In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan is never a favorite character. According to Elyse Ardaiz, everyone in her junior AP English class last year hated her. Her desire to show a different side to Buchanan, one that is more likable, led her to do her One Person show on Buchanan.

“Ms. Trabert was my AP English teacher last year and I really liked the book. I actually read it twice in the time period, and I realized that she could be a good character, and that was that,” said Ardaiz.

Although the choice of character was easy, the rest of the process soon became very difficult.

“We’re polar opposites, that was really tough. She does everything really impulsively, and that’s the opposite for me,” said Ardaiz.

This complete contradiction of personality was not the only problem. Towards the end of the process, she had doubts about her show and her “statement,” being, “in the long run, reliable love is more important than flights of passion.” She soon realized that restarting was impossible, and gathered the courage to continue.

“You can find something about yourself in every character that you do, and that’s what makes it real when you go on stage,” said Ardaiz.

Although the process was difficult, Ardaiz learned a lot about performing and how she best operates.

“I’ve learned that it’s important to do things not necessarily in the way guidelines tell you to do them, but how they work best for you,” said Ardaiz.