Senior Katie West finally gets her dream role of Belle in NAHS’s spring production, Beauty and the Beast
For many people, getting onstage in front of a crowd and acting is not easy, but for senior Katie West, it’s like second nature.
West has been acting since she was in the sixth grade, but it wasnt until high school that she got serious about it. Recently, West was granted the chance to play her dream role of Belle, in NAHS’s spring production Beauty and the Beast, which will be showing the weekend of February 24/25 and the weekend of March 3/5.
“I’ve wanted to play this role since I was four years old,” West said. “I’ve known all the songs and most of the lines for a really long time because I’ve literally been waiting for this day for a very long time.”
Although West has been waiting and preparing for this moment for what seems like forever, preparations for the audition of this role were anything but easy. According to West, it took many hours of preparation and practice until she was truly confident that she had everything down perfect.
“I practiced the audition cut a million trillion times until I had it perfect and I knew that no nerves would mess me up in the actual audition,” West said. “I practiced the song twice each day until the audition so I knew it would sound okay.”
Through West’s recent success of getting her dream role, it’s easy to see that her hard work has paid off, but according to West the hard work didnt stop there. She rehearses with the school for about 17 to 20 hours a week, and even spends hours outside of school making sure she gets everything right.
“I put hours upon hours working on it outside of school,” West said. “I practice the dances, lines, and singing on my own time and it takes multiple hours a week.
Although West practices for the production until she has it down perfect, she still has to mentally prepares herself before each show.
“Before each performance I go into the bathroom and sing my hardest song and go over some dance moves looking in the mirror and take my place,” West said.
Although practicing and preparing for a play can be a ton of work, there are also many exciting parts, according to West. Wests main excitiment for this play is that she is playing one of her dream roles.
“I’m very excited that I get to be a Disney princess because every girl has dreamed of being one,” West said. “ I also get to do a fundraiser and dress up as Belle and hang out with the the little boys and girls.”
Although this will be one of West’s last productions with NAHS, she plans on continuing to pursue her talent after high school.
“I plan to pursue a Bachelors in Fine Arts in college and move to New York post college,” West said.
According to West, she is more than excited to put on this production for the school.
“I’m so excited for this production and everyone could come see it because it’s going to be so good,” West said.
