The drama class is preparing for their upcoming performance “Bye, Bye, Birdie” which is starring senior, Natalie Ruiz. Ruiz has been apart of drama for ten years and aspires to go into acting in the future.

“I played Toto in The Wizard of Oz when I was eight years old,” Ruiz said. “I took the role because I thought it would be fun to act like someone else. It was very interesting to play a dog.”

Acting presents many challenges, such as staying in character, learning lines, developing a characters personality, and improvisation. Ruiz explained what the hardest part of acting for her was.

“Improvisation is hard for me, making up a characters personality without a script is a challenge,” Ruiz said. “When acting sometimes you have to deviate from your set lines to keep the production alive.”

Ruiz has been developing her acting skills since the third grade. She hopes to be involved in acting in her future. In what capacity she does not know just yet.

It is said toe be hard to comprehend the feeling of being on the stage in front of a crowd for those who have not experienced Ruiz helps describes the feeling put the feeling into words.

“I would describe the feelings as pure adrenaline,” Ruiz said “I try to capture every moment of my performance. Sometimes it makes me a little nervous, but I’ve learned to control my nerves.”

Robbie Hill, ’14, shares his admiration for Ruiz and her acting skills.

“She is the most humble person that I have acted with in my career,” Hill said “She is also one of the best singers that I have performed with. I just hope that I meet people as nice as her in my future acting career.”

Ruiz has been a part of many drama productions, but she has high hopes that “Bye, Bye Birdie” will be her favorite performance of her career.

One reason that Ruiz expects the upcoming performance to be her favorite is because one of her best friends, Aliciana Quintana, ’14, is in the production as well.

“Im very excited for Bye, Bye, Birdie because Ive been waiting a long time to work with Natalie in a production,” Quintana said. “She’s one of my best friends and I love acting with her. The performance is going to be great.”

Acting has taught Ruiz that you must be prepared at all times when on stage. When Ruiz was asked about her most embarrassing on stage moment, she explained a time when she failed to be prepared.

“The most embarrassing thing that has happened to me on stage would be, in eighth grade when I forgot my line in front of the whole junior high,” Ruiz said. “Eventually Mrs. Ainley fed me the line and the performance ended. Ever since then I have made sure I would never forget a line again.”

Ruiz’s drama classmates have the utmost respect for her and love working with her to bring the performance to life. Classmate, Junior, John Dooman had thoughts on how Ruiz influences the rest of the drama team.

“This is the first year I have been in the drama class with Natalie,” Dooman said. “I really enjoy working with her. She is very talented and works to be the best actor she can be.”

Be sure to see Ruiz in “Bye, Bye, Birdie” the drama classes newest production! She will star as Kim Macafee, the lovestruck teenager chosen to recieve a kiss from Conrad Birdie.

For more features, read the Jan. 29 article Senior partakes in theatrical role, final performance (VIDEO).

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @beal_trevor. Follow The Feather via Twitter: @thefeather.