By Peter Hyle

Coming to a school as large as FC may give some new students a reason to be shy and unsure of themselves. There are so many programs available that it can often be hard finding the right path, but for junior Collin Jackson, he knew exactly where he belonged. Joining the theater program at the start of this school year, Jackson has already found himself a lead role.

Knowing that he wanted to participate in theater, Jackson started the new school year with determination.

“He always comes in prepared, learns music quickly, and when he doesn’t know something very well, he practices extremely hard to get better at it,” said theater teacher Robbie Steiner.

Though he has previously acted in plays, such as The Music Man, Jackson is ecstatic about the role he has obtained in the upcoming show, Godspell.

“For each show, all the actors interested have to audition in front of the directors. In this particular case, the show is a classroom project, so only the students in the musical theater class were allowed to audition,” said Jackson.

For the new show, Jackson is playing the role of Jesus himself.

“The role I play has a fairly large amount of lines. He has to be a leader to the rest of the cast, which is different from how I usually am,” said Jackson.

Though the role has obvious challenges, Jackson recognizes this and concerns himself with doing the best job he can.

“The responsibility involved is finding how to display to the audience that my character is both authoritative and friendly. Basically, I just want to make sure I’m doing my job really well, otherwise the whole point of the show could be missed,” said Jackson.

In the past, Jackson has spent time with a program called iTheatrics, a summer workshop in New York. Giving him the motivation to continue forward with his passion, he looks back on his time there as a helpful reminder.

“It gave me some confidence in what I was doing and brought a lot of reality into theatre for me,” said Jackson.

Aside from the positive outlook added to his theatre career, Jackson credits the program for much more than that.

“The program I was involved with encouraged me to make choices, and to look beyond what lines are directly stating. As a whole, the trip was a boost. It helped me to decide that theatre is what I want to do,” said Jackson.

Looking past what lies in front of him, Jackson is optimistic about his future here at FC.

“Even though I’ve only been here for a short amount of time, I have grown to know so many people and I truly feel accepted,” said Jackson, “I appreciate each individual involved in theatre, and cannot wait to see how the rest of my experience here turns out.”