Lighting Up the Stage
BY JONATHAN KANE
Alma Ceja, a senior at Wood River High School carrying a 3.5 grade point average and a member of National Honor Society, knows how to light up a stage. She also has a great singing voice that she shows off in the school’s singing group, Enchante.
“I just love to be on stage,” Ceja said. “I love being able to put smiles on people’s faces and make them laugh, make them cry, and to tell all these stories through theater.”
As Ceja puts it, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing an audience enjoy a show. And she has been a theater person since she was little.
“I loved playing pretend games with my mom and at school. I would basically create a character and be a hundred percent committed to it.”
In that way Ceja would be someone completely different from herself.
“I would think and speak like the character and I would love it,” she said. “My favorite part was seeing all these different points of view and perspectives as though I was living a whole different life.” She would base these characters on people that she had seen before.
“Basically, they were all comedic characters. I enjoy making people laugh and it’s the best feeling in life when you can make someone happy.”
Ceja’s favorite character was Sandy from “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
“I would make her human. She was always really funny to watch and I loved the way that she treated boys.”
Ceja’s earliest memory of performing was in first grade.
“It was at Bellevue Elementary School and I was a cat,” she said. “I remember being scared and nervous to have people watch me even though I didn’t have any lines. It ended up going very well, and when it was done, I felt awesome. Amazingly, my nerves were completely gone.”
In high school, Ceja started with small roles with no lines, though she worked “really hard in class and on stage.”
In the spring of her sophomore year, she got the lead in a one-act.
“It went really well and I received the award for best actress [award] that year for my performance. It was my first role and I worked really hard and it went really well.”
Ceja did a lot of character work for the part. “I would think about my character – what she had done before – and I would invent what her life was like. I really liked her and the audience could see that it was something different.”
Her junior year Ceja was the lead in both school plays, “Taming Romeo” and “Noises Off.”
“That play was so hilarious that it was hard not to laugh on stage. Afterwards, I felt famous because everyone in school recognized me. It was the best feeling ever.”
It’s a feeling that Ceja is sure to experience many times again in the future.
Editor’s Note: Anyone who would like to recommend a Blaine County School District student for The Weekly Sun’s “Student Spotlight” feature should contact Jonathan Kane at jkjonkane@gmail.com.