Cassie Forsyth | Arts & Life Co-Editor

On Wednesday, Sept. 4, the auditions began for the fall production “As You Like It.” The production is a Shakespearian romantic comedy. The auditions were open to all Buena Vista University (BVU) students.

For some students, whether they are first year students or upperclassmen who haven’t been able to in the past, this is their first time auditioning for the play.

Sophomore Caleb Ryerson auditioned for the first time this year. Because he was too busy throughout high school and his freshman year of college to devote his time to theatre, he decided to finally give it a chance once his schedule was more free.

“I found my love for acting and performing, and I want to do it. I made a bunch of movies and short films, and I just had a blast doing it, so I thought I’d give theatre a try,” Ryerson said.

Ryerson was nervous during his first go around, but he eased up soon after that. After the auditions, he feels certain that being part of the theatre is something he should do while in college.

“I do feel confident that this is what I was meant to do. I still said my lines with confidence, and I was just confident. I knew I could do it,” Ryerson said.

Freshman Theatre major Matt Schulz was initially intimidated as he auditioned for his first college play. Schulz is more used to working with costumes rather than acting, so this feels new for him.

“It was definitely intimidating at first because it was like I’m this little freshman auditioning for this big play, and especially since I don’t really see myself as an onstage person. I feel like I’m more of a behind the scenes type of person,” Schulz said.

Schulz has many things to look forward to as he embarks on his first theatre performance at the college level.

“I’m excited to get to know all the people, especially the upperclassmen, but I guess I’m all around excited to be a part of my first college production,” Schulz said.

Other students have experienced the auditioning process many times. Junior Theatre major Stephen Condon has been in nine different plays at BVU. Condon looked up to previous seniors throughout his time in the theatre department so far, but now that he is an upperclassman, he feels excited to take on the leadership role to help out the younger students who have auditioned.

“I’m excited because now I’m in a position where I can do my best to help out, and I’m glad I can offer some sort of wisdom and guidance to people if they need it,” Condon said. “I can just talk with the person, get to know them a little better, maybe offer some insights that I think might work based on their strengths, or see some things that they don’t quite realize they’re doing that could be improved. I can just offer constructive criticism and stuff like that because mainly that’s how you grow as a person and an actor.”

Although Condon has been involved in many plays before, this one is new to him because it is Shakespeare. He has read Shakespeare plays before but never auditioned for one.

“You have to stress certain syllables of words that most people don’t normally stress. I feel like that’s the biggest challenge,” Condon said. “But I took the fundamentals of acting my freshman year, and we had to memorize Shakespearian monologue for class, so I think that helped me out a lot just because I got familiar with speaking Shakespeare and having to do that, otherwise it’s somewhat new to me.”

Senior Theatre and Communications double major Kadie Dennison has been involved in the theatre department since her freshman year, and she is drawn to acting because it allows her to play herself in someone else’s perspective.

“You get to experience things. You get to have empathy; you get to experience life through someone else’s perspective, and I think that’s very valuable just as a human being,” Dennison said.

Now that Dennison is a senior, she is hoping to be a positive influence to newcomers.

“My leadership will just be being a positive influence in the ensemble as a whole and having fun and learning a lot and lead by example of doing my best, and hopefully that’s enough,” Dennison said.

Dennison’s advice to newcomers is to learn as much as they can and come to rehearsals in order to grasp the play.

“Who cares if you fail or look stupid? In the end, you know that you’re going to have a good product, so just go for it, and don’t worry,” Dennison said.

Condon offers his own advice for newcomers who will audition in the future.

“Don’t be afraid to audition. If you want to be a part of it, you can try to be a part of it. Be willing to take risks when you’re auditioning. Don’t be afraid to stand out. Don’t be afraid of rejection because 90% of the time, that’s what acting is,” Condon said. “Rejection is part of auditioning, so that’s something you have to understand right off the back, but you shouldn’t let rejection dissuade you from auditioning. It’s just something you need to keep in mind.”

The fall production will be performed four nights from Wednesday, Nov. 6 until Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7:30 in Anderson Auditorium.

Photos by Tyson Domingo