Audiences add to magic for Valley student performers

By Kyra Smith-Cullen ksmithcullen@dailyitem.com

There’s a difference between rehearsing and performing.

Several Valley musical directors and actors said that in the aftermath of the shows.

In both situations, actors are inhabiting a character, breaking into song and dance spontaneously — not something that’s likely to happen in day-to-day life. But ask any thespian and they’ll tell you: It’s different in front of an audience.

“The audience involvement in a live performance is a real gamechanger for the students on stage,” said Elizabeth Snow, Warrior Run High School musical director. “We rehearse all the scenes and songs and get used to no response, but when actual people are sitting in the seats and laugh at the jokes it’s really gratifying.”

The long hours of reading lines, the sore muscles from memorizing dance steps. When there’s somebody to direct this at, it completes the circuit of performance. The students aren’t doing it for themselves, though they definitely benefit as well. They’re doing it for the faces in the crowd staring up at them, seeing a show for the first time or seeing a favorite production done by a new cast.

“I loved hearing the laughs and interaction from the audience,” said Jonah Carney, the senior who played Sky Masterson in “Guys and Dolls” by Lewisburg Area High School. “It was very exciting to feel the audience’s energy after many rehearsals of running the show for a mostly empty house.”

The energy an audience provides is a vital one. For some actors, a single viewer can be a focal point — a

See AUDIENCES, Page 17