With make-up perfectly painted below his black uniform hat and charcoal grey jacket buttoned up to his neck, he sits in silence, anticipating how the night will unfold. Beneath him, the moving stage stands still, ready for the wear and tear of another night, another show, another scuff. Garrett Whitehead mentally prepares himself to transport to another time in another country with another name.
Whitehead, a junior musical theater major from Cleburne, Texas, took on a German persona this summer while in productions of “Spring Awakening” at Little Rock’s Weekend Theatre from June 8-July 1 and “The Sound of Music” at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse from July 24-Sept. 1, also in Little Rock, 368 miles away from home.
For the duration of the summer, Whitehead was fortunate enough to “house hop” between the homes of four of his fellow theater majors, but it was still not quite the same as being home for the break.
“I was really nervous about spending my entire summer away from my family,” he said, “but it helped prepare me for my future.”
As with every production, Whitehead believes his participation in these shows makes an impact on him as a performer that will carry through for the rest of his life.
“I grow a little bit every time I get the chance to perform,” he said.
One of his summer’s learning experiences came in the role of telegram boy-turned-Nazi teenager Rolf in “The Sound of Music.”
While the spring musical put on by Ouachita’s theater department has rehearsals for an entire semester before opening night, Murry’s “Sound of Music” had just two weeks before the first curtain.
Despite a crunched and crazy rehearsal schedule, two weeks was all the time necessary for Whitehead and his fellow cast mates to mentally transform the blank room full of tables, chairs, a curtain and a stage into Salzburg, Austria, circa 1937.
Getting into such a classic and dynamic character as Rolf proved to be an exciting challenge for Whitehead.
“Just being able to play naive, and innocent in the beginning and slowly transform into a Nazi traitor in the end was pretty cool,” he said.
Though he enjoyed his character, Whitehead’s favorite scene did not involve Rolf, but a scene with a song that doesn’t appear in the movie. “No Way to Stop It” highlights a turning point in the story where Captain von Trapp breaks off his relationship with the Baroness, thus leaving him free to wed Maria.
Despite having to tirelessly switch back and forth between innocent messenger boy to teenage Nazi soldier in a period of two hours for 40 nights in a row, Whitehead says he felt honored to have the opportunity.
“The best part about the entire summer was just getting more experience for my craft,” he said, “and meeting some pretty fantastic new friends and connections that will last a lifetime.”
[…] Feature writing 1. Emily Terry, “Garrett Whitehead’s Summer of Theater,” The Signal, Ouachita Baptist University 2. Caitlin LaFarlette, “Agriculture Professor […]