Ella Guikema

Name: Ella Guikema

Grade: 12

Role: Elizabeth Proctor

1. What part of being in the play makes you the most nervous?

“I think it’s the expectations because of the lines you have on stage, and seeing how hard everybody else is working; you don’t want to let anyone down with forgetting lines or not saying them well enough.”

2. How many lines do you have, and how long did it take you to memorize them?

“I have 130 lines in The Crucible, and it took me a couple of weeks to memorize them all.”

3. What emotions do you think you’ll feel on opening night as the curtain opens?

“I’ll be very excited because I know how talented the other people in the cast are, and I am so excited for everyone to be able to see them and be able to be blown away by them.”

4. If you could switch roles with anyone for one performance, who would it be and why?

“I think I would switch roles with Aaron playing John Proctor because he gets to yell and be really, really angry, and it sounds really fun.”

5. How are you like or unlike your character?

“I hope I’m not exactly like my character because Elizabeth is kind of cold, so I guess I don’t want to be like her in that way. She is also pretty moral and sticks with what she believes in, so I like that about her.” 

6. What is the most challenging part of playing your role?

“Elizabeth is really cold, so she doesn’t really always show a lot of emotions. It is hard to reconcile not showing a lot of emotion but also showing emotion that translates to the people in the audience who are 40 feet away.”

7. How do you “get into character” before the play starts?

“Just being around everybody really gets you excited to get going. The big thing we have been focusing on is getting our energy up and picking up lines faster, so just being around everybody kind of inspires that.”