It is Wednesday August 21, and Room 101 is filled with young actors and actresses demonstrating their skills, all in the hope of being chosen to take the Colton High stage for the fall play. The play that will be performed this year is titled Backstage, a comedy about the interesting and sometimes chaotic happenings behind a production. The play’s director is Janis Aldrich, the drama teacher at Colton high school, “What I’m looking for in a actor is reliability, energy, and a willingness to give a character a strong personality. That’s what will make an actor,” she says.

The actors and actresses are selected at random to perform, each are given the script, a character, and a short summary of who this character is, based off that they are to perform as the character for a scene of the play. This tests the skills of the performer in projection, improv, ability to work with others, and stage presence. They are performing with an audience, filled with their competition, and the director who observes their ability and skill.  “The hardest part is the cold reading, you don’t get a chance to prepare yourself, it’s on the spot,” says Celia Worster, a senior at Colton High School, who was auditioning for the play. “I auditioned for the play last year, and it was so much fun. It’s something worth doing.”

A few returning actors were at the auditions, showing this amount of enthusiasm at the chance to once again perform, along with seeing fresh talent join the show. The auditions have ended, and with the actors anticipation, the cast list will be following after. The process is best described by senior Julianne Hetrick, “The hardest part is getting the courage to do it. But in the end it’s worth it.”   The performance dates are set for October 3rd, 4th, and 5th.