at one of my two Adopt-A-Schools teaching kids grades K-5. However, instead of going to AAS I had two surprise understudy moments! I got to spend the day with some of the acting apprentices on tour to two schools, putting on Emperor’s New Clothes and What 1776 Means to You and Me!

I got to play the role of the Emperor Nathanial the Nineteenth of Naradonia in Emperor’s New Clothes and Mr. Rush in What 1776 Means to You and Me. Going into them I felt a mixed bag - I had a ton of support from the actors and education office which was great but I’ve also never run either show before. I assistant directed Emperor’s and watched rehearsals for 1776 but I haven’t done much else with either show since January. But surprisigly they went well!! Emperor’s was defintely the stronger of the two shows for me which makes sense since I was involved a lot more in bringing that to life but I was pleasantly surprised that there weren’t any major hiccups. I think I came on late once in each show by like five seconds towards the end and forgot a laptop prop for one scene in 1776 but outside of that there weren’t any other issues. 

While I love teaching, performing is what got me into theatre so I had an absolute blast! I got to do what I love with my friends and that’s a really special feeling. And turns out it was also World Theatre Day too??? That was a crazy way to accidentally celebrate!