Whispering Willows

High School - Drama

Friday, May 28, 2010 8:48 AM

I just read the Devon Dispatch this morning, congratulations to all of the 2010 grads of John Maland! I really didn't realize when I was in high school living at home how easy life was. I lived 2 minutes from my school (walking distance). So I would crawl out of bed at 7:55, throw some clothes on, throw some makeup on my face and walk to school getting there just shy of the second bell and plop down in my seat. Then, after two 80 minute classes, which at time felt like torture, we would have an hour for lunch, a full hour, in which I would go home to find a yummy lunch waiting for me, made by my mommy. On Friday's my mom would even make huge pots of soup for any amount of my friends (or otherwise) that wanted to come over and have lunch, every Friday. I never felt like I had a lot of friends in the first two years, I had a small group of girls that I was close to and a few guys that seemed to hang around me 'for some reason'. It wasn't until grade 12 that I started to make friends and really started to not care about school and what my teachers thought anymore. Not saying that is a good thing but it is when I really started to grow myself, made a lot of mistakes and started to mold myself into what I thought I was supposed to look like and act like. I know for a fact that I did not do a page of homework my whole 12th year. I am very certain my 12th year math teacher somehow did all of my homework for me so that I would pass...cause I know for a fact I didn't do it. Drama really got me through high school. In the first year I was new the the public school system and I was really nervous so when I saw how bold and excitable the drama kids were it frightened me enough that I didn't enroll in it. Kyra did though, and she loved it so much that I knew when grade 11 rolled around that I would be there with her. I loved drama so much in 11th year that I was ready to do just about anything to be able to take it for both semesters in grade 12. Our drama teacher was and still is the best drama teacher of all time. She has so much energy and such a passion for drama and for the kids in her classes. At the end of each semester the class preforms a play for the town, it is put on for 3 nights and it is not amateur. It's hard core and it is what we do for the whole semester leading up to it, practice, every single day. And the result was always tremendous, always standing ovations, always so happy and so proud by the end.You really become a family, with mumma bear yelling at us to pay attention and cat fights between the two girls, who dress like they do, - but don't have any self esteem. We were a big happy family and it felt like nothing could stop us. Even after we graduated we continued on, trying to keep the drama high alive in ourselves. Ms Hollar believed in us, so she agreed to help us out of her personal time, Wednesday evenings. We all began our lives and slowly but surely, everyone walked away from the drama scene. The drama class at John Maland is something that should be treasured, it is a very special thing and should not be taken lightly, at least while Ms Hollar is there. It was always so much work, so worth it, every night, late nights, so much fun, laughing, screaming, crying, changing in what became "unisex rooms", tons and tons of makeup, man makeup, hair dos, hair spray highs, pizza at Florida, fake lashes, slushy runs, shaving legs, real kisses, fake kisses, sex noises, "brusha brusha brusha", trying to remember dances from the year before, fake piercings, fake girls, fake boys, fake cars, fake names, fake fake fake, lunch breaks, tension breaks, smoke breaks, water breaks, break a leg.