Acting talents serve Trauner well

By Maddie Yang,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

As a young girl, senior Rachel Trauner was destined to be on stage–whether it be singing, dancing or acting. Eventually, her mom signed her up for her first musical after recognizing her talent.

Since her first role in a production of “Winnie the Pooh” at four years old, Trauner has developed her skills to play more serious roles such as Anne Frank, for which she became a Sacramento Area Regional Theatre Alliance Elly Award nominee.

“I get to dress up and go to the awards ceremony this weekend so that’s really exciting,” Trauner said.

Anne Frank has been Trauner’s favorite role so far in her acting journey.

“She’s the most complex person I’ve ever played and I have so much respect for her. Her intelligence and optimism is absolutely inspirational. I just felt so lucky to be able to tell such an important historical figure’s story,” Trauner said.

However, getting to this point was not a simple process.

Trauner has rehearsals four nights a weeks, for a couple hours each day at the Woodland Opera House. Moreover, she practices her lines for about a half hour each day, keeping her script in her backpack and reading through it when she finds time during school.

“It’s hard, but I just try and get as much homework done before rehearsal as I can because they can sometimes end pretty late. I use my planner and calendars religiously to keep track of my rehearsal schedule and keep to a homework schedule. I always bring some homework with me to rehearsal in case I have a bit of down time,” Trauner said.

In addition to balancing her acting extracurriculars with schoolwork, Trauner faces a bigger challenge of getting into character and portraying her roles as accurately as possible.

“The biggest challenge of acting is finding someone else’s voice within your own. Getting recognized for all of your hard efforts is really rewarding,” Trauner said.

During one performance, Trauner encountered an unexpected mishap in which she had a one-on-one dialogue with a colleague who jumped a couple lines, forcing them to improvise and continue until the end of the conversation.

“That was probably the hardest thing I’d ever had to do on stage. I gave him a hard time about it at intermission,” Trauner said.

Trauner is currently preparing for the role of Edith in “Blithe Spirit.” The show will run from Oct. 13 to Nov. 5 at the Woodland Opera House.