1. I loved how we learned so much about journalism in one summer. I didn’t know
what print journalism had to offer until I finished the internship. It also gave me
life advice that I’m going to keep with me forever. I realized journalism is writing
a piece of yourself down on paper for others to read. The QB team has been
generous by teaching an internship program and paying it forward. This sum-
mer will help me, and I hope to pay it forward in the future.
BUTTERFLIES. THAT KNOT IN MY STOMACH that makes my arms
droop to my sides and each of my limbs feel as if they are being pulled to
the ground like a slowly stretching taffy. I stand in complete darkness that
makes the butterflies fly faster than before, more rapid, out of control. How
will the crowd respond? Why did I ever think I could do this? Wait… What’s
my first line?!
Then the lights flooded the stage.
Acting had first come into my life when my brother started performing
in shows at William Fremd High School in Palatine. He would come home
late at night as a stranger to me. Layers of makeup would stain his face and
alter his features from the dozens of rehearsals he endured from the weeks
prior. It wasn’t until I saw him perform on stage that I understood why he
liked to act. The ability to captivate audiences by pretending to be someone
else was a talent I wanted to learn. I was only six when I saw him in my first
theatre performance “Les Misérables”. A musical about Jean Valjean, a man
trying to make a new life for himself in a place unknown. I started high
school several years later with a fresh start in a new place.
I joined drama club at the start of high school. I quickly learned, how-
ever, that acting wasn’t as easy as my brother had made it seem years earlier.
Most kids become anxious their freshman year of high school. I found that
to be true when I went out and faced the entire school dressed as a boy from
the 1900s wearing a wool sweater vest and bright red lipstick for my first
play. My voice quavered as hundreds of eyes watched my every twitch.
After that first performance, I was on edge for a while trying to fit in at
school. I was an actor every week; I just didn’t know it. One week I would
be the nerd who would raise his hand for every question in class, while the
next week I would play the shy guy who avoided social interaction as best
he could.
I started to talk with my directors and the upper classmen to ask them
about what I could do to become a better actor. I took in every piece of feed-
back that I was given. Freshman year spilled over into sophomore year. Then
sophomore year became junior. More auditions yielded more experience.
Junior year, for the first time I felt like I had made progress.
I was cast as the lead role for our Group Interpretation. Group Interp,
or GI, is a 30-minute play in which the actors have no props, no individual
costumes, and everyone must face the audience throughout the duration of
the act. Our show was “The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo,” a
farce about a British man wheeling his dead uncle around Monte Carlo to
collect 10 million dollars. So… typical.
Six weeks of late nights at rehearsal brought back memories of when
my brother would walk in the door of our house exhausted. We practiced
our movements until they were choreographed perfectly to each line of the
show. The day of sectionals, we placed second and headed to the state finals
in Springfield, Illinois. And yet, when the day came to perform in front of
the judges a second time, I still felt as if we could have done more. So many
lines to be looked over, accents to be perfected. My brother was my inspira-
tion to start acting and the reason why I worked hard to make it to state. No
other cast had ever won GI for Fremd High School.
Waiting for the results could have been the closest I had been to feeling
the world stop in time. Our director walked into our waiting room with her
head to the floor and her eyes in shock. Her head slowly came up to see the
look on our faces before grinning wide, breaking her poker face. The cruel-
est joke made at the best time.
I knew then I had made the right choice to join drama and to keep try-
ing to become a better actor. My body jolted as the world began to move
again, and the butterflies flew free. We had won state.
The Curtain Calls
by Braden Kobeski
Reprinted With Permission - Quintessential Barrington Magazine - Copyright © 2016136 • Quintessential Barrington | QBarrington.com