Personal Narrative: Hairspray

My biggest and most recent leadership experience takes place in school. My drama director chose me to be his assistant director for latest musical, Hairspray. For him to entrust me with creative control for a project that would executed in front of lots of people in our community meant a lot to me and drove me to direct the show in the best way possible. My job includes organizing rehearsals, some vocal direction, assessing of blocking and movement, and some dramatic direction.
On a normal day, I call attendance, assign stage managers tasks, and supply the choreographer with the music he needs. If the choreographer is late and our actual director needs the students to be working, I run musical scales and warm-ups on the piano or tell our dance captain to lead the cast in physical warm-ups. I assist my leading actors in learning their lines, their placement in general
In that light, it also teaches me how to not abuse the power that is given to me. As assistant director, I am given the ability to kick students out of the show, cancel rehearsals for personal reasons, and pick favorites when students get out of hand. However, this does not constitute me to misuse the powers however I see fit. My job is to help everyone, so everything that I do as assistant director should be completely selfless. This experience also teaches me how to handle being a part of something bigger than myself. In school, the object of learning is for you to know the information and for you to apply the information to get high grades. In this job, my direction affects the reputation of the entire theatre department at my high-school. Everything that I do affects my director, the cast, all the other directors and stage managers, and then finally myself. Putting myself last for certain projects, like I do as assistant director, will allow me to be successful both independently and