Joel Oramas (MFA Acting '14) recently finished performing as the leading player in Pippin at Jean’s Playhouse in Lincoln, New Hampshire. The production showed July 16 to Aug. 29, 2015, alternating with performances of Man of La Mancha.
In the play, Pippin, the young heir to the Frankish throne is trying to find his way in life and the leading player of the acting troupe, played by Oramas, is helping him along the way.
Oramas landed this role after auditioning through the New England Theatre Conference (NETC).
“My NETC application to sing and act wasn’t accepted,” says Oramas. This led him to take it upon himself to submit a video of monologues and singing to the companies he knew would be at the conference, which ended up working in his favor and landing him the role.
“In the beginning, I was nervous about taking on this part,” Oramas says. “The rehearsal process was a short one. We had one week and a few days to put it up. We had four days of rehearsing Pippin and Man of La Mancha jumping back and forth between the two.”
Practice is what helped Oramas trust in the process.
“Dancing doesn't come natural to me, so I had to work harder to get more comfortable,” he says. “After rehearsal I’d go out in the parking lot and practice the dance moves, and it paid off.”
Now that Pippin has come to an end, Oramas plans to jump right into a nine-month tour of the northeast and Canada for Children Stage Adventures. Oramas will direct this tour while also acting as Fagan in Olivier Twist.
