Written by Niya Cyrus
Imagine blinding lights and feeling like there is nothing more than you and the stage that you are standing on.
“When I’m on stage, I can’t see the audience because of the lights, and [I] have the impression of being enveloped in them,” says Olenka Wellisz ‘17. “I feel as though I’m standing on the edge of the universe with the universe ending with the stage, and I hear small coughs, creaks, and the sounds of paper rustling more than anything because of all the programs in the audience and scripts backstage whose pages are being turned.”
Ever since her fifth grade audition for A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Stone Ridge Drama Director Mrs. Sandra Blakeslee, Wellisz, who says she finds her greatest strengths as an actress playing characters from Shakespeare, says she “fell in love” with the stage and acting.
“For better or worse, it worked,” she says, “And I have been trapped in the Stone Ridge Drama void ever since.”
For freshman Carrie Goeke-Morey, it’s a different story. There wasn’t anything that really sparked her interest in theater life.
“I’ve always had a pretty ‘out-there’ personality, so acting was sort of a natural progression of my character, I guess,” says Goeke-Morey. “It is my favorite thing to do: being on stage and becoming someone else. Even when I get nervous, which is most times I perform, it’s pure fun.”
Dolores Robinson is a senior at Stone Ridge, and she started acting when she was young. She and her little brother would perform plays for their family on Sundays.
“I continued acting because it was one of the few things that I loved and stuck with growing up. I live in a house that is dominated by sports and felt the need to differentiate myself from my family,” says Robinson. “Theater was my favorite way to do so. It also helped that I went to a five week theater camp for five summers at Howard University.”
Junior Ali DiZinno has been in the SR drama program for three years and has been loving it ever since, especially the “amazing and loving community” she’s found there.
“The main reason I continue acting is because I love working on the shows with my friends and new people every year. There’s not a day in the theater when I’m not having a ton of fun,” DiZinno says. “I think the reason I love acting so much is because I get to bring characters to life and put my own spin on them.”
Kendall Wienecke ‘20, enjoys being on stage as an actress and being behind the scenes as a makeup artist for SR productions. She says she enjoys helping people fit the role of their character. The fall play, Radium Girls, was Wienecke’s first time doing makeup for the SR drama department.
Wienecke says she knew that “FX and character makeup could be an extension of [her] love of acting.”
Freshman Lou Johnson is also new to the Stone Ridge stage. She says she started acting at age 10, but was a little discouraged when she got a small part.
“But when I got to high school, I figured why not?” Johnston said. “I ended up getting some pretty good roles, which I was happy about.
Johnston says she loves being on stage and performing for people.
“I love knowing that it’s making them happy and that I can do something that they enjoy,” she said.
Sophomore Emily Kaminski, who was unable to work on Radium Girls but has been part of the acting community at Stone Ridge for about a year, says that acting and theater life have always been a part of her life since she was a little girl. She began her acting at a young age and has been invested from the start.
“I have been acting since I was young, but I was first exposed to theater when I was in elementary school and did ballet. I danced in many productions and fell in love with the stage life. Soon, however, I gave up ballet and began singing. My passion for performing has led me to many plays and musicals over the years in my middle school and here at Stone Ridge,” says Kaminski.
“Acting has helped me to grow not only as a performer but also grow as a person. To be an actress, you have to get used to the idea of be- ing put out of your comfort zone,”adds Kaminski. “I’ve had to come out of my shell so much while acting and because of that, I’ve been able to open up more outside of the theater, too.”
All the students who are part of the drama program want others to know that students should not be afraid to try out for the school plays.
“It’s a wonderfully cathartic,” says Robinson. “We also form great friendships with people in other grades who you might not know otherwise.”