The Show Must Go On

The lights are out. The whole room is silent, contemplating the meaning of the last scene. Then, the lights come back on and the actors are greeted with deafening applause. They all come forward, one by one, for their short moment of recognition. Finally, it is time for the main star to make an appearance. Emanuela smiles brightly as she bows. The front row may notice a few tears glistening on her cheeks, but she quickly wipes them dry. A lively song plays in the background as the audience start to leave and performers start dancing. Emanuela obviously joins them, but first she had to put her flowers away in a safe place – her bouquet was definitely the largest.

“I have always wanted to join a drama club,” she said. “I was a shy kid, though. All of the roles in school plays were given to my outgoing friends. I was too afraid that I would make a mistake.” She was the shortest girl in her class. She was afraid she would look ridiculous on stage, barely noticeable, almost invisible.

This, however, changed in middle school. The name Emanuela Szczawińska was soon put on a poster advertising a nativity play staged by the school librarian. Her role was just of an angel – a short, silly and messy messenger that lost her way to Bethlehem. “Ema did something spectacular with her role,” her classmate and best friend Zuzanna recalls. “She could have just say her lines, I think she had like... five? Five or seven. But her face expressions and acting in the background made it the best performance of that play.”

When she was applying to high schools, she could not find any schools with a drama club.
A little disappointed, but still satisfied with her choice, she enrolled in one of the finest schools in Bochnia – Kazimierz Wielki Highschool. There, she studied Polish literature, biology and English. The theatre dream fell somewhere into depths of her mind, squashed and pinned down by countless exams, quizzes and projects. “I had to study a lot, especially for biology classes,” Emanuela admits. “I actually started to regret my class choice soon and had a little mental breakdown, if I can call it little,” she laughs. “Thankfully, after I learned how to organize my day, I found myself loving biology again. But still acting came back to mind from time to time.”

During her second year, her best friend Zuzanna met Dawid. She soon introduced him to Emanuela. “I told her they must meet as soon as they could! He and some of his friends were looking for amateur actors to start a drama club. He already had a few interested students, but not everyone was from the same high school.”

“It didn’t stop us,” Dawid proudly admits. “We started small, with only six members and an attempt at Shakespeare. Yes, an attempt. We premiered too soon, rehearsed too little. Some of us forgot their lines more times than we’ll admit. But Emanuela carried the show as Juliet. Even when she also forgot her line during the balcony scene, she played it off so gracefully that only our prompter noticed.”

Now, Emanuela spends every free minute in their drama club “Nie dramatyzuj!” (“Don't be so dramatic!”). To fight her anxiety about not being visible on stage, she dyed her hair red – now it is impossible not to spot her.

A few days ago they charmed everyone with their short rendition of “Chicago”. Even though they did not perform it as a musical, the play was so delightfully written and adapted that no one felt anything was missing. Everyone praised Emanuela for her role as Roxie as she introduced a saddening twist to her story and made her more relatable in the 21^st century: the play explored Roxie’s life before she came to Chicago when she lived in poverty without any family. Emanuela smiles at the question whether she had something to do with the writing process. “Maybe a little. But it was Zuza who did most of the work. However, now we want to try out an original comedy. It should be ready soon, so you can follow our social media. We hope to see you on the premiere!”