“Man, I love mornings!”
I was jogging through town. The cool morning breeze felt nice as it brushed by. This wasn’t my usual early training session, though.
Today was the first day of our week off from school—and my first day of theater camp!
“Look at you go, Asuka. You’re not even breaking a sweat,” Yukimura remarked as she jogged next to me. She wasn’t falling behind at all.
“You’re the first person to ever keep up with me during our warm-up runs,” she happily added.
You’d think the theater club was all artsy stuff, but it actually required a lot of physical activity.
“If you run out of breath onstage, it ruins the scene. Getting the stage ready and rehearsing is hard work, too,” was how Yukimura explained it.
Usually, the club ran on the school’s sports field, but during the camp, they were running a big circle through town around the school for about two miles. I usually ran six, so it wasn’t as intense.
Nevertheless, Yukimura was head and shoulders above the rest of the club when it came to physical fitness.
I looked behind us.
“Captain… Asuka… You guys are…too fast… Huff, huff…” A third-year was having a hard time behind us.
Once Yukimura and I finished our run, we headed over to the field, where we did some stretching.
“Look at you guys! You’re already exhausted!” Yukimura said. “Finish your stretches, then come to the gym for some sit-ups.”
The rest of the club was pretty much out of breath by the end of the jog, but Yukimura was completely fine, even though she was probably a little winded, too.
“Onstage, you have to speak clearly, no matter how much action is taking place,” she said. “It’s important to practice speaking properly even when you’re out of breath.”
Uh-huh! The audience would get thrown out of the story if everyone was huffing and puffing through their lines.
Ah.
Within the next batch of club members who arrived I saw Minatsu. She was barely standing at this point.
“You okay?” I ran over to her and handed her a towel. She seemed somewhat flustered before taking the towel.
“I’m…huff, huff…fine…”
She definitely didn’t look fine, but after wiping herself down with the towel, she started her stretches.
“Make sure you actively control your breathing while you stretch. It’s gonna be hard, but there are no breaks when you’re onstage. That being said, I want you to speak up if you’re not feeling well. Especially the first-years.”
Everyone nodded as they followed Yukimura’s directions.
After we finished stretching, we started doing sit-ups. You need a strong core for projecting your voice, or so I was told.
Yukimura and I were the first to finish the two sets of fifty.
When everyone was done, Yukimura called out to the rest of the club: “That’s the end of our warm-up. Now, let’s get ready for rehearsal.”
The club then dispersed throughout the gym. The cast all either rehearsed scenes or rehearsed the choreography. The stagehands began making the set, and the dress coordinators gathered in a separate room to work together with the home ec club on the costumes.
I never realized before how many people are involved in making a play possible.
“We’ll start from act two, scene three!”
I was paired up with the performers that I would be acting with, and we went over our choreography.
I only just figured out my lines—is my acting really gonna cut it?
“You should be okay here… No one comes this way.”
As soon as I said my line, a third-year student stopped the rehearsal and came over to me.
“Asuka, you sound like a robot,” she said. “Try to really get into the character this time. Again.”
Guess there’s a lot more to acting than just memorizing your lines. This might be harder than I thought…
“Then we should go to town! It would be so much fun,” Minatsu said in a loud, clear voice.
She’s perfect for the role!
After acting with her, I learned Minatsu was one of the best performers even as a first-year. She was the first to learn all her lines, and the words felt so natural coming from her.
“That was great, Minatsu! Do it the exact same way onstage.”
The third-year watching our rehearsal had no criticism for Minatsu.
“How’s rehearsal going?”
Oh, it’s Yukimura. She’s coming to check on us during her break.
Everyone lit up when she came over.
“I wish I could say it was going better. I think we’ll be ready in time for the show, though.”
“I can see you guys are putting a lot of effort into it!” said Yukimura.
“Definitely. We’ll get there! Right, guys?”
““Yeah!””
Everyone was ready to jump back in. Even Minatsu’s usual cold expression was wiped away for a happier one in front of Captain Yukimura.
Hmm, I can’t help but feel like I’m dragging everyone down. I wonder if I’ll be up to speed in time. Now I’m getting a little anxious.
Yukimura then turned to me. “What do you think, Asuka? Think you can handle the role?”
“Um, I still have some work to do… I did manage to memorize my lines, though.”
“I see… Here, could you try saying something out loud for me? Let’s do some voice training,” Yukimura said before taking a few steps back.
I’m not sure I understand what’s going on, but I’ll give it a try.
“Make it loud.”
I took a deep breath.
“Ah, eh, ih, ooh, eh, oh, ah, oh…”
I started doing the same voice training we did during rehearsal. Evidently, this “ah, eh, ih” sequence was a popular voice training method. It was good for checking whether or not you’re opening your mouth properly, or so I was told.
“Stop. That’s what I thought. I noticed you do this during rehearsal too.”