There are two things that senior Sean Wilner loves most: tennis and theater. When it came time for him to choose his character for his One Person Show, it was clear to him that he was going to do a tennis player. After reading some player biographies, he immediately connected to Andre Agassi and his story.
“I think Andre’s life was basically defined by his struggle to find out who he was and make his own choices, and a part of growing up for everyone, and what I’ve been going through it figuring out who I want to be and making my own decisions regardless of what other people may think of me,” said Wilner.
Almost immediately he ran into troubles with the writing. Agassi is an especially complex character to write about because he is a real person with 30 years of great material to choose from. Although Wilner was intimidated at first, he decided to just go for it. Despite the difficulties, once he started he knew he had chosen the right person.
“It was really hard narrowing it down and cutting out some of the characters that I loved so much but just couldn’t afford to have in my show,” said Wilner.
Throughout his research, he got attached to certain ideas and had some trouble letting them go. He rewrote his script three times in order to be within 30 minutes. It ultimately worked better when he finally let go of those parts and kept an open mind.
“The good thing about performing arts is that if you don’t go into them as a profession, you gain skills from them that you can use in almost everything. Doing a One Person Show has given me a lot of confidence in front of people, so I’m not afraid to go up and talk in front of a crowd,” said Wilner. “Theater has taught me a lot about myself and a lot about how I work under stress, and that’s applicable anywhere. So even though I might not be planning to go into theater, I can definitely used the skills I’ve learned in everything I do.”
This process was truly an invaluable experience for him, and being a part of theater for four years has helped him in countless ways.
“Since freshmen year, I’ve been watching these shows in shock and awe, like how could I ever possibly do that, and up until my first show I didn’t completely know if I could do it. But I did, and I think a lot of it is that you perceive your own boundaries, and if you put in the work, you can achieve anything you set your mind to,” said Wilner.
Because he spent his whole senior year preparing for his show, he was able to accomplish this very difficult task and will benefit from it for a long time.
