The Best Theatre Experience in my Life

Being a theatre student for more than 6 years has taught me a lot, and in all those year i have experienced different things that have marked my life in some sort of way. There are many experiences to pick from in that jar of ideas, whether is the exhausting kabuki training, the long texts to learn in my 5th play, or the neverending classes of theory. However, there is one in particular that stands out from the rest, one, that if it would have never happened to me, i wouldn't be going through the adventure IB Theatre, and Theatre itself is.
It all happened when i was in 6th grade, we had just finished the School Play, my first one, and i was quite fascinated by Theatre and acting. During the last meeting, after the play, the director asked me to join him with the IB students in the One Act Play Festival, for me to act with alongside the older students.  For the One Act Play, the IB students had to produce, write and act in, well, a one act play, whereas my role was just acting in it, being a guest and a mere 12 year old. Up until that moment, i viewed theatre as simple acting, and had no idea whatsoever of the other things it required, mainly production. Most of the first meetings required the creation of the play; brainstorming ideas for the story, for the characters, the design elements, concept, etc. Personally, the closer i got to the creation of a play up until then, was the scenes we had to do for class, which require more acting, and less in depth development. For me, it was a whole new experience, a different world for the matter. I got to contribute with ideas, and experience an insight into the world of creating plays, and God was it exhausting! Long hours of writing scripts, and designing the stage, and looking for props, and rehearsing over and over again was quite an energy consumer. One of the challenges, was that it was completly voluntary for me, i had no obligation, thus my school work was not excused by it, and nor was my social life, therefore i had to find some sort of balance, which personally was a lot of work and took some time to get used to. Our play, was about an orphan who killed a mailman and hid the body in the closet, quite a lot of dark humor indeed. By the end of the entire process, we got to present the play in front of an audience from the British Schools of Peru, and well, if there had been a prize we would have definitely received it.
A lot of times i felt like i wanted to quit right there and then, other times i felt like i was going to pass out from exhaustion, and others i just wanted to tell the director to go to a very bad place i won't name. Nonetheless, i kept going, i endured, i faced my exhaustion and i made it through, and i am proud of it and do not regret it one bit. We did have a lot of fun during rehearsals and backstage during the actual presentation, but still we kept it professional when it came to working. Sometimes i got really bored during the production process, but most of the time i was enjoying myself, because i was learing and experiencing this new side of theatre i did not know.
Looking back at it now, i can proudly say that that was the moment i truly fell in love with Theatre, and i guess it opened my eyes to the fact that it was so much more than just acting, and i liked that, a lot. Being part of the creative process taught me a lot about how it works, and actually served me to apply these new alien skills to the classes, and later to the school play.  Besides, it made me a more confident person, regarding my acting skills, my creative skills, and well my personality. Since then, i've been in every school play, no excuses, and i've had many other amazing experiences that marked my life, but honestly, this was the best one.