Influential+Paper

// Charlie Brown // In March of 2011, the Washington High School Theatre Department held auditions for the school musical, //You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown//. A week prior to the auditions, I had decided to pass up the auditions and just watch the show instead. I’m not sure who, what, when, where, why or how but something changed my mind. So I memorized a song to sing in a few short days. Come the day of auditions, I’m a little nervous, as usual. When it is my turn to go, I walk into the auditorium. I step out into the middle of the stage and I can see Mr. Douglas and Mr. Schjodt. After a moment, I start belting the song, Go the Distance for the Disney movie, Hercules. Once I am done singing, I do a quick improved skit where I am a kindergartener. Then the audition is done and I am left to wait until the next morning.

That night, I hardly even thought about it and in the morning, I almost forgot. For the first time in a while, I am not nervous for results to be posted. I was so very certain that I did not make it, so it barely concerned me. I walk into school and head straight for the C-Wing. I make my way to the list and look at it. What I saw didn’t really shock me. I looked down at the bottom of the list at the chorus but my name wasn’t on there. I look up at the top of the list and what I see does shock me to no end. At the very top of the list is my name next to the words: Charlie Brown. I was cast as the lead! I was in a state of disbelief for the rest of the day. All day long, people would greet me in one of two ways. Number one was: Congratulations, Jeff! Number two was: Hey there, Charlie Brown! I just simply couldn’t believe that for the next six weeks, I was going to portray one of the most iconic characters in the childhood of the past few generations.

During those next few weeks, I had more fun and felt more fulfilled than I had in a quite a while. I made new friends and built upon the friendships I had already made. The process of learning the music was incredibly fun. Even the time-consuming, somewhat tedious process of memorizing lines turned into an enjoyable experience. Time spent with the cast proved never to be negative, especially our character development day. A day devoted to developing and building on our characters. Seeing as how all of our characters were little kids, what else could we do but go to a park and play? So that’s exactly what we did. When every day is just as, if not more, enjoyable than the last, you know that you’re having an extraordinary amount of fun. That’s’ when each rehearsal became nerve-racking in preparations for performances. We were finally ready to put on a show.

For one week during mid-April, we took to the stage in front of an audience. Of course, though, as fate should have it, what should happen to me right before performance week, but get extremely sick. My sinuses were totally messed up and I also had had what I still believe to be a mild case of walking pneumonia. But as they say, the show must go on. I still don’t know how I pulled it off, but for one week, I sent my sick self out in front of a crowd and didn’t let my ailments faze me one bit. When I asked people about it, they said that they couldn’t even notice that I was ill. After one week of feeling wildly contradicted between feeling sick and being excited and nervous, the show was over with forever and I was no longer Charlie Brown.

When looking back on that entire experience, I have to stop for a while and truly reflect. In that show, I felt more important than I ever had. I realized that the thing I had set out to do only took me less than a year to achieve. I had gotten a lead in a main stage theatre production. Then it hit me that not only was I the lead, but that it might be the last time I ever have a role that big again. Once I let it all sink in, I was a little taken aback at the whole experience. I would never trade that experience for another. That experience helped greatly shape who I was then, who I am now, and who I will become. It is a time that will be impossible for me to forget. I will forever remember that time I was Charlie Brown.