Katerine Helm
Here at Lee’s Summit West there are many clubs for students to get involved in such as Yearbook, NAHS, and theatre. Theatre offers many opportunities for students to show off their acting skills. Lee’s Summit West has many kids that are very talented when it comes to this, including senior Emma Brewer.
While Emma is involved with theater, she also carries her love for acting outside of school. “My favorite thing I’ve ever done was Boeing Boeing,” Brewer said. In the play, Brewer played as Gloria, one of the fiancee’s.
Brewer has taken theater since her freshman year but said she has always had a love for acting for as long as she can remember. She said she did her first show when she was six.
“My parents actually tried to make me do sports when I was younger, and i begged them every single practice and game to quit,” Brewer said.
Brad Rackers, a theatre teacher at West, has taught Emma since her freshman year. “She has always been willing to take chances and not afraid of looking silly in front of her peers,” Rackers said. He said he has always known since he first met her that she was up for any acting task and was full of energy.
Rackers says he believes she is different from others. “No matter the size of the roles, Emma makes the most of it and people are drawn to her memorable characters,” Rackers said.
Brewer said she uses acting as a way to escape when things get difficult. “You can almost escape all your problems through acting…you get to paint a story through it and help others see things a different way,” Brewer said. She gets into character by focusing a few minutes before going on stage, but doesn’t really get into it until she’s on stage.
Brewer said she tries to get into the mind of her character and see things through their mind. “I think of how they would feel about things and that’s kind of how I get in the zone,” Brewer said.
Brewer said she has been getting bigger in the theatre world and was able to do this by asking her parents to get an agent. “I begged them every single day,” Brewer said. Brewer said her parents eventually gave in and she got an agent at Moxie Talent Agency. She said she began taking professional acting classes and getting more opportunities to do acting.
Brewer auditioned for a trip through her agency, and her and seven other people in the world got picked to go to LA and learn more about acting. “Some people from Australia were there,” Brewer said.
After the LA trip, Brewer went home for an hour and was off again to the airport for a trip to New York with the West theatre group. She said while she was there she got to see a few shows on Broadway and do workshops with Broadway actors.
Rackers said he has always believed that Brewer would get bigger and will continue to do so. “I knew she would be a performer one day,” Rackers said. “Emma is going to be on stage or screen one day soon.”
