Here's a short memoir that I wrote for my creative writing class last year. Hopefully you like it.
My 1st Standing Ovation
My very first standing ovation was back in freshman year in Theater 1, after performing “The Man” movie monologue from The School of Rock. But, before I write about the standing ovation, I’m going to give a little background in the beginning of my freshman year. I was going through a rough time, with depression, and had enrolled in the Theater 1 class. During the first semester of Theater, I never participated in any of the activities, mainly because I didn’t have any confidence, and I was suffering through depression. Some, of the reasons why I was going through depression at that time is I thought I had no friends and nobody liked me. Thankfully, the depression didn’t land me in a suicide attempt. Even if I when I was going through depression, I always tried to have my head held high, because I knew things would get better, which it did. I wasn’t all alone during the first semester of Agoura, because my older brother would chill with me at nutrition & lunch. In the Theater 1 class, nobody had any expectations for me at that point, which is where my first standing ovation comes into play. The standing ovation happened in 2nd semester, when I was feeling better, and had more confidence in myself. Our class had an assignment, which was to practice & perform a monologue from any movie. At that point, I knew I had what it took to succeed, and to show the class that I have some talent. I also wanted to show them that I’m not just in the class because I needed an elective. For the assignment, I chose “The Man” monologue performed by Jack Black from the awesome movie, “The School of Rock”. To make sure that I was going to succeed, I was able to get some help from a professional actor, named CJ. He gave me some great tips, for when I perform the speech. Some of the great tips that CJ gave me, were to not shout, but to carry your voice loud enough so that the audience can hear you. Also he said to not talk too fast, don’t over-perform and to pronounciate your words clearly. During the practicing with CJ, I started to get stressed, because he was almost pushing my limits. But, I had to restrain myself because I knew what he was telling me was right. After I was able to receive help from the actor I practiced on my own and with my parents until the night of the performance. I was finally done with the practicing and I was in the class waiting nervously and excitedly to perform The Man monologue. My heart was pounding, and I was starting to sweat, wasn’t sure if I was able to perform. But, then Mrs. Brassler, the theater teacher called me to the stage, and I told myself “Fuck This”, and walked up on to the stage to show the audience what I’ve got. When I got on the stage, the nerves came back, and my conscience automatically told me, “Just go into your own world, and don’t worry”. I listened to my conscience and bam I started to perform the speech. My body was performing the motions that Jack Black did in The Man Speech scene, my lips were moving and I spoke the way I practiced it, but my mind was totally relaxed. When the speech was over, the whole class stood up and gave me a standing ovation. The feelings that I had were nothing like I felt before. Now that I think about it, I might’ve been the only person to get a standing o’ that day. The teacher told me I did a fantastic job, and as I was walking back to my seat everybody was giving me some awesome compliments. I had successfully accomplished my goal, which was showing the class that I had some talent. The thing that I had learned from my experience was if you work hard, practice, & have determination you can overcome your fear and succeed. #story#creative#writing
:)