Hidden Opportunities

Written By: Janice Irwin 4/7/19

Photography By: Lindsay Perry

Picture of the Barrow-Civic Theatre in downtown Franklin (Photo by Lindsay Perry)

Hidden Opportunities

By Janice Irwin

As a senior, my time participating in extracurriculars is soon to be over. It saddened me as I realized I’ll never be able to take part in the school’s musical again, and I assumed there were no more theatrical opportunities left for me.

After not getting into the school musical, a friend and I decided to audition for a play at the Barrow Civic Theater. At the time, the Barrow seemed untouchable, but my love for theatre drove me to put myself out there.

I got a call that I had made it into Alice in Wonderland and I was almost hysterical about it.

At first, my head couldn’t comprehend it, and I was pretty intimidated by the fact I had to work with strangers. Fortunately, the practices had such an affable atmosphere that expressing myself came naturally. There was no hint of this place being foreign to me.

The prior months of scattered practices went by so slowly compared to the hectic, last three weeks of rehearsal.

I ended up meeting with this unique group of people more than my own friends and, in turn, gained a new clique -- many of which live around here and participate in plays regularly; others I most likely won’t see for some time.

Whether those of us involved in high school musicals see each other here and there or not, the experience is gone, and we will never be those characters again. Such a change briefly brought me to tears, but said change should be embraced.

Having the amazing experience working at the Barrow motivated me to spread the word about community theater and that performers can continue their craft after high school. Just look for seemingly hidden opportunities.