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When doing something in front of a large group, people often worry that something will go wrong. When things don’t go as planned, attitude is a deciding factor in how things will end up. A positive attitude is one of the first things people notice about junior and drama club president Emily Wheeler.
“She’s always got a great attitude,” said drama teacher Alex Barlow. “I’m sure she is not always happy, like on the inside, but she doesn’t take it out on other people or she doesn’t bring negativity with her. She always has a positive attitude, and that’s a really good quality. I think people are drawn to that.”
Having a good attitude was particularly important in a drama competition during Wheeler’s freshman year while performing in a play titled “Arkansas Bear.” As Wheeler walked up a ladder on stage to do her part – she played a star that grants wishes for a little girl – she saw she was lit with a red spotlight.
“It probably looked pretty weird, because it’s this super magical and elegant scene, and there’s just this red spotlight,” Wheeler said. “I remember thinking, I was like, ‘Why am I red?’ and then I was like, ‘Uh, I don’t care,’ and then just kept going.”
One of the things that Wheeler sees as being important about drama is that it teaches you more than just how to memorize lines. Drama teaches lessons that are applicable on a day to day basis.
“When stuff goes wrong you just keep going,” Wheeler said. “That’s another great thing about theater, is that it teaches you [that] when stuff goes wrong, you just keep going and moving forward.”
Knowing to just keep going and to move forward when things don’t go as expected is a lesson that is important in real life. In the different roles an actor plays, chances are provided to learn about the characters themselves. They are also given a chance to develop empathy for the character portrayed.
Particularly valuable to Wheeler was being cast as Walt Whitman in “Drum Taps.” Whitman is the witness of a lot of people’s deaths. He finds himself bewildered, watching people that he has bonded with dying for some reason that is unknown to him.
“When my sister died, I just put everything in a box like you know what, I’m not going to deal with it. I’m going to move on with my life,” Wheeler said. “The way that I was able to cope with my sisters death was taking all these emotions off this box and putting them into the piece, and I was able to release all of the emotions that I had pent up inside.”
Being in “Drum-Taps” gave Wheeler a use for all of the emotions that she had from her sister’s death. Being able to use real emotion in her piece made the part more real.
“I was able to actually use all of those emotions in the piece, which made it so much better, ”Wheeler said. “It was super powerful. Like, when I’m crying on stage it’s not just fake tears, it’s real. It’s real emotions that I’m just taking off a shelf.”
For Wheeler, theater was a means of coping with everything that was going on in her life. She started spending more time in theater, which is something that she loves. Last year, she was co-head costume designer for Tarzan and the secretary of the drama club.
“Theater was just my coping mechanism,” Wheeler said. “When my sister died, my coping mechanism was, ‘I’m not going to think about it.’ So I started doing theater more,” I just put so much time and effort into theater that I just stopped thinking about all the sad parts of my life. Because I just stopped thinking about everything and put in so much effort, now I’m the president of the drama club and I use theatre to cope. That’s one of my main reasons I do it; it’s a coping mechanism for me.”
Putting in the extra effort to make her part good and more real is one of the reasons she enjoys theater. Since theater is something Wheeler loves, she puts a lot of effort into doing it the best that she is able, and her friends and fellow drama classmates have noticed.
“She’s always been, like, super organized,” said junior Shaylee Wilkey. “As a secretary she did a really good job, which is why I think she got president this year is just because she’s organized all the time, 24/7, whether she wants to be organized or not.”
Being a junior, Wheeler is the youngest person who has been president of the drama club. For her, being president of the drama club means helping others feel happy and like they belong.
“I love it because sometimes when you’re so stuck in your own head and have gone through so much, you just want to make other people feel happy.” Wheeler said. “So, what’s really rewarding about being president, is that everything I do, I do for the club.”
Focusing on others rather than themselves is what makes a good leader. Last year while preparing for Tarzan, Wheeler designed and made many of the gorilla costumes for Tarzan. Since this was such a large project, it ended up being quite time consuming. Wheeler and others were working on these costumes every night.
“Every night, she was sewing and putting together those costumes,” Barlow said. “Her and a few other students, but she was right there in the middle of it, she didn’t just tell everyone else what they needed to do, she did a lot of it herself, and then, the other ones followed her example. They wanted to do more too because she was doing more, and so they took on more of creating the costumes as well. So, I think she is a great example of leading by example.”
