Stars of the Prep play “Beauty and the Beast” looked back at their successful performance and answered some questions for The Boulevard Online:

Belle (Played by Jaylie Barret, Senior):

Q: What do you love about your character? 

• A: I love how Belle is really nice to everyone, like she doesn’t care about what anyone else thinks, she’s like her own person and in her own little world you can see it throughout the show how everyone judges her but she doesn’t care and she does what she loves. 

Q: What was the biggest challenge about taking your role?

• A:  Practicing higher notes and belting (a specific technique of singing by which a singer carries their chest voice above their break or passaggio with a proportion of head voice.). Just the fact that I got a lead role is “Woah that’s a lot of pressure!” and it was a lot of pressure being cast as Belle because a lot of people depend on you and I have to sing well, etc., and just learning how to sing these songs that had super high notes was hard and challenging but it is all worth it. 

Q: How do you deal with stage fright?

• A: I calm myself down and I speak positively, I try not to use negative words such as “I’m going to mess up, my voice is gonna crack etc.” I say to myself “You got this, you’re gonna kill this performance, etc.” I control my breathing. I try not to think about it too much, I’m on stage with my peers, their light in my face, so I just act as if I were in rehearsal. 

The Beast (Played by Red Palafox, Senior): 

Q: What do you love about your character? 

• A: It’s not what’s said in the book, but what I love about this production is the fact that we can have a trans Beast, and have somebody that’s trans play a lead role I think is very important, especially Beauty and the Beast because it really ties into transformation and trans people. So I think it’s the representation that matters of having that and not many people catch on to it unless they read the Playbill and catch all my pronouns, but I think that being able to represent a fraction of a community and what people seem to view as a classic story. 

Q: What was the biggest challenge about taking your role? 

• A: The biggest challenge was the transformation scenes. It was really hard in the technical aspect of it. I think the vocal aspect was the last song in Act 1, especially hanging those high notes, which was out of my range but for some reason I hit it. 

Q: How do you deal with stage fright?

• A:  I don’t, I honestly don’t. If I’m not nervous or scared of getting on that stage, then I should not be performing at all. I think being nervous means stepping out of your comfort zone and it should be something that I think everybody as a performer or actor should strive for. 

Gaston (Played by Hansel Villar, Junior): 

Q: What do you love about your character?

• A: Something I love about my character is although he is villainous, and he is the antagonist of the story, he looks attractive and I feel like that gives me confidence, and I feel like the character has helped me grow so much and I’ve never seen myself as a cocky person or as a villain but I feel like this is helping me for future projects. 

Q: What was the biggest challenge about taking your role?

• A: The biggest challenge was accepting that I’m supposed to be mean or I have to be villainous because I’m always known as a sweet guy or everyone tells me “You’re so sweet!”  Something I’ve always been told because of this character is “I don’t see you as Gaston, you’re just too sweet. ” Another challenge is the voice, I have to project my voice as cocky and loud to match the character. 

Q: How do you deal with stage fright? 

• A: Actually I lost my stage fright when I did my first play, “She Kills Monsters.” Also I feel like if you have confidence you won’t have stage fright, and in my eyes the audience is not there. I just look at the lights, obviously you’ll be scared at first, but I believe if you’re confident and you’re in character, you’ll get over your fears. 

Maurice (Played by Javier Rollins, Sophomore):

Q: What do you love about your character? 

• A: I love that Maurice is his own person and everyone perceives him as crazy and that he likes to invent stuff and I like that because he’s unique and he doesn’t worry about what people see him as. 

Q: What was the biggest challenge about taking your role?

• A: The biggest challenge about taking Maurice is I feel like I didn’t know how to portray the character of dad. It was difficult for me because I’m not a dad and I don’t know how it would feel to have a daughter. It was hard in the beginning but I care for my fellow actor Jaylie Barret. I love her very much so then the connection was already there. 

Q: How do you deal with stage fright?

• A: With stage fright I just try to breathe, and if I get a little scared I try to look at the lights because the lights block out you seeing the audience, and once I’m on the stage I think about the reason why I’m on that stage for, and I like being there so I block out all the negative thoughts. 

Cogsworth (Played by Jonitzel Cruz, Junior):

Q: What do you love about your character? 

• A: What I love most about Cogsworth is in the movie he is portrayed as like a pain, he’s trying to drag the fun out of everything, but I feel like I’m able to bring out the other side of Cogsworth where yeah, we have to be serious, but we can do that in a playful manner. 

Q: What was the biggest challenge about taking your role? 

• A: I think the biggest challenge about taking my role is walking around in a clock costume. It’s the same size as me and it is so heavy! And walking around I have to wobble. And all the people on stage are always helping me move. 

Q: How do you deal with stage fright? 

• A: I kinda try and not look to see who’s there because already with the lights it’s dim and you can’t really see anybody who’s sitting there, so I try to think “There’s nobody in there” because that’s already what it looks like. 

James Pascal (Stage Manager/Senior):

Q: How does it feel to be backstage and not in front of the audience? How does the experience feel? 

• A: Well I didn’t audition to be in Beauty and the Beast. The reason I have this job is one day I started to help Ms. Anderson with the painting and then she kinda just told me to be backstage during the production. I take my job very seriously, so I just move the set during the production, it kinda sucks that I don’t see the musical because I’m backstage so I don’t see much of it, but it’s so cool to be part of the production and see something that you’ve helped create be shown to everyone. It was cool creating the castle, making the fireplace, etc. So it’s exciting having people see all the work I’ve done. 

Q: Is it hard being a stage manager? Do you comfort/encourage the actors backstage or do you strictly work on the set? 

• A: Well since I’m only there on the day off, most of the actors there are pretty confident. But if there’s an issue I’ll always be there for them or if something happens I’ll be there. I’m like basically the guy who gets the questions asked, like if there’s something that must be done I’ll be there to take responsibility or help. 

Q: If you were given the opportunity to be an actor would you take it or would you still remain backstage? 

• A: I think I’ll take it because I am an introvert but I’m not a shy person, so I wouldn’t mind being onstage at all. I wish I auditioned for “She Kills Monsters’” because I want to join the process and feel like part of something. Now I enjoy it, I feel like I’m more of a person who acts or wants to be on stage.  

Q: If you were to pick a character from Beauty and the Beast, which one would you play?

• A: I was always told as a joke Lefou or Gaston cause I guess I can play as someone who is show-offish at times, so I would probably choose one of those two. If not then I’ll probably be like a wolf or a dancer.