Stuart SandersonAMARYLLIS THEATERIn the summer of 2007 I joined a drama theatre group, call Amaryllis, led by Steve Smith and Josette Todaro. I had never been in a live play before, but I was willing to try it. There were five people from Inglis House in our group; we had to choose a theme to use in our play. We picked movement as our theme. I used dance with music. It took us fifteen months to practice and perform the play. We used the Greek Chorus method. Some members of the group repeated a line. When we came onto the stage, I thought I was going to be nervous, fortunately I was not; because all the staging lights blinded me. At last we did the performance in front of an audience in the Adrienne Theater on Samson St. in Philadelphia. We did very well. I could not believe the play was all done and completed, we took our bows and the audience applauded for us. Our newest project involves working with real actors, but this time we had to write the dialogue and we had to choose the actors to perform our skits also. Each member of the group wrote a different dialogue. We wrote all kind of short stories, from talking with a ghost to life from a childhood. In June we held auditions for our play at Inglis House. As the actors came in for their auditions, I felt I was a judge on American Idol. About fifteen people came during two week period. In the end, we chose only three actors, who will be in our six skits. In December we will perform these vignettes at Amaryllis Theater. Until then, we will be practicing and refining our work. It's hard work putting on a play, but it is worth the effort. Thanks to the Amaryllis Theater group, I had fulfilled a dream of acting in front of an audience.
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