Whether acting, creating, or being a leading member in her community, Natasha Friedman ‘25 has been involved in theater for as long as she can remember. Just having finished performing in her seventh production at Jones, it has been almost fourteen years since Friedman was first introduced to theater.
“I like to say I’ve been doing theater since before I was born. My mom was pregnant with me when she worked at a theater called Red Moon, so I got to be surrounded by theater for my entire life,” said Friedman.
Friedman initially started acting at age three and has since done work with various theater companies and ensembles.
“I got to do Looking Glass youth ensemble from seventh to tenth grade, which is an incredible ensemble of teenagers and young people who are really passionate about theater,” said Friedman. “I’ve worked in a lot of different theaters around the city, at Revival, and the Goodman musical theater intensive, and I also did a theater program at Northwestern this past summer.”
Not only is acting a part of her non-academic life, but Friedman has also performed in multiple plays at Jones over the years.
“At Jones, I’ve been doing it since my freshman year, with Anastasia, and I’ve been in every show since then,” said Friedman.
This year, she held major roles in the production of the play Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic, which was performed Nov. 14-16.
“I got to play Leanne, and also Ginny, Helga, and Frenchy. So yeah, it was a lot of characters,” said Friedman.
A major aspect of the roles she played was the amount of quick changes and overall lines that needed to be remembered, requiring great skill and dedication.
“I’ve been lucky enough to get to do quick changes in previous shows, so I had a little bit of experience, but it was very intense, because a lot of mine were running around behind the stage. I wrote down all my changes and entrances and exits, and worked hard on memorizing everything,” said Friedman.
One group of people that she credits for her success is the behind-the-scenes crew who were the backbone of the play.
“I really think I couldn’t have done it without our awesome costume crew who were incredible this year,” said Friedman. “We have some amazing people who are helping us with changes, and making sure everything’s ready and set up, and that’s really what made the show happen, incredible tech people.”
While theater is an incredible time commitment, something that makes it worthwhile for her is the previously mentioned collective it forms.
“I’m taking four APs and leading five clubs and doing a play, but I just know that I love theater so much that I’m not willing to let it go just because I’m scared. I love it so much because of the community I get to create,” said Friedman.
Friedman views community with high importance, and there was an instance in the process of working on Puffs where the group was discussing “puff hugs” that stuck out to Friedman as an opportunity to bring people together.
“I took that moment to say, hey, why don’t we just make a tradition to end each rehearsal with a puff hug and say 3, 2, 1, puffs? And we did that day, and we’ve done it every rehearsal since- I think that kind of sums up the role I want to play, which is being a leader of the community,” said Friedman.
Being a role model and lifting others up is an important aspect of Friedman’s goals as a member of the theater community.
“I can’t create community as one person, but I sure can do my best to create the infrastructure and create the love and care that goes into making sure everyone feels like they can be a part of something great,” said Friedman.
As a senior having performed in her last play at JCP, Friedman has also gone through the journey of becoming the person she previously looked up to in freshman year.
“Watching the seniors in the grades above me get to be incredible role models for me, and
then getting to become a role model myself has just been the most eye-opening experience,” said Freidman. “It’s been so crazy to realize that, I mean, we were just all kind of making it up as we go along.”
Going past her high school experience, Friedman knows that theater is going to forever be a part of her life, after all the love and passion that has gone into it- what this will look like, she’s still trying to figure out.
“I can’t imagine my life without theater, right? I also don’t know if I want that to be all that’s in my life, but I’m going to try to figure it out; you know, I might have a day job and do theater on the side. We’ll see,” said Friedman.
