Personal Narrative-It's All About Acting

To be or not to be—a person that is not myself. As an actress I have learned to become a contortionist of personalities and characteristics. When I played the Friar in Romeo and Juliet, my age jumped from age sixteen to thirty-six as I matured myself, in my mind, to play the older role accurately. My natural Midwest accent was erased and rewritten as Puerto Rican when I was cast as Consuela in West Side Story. The thing I love the most about acting is my ability to draw other’s personalities out of myself. It 's knowing that when I 'm up on the stage, or in front of the camera, that the audience isn 't judging the choices I make because supposedly I 'm not me. I have a talent to become someone else, and that ability has helped me to grow as a person as well as helped me solve problems and face them head on.

In speech class my freshman year, everyone told me that I was going to be the best in the class because, "Dude, you 're an actress" and "Talia, you are great at public speaking!" Whenever it was my turn to give a speech, I would put on the mask of a person who is great at public speaking and never gets nervous. I would tell myself, "Talia would be freaking out right now about this speech. She would be panicked and anxious and afraid that all of her classmates would judge her. She would be petrified...but I 'm not Talia." I 'm told it 's either hilarious or ridiculous that I 'm a performer who has actually been diagnosed with social anxiety. I have a fear of public speaking. It 's ironic. However, despite this problem that I face, acting has taught me that it 's possible to ignore it and push through this dam holding back the water that