From the first time he stepped on stage, Dragon Aditya knew he had found his passion. Aditya first started doing theater in the seventh grade. “Well, in seventh grade my mom asked me to do something extra, so I was just like, I’ll do theater! And ever since then I’ve just fallen in love with theater,” he shared. His first experience doing theater was what he described as “exciting,” but he felt nervous after the performance. Aditya says what made him fall in love with theater was the people. “If it weren’t for the people I don’t think I’d be doing theater now.” He expressed his gratitude towards the theater community, saying, “My favorite part about theater is definitely the people…They’re such good people and I feel very connected to them.” Aditya continued to talk about how he felt with his most recent performance in Rehearsal For Murder, where he played the lead. “I think I did really well, low-key not to pat my own back, but I think I did pretty well.” He shared the challenges he faced through the process, saying, “There (were) a lot of lines to memorize. I was pushed to my limits with my memorizing, with my blocking, with my everything.” He continued, “I think I have grown so much because of that performance.” Aditya also shared that in order to get into character and get ready for his performances, “First I have to understand what I’m saying, not just the lines, but what my character is trying to communicate. And then I connect those ideas back into something that I can relate to in my own life.” Aditya went on and spoke about the difficulties of theater by saying, “There’s a lot of limitations with theater since you don’t have dynamic camera shots and you don’t really have so many different scenes and settings, you just have one stage. So you have to be very creative with how you deliver it well, and I think it’s a very good way to develop and expand your creativity.” Aditya has helped shape the SBHS theater into what it is today. Make sure to go see him at his next performance in Hadestown starting April 25.

[Dragon Aditya. Image credit: Giovanni Garcia Medina]