Student actors Maria Cina and Rachel Seizer are stars in the play, “The Addam’s Family: A New Musical Comedy,” Madison College’s Fall musical. They have been working hard to perfect the wacky characters in the world of the Addam’s Family, and just finished their first showing over the weekend. In talking with the actors, they explained the challenges of being a student actor, being a leader on stage, and satisfaction that acting and theater brings them.

While their real passion is acting, they double as students, and feel the pressure as they navigate their way through both careers.

Their instructors expect just as much from them as theater and acting does, but Cina and Seizer clarified that acting frees their mind, and it has come to the point where their two lives go hand-in-hand with each other. Acting betters their understanding of the world, and provides them with a drive that helps them in educational matters, as well.

“(As a teenager) I had a lot of feelings, and I needed an outlet, and acting gave me a role to play, rather than the sad, depressed, hormonal teenager,” said Cina. “As the years have gone by, and the more shows I do, I have grown to really love and appreciate acting for more than just that, it’s an art, a passion.”

In what was originally an escape from reality evolved into an expressive desire for Cina and Seizer when they began to embrace what they once thought inhibited them. Their ability to use their emotions and insecurities in a positive way turned, just acting, into an art form and lifestyle.

Seizer touched on this, saying, “There is nothing else that I can do that is going to be fulfilling to me, and is going to make as happy as doing theater does, there is no amount of money that you can offer me to do something else as a career.”

As much as acting is supposed to be an onstage event for an audience to enjoy, Cina and Seizer see it differently. Applause and gratification comes second to the feeling they get when they are onstage, knowing they and the cast have put in the effort and practice that allows them to jump into their character, and put aside reality for a moment to put on a great show.

For these actors, feeling accomplished derives from challenging their perceived limits, and how they grow in wisdom and experience. They know benefits and reward will come as they continue with this mindset.

To any young person who might be interested in acting, they said that the first step is to accept who you are as a person, free yourself of inhibitors and fly.

Cina explained, “I can apply those feelings and that pent-up emotion that blocked me, and can embrace that and apply that to what I’m doing, and help my stage partner, the audience members, or anyone I am interacting with as an actress to come to the same conclusion. You can embrace it and turn it into something beautiful.”

Once naïve teenagers, turned confident leaders on stage, Maria Cina and Rachel Seizer will perform “The Addam’s Family: A New Musical Comedy” again at the Mitby Theater at Madison College on Nov. 10 and Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m. and on Nov. 12 at 2:30 p.m.