Vanessa Mena

Playing a lead role

I knew from the beginning, once I joined drama and heard about Play Production, that I wanted to be a part of the Eagle Rock Stage family. Ever since I was a child I knew that I wanted take part in all the aspects of theatre, from acting to costuming, to set construction and lighting and everything else in between and beyond. I knew that I wouldn't rest until I got what I wanted. I've always been motivated by my sheer desire to pursue what I want and I swore to myself that I wouldn't let any self-doubt stop me. I remember the first time that I auditioned for Play Production I didn't make it, but I refused to let that be. So I auditioned again after a semester and to my surprise, I got into the class.

When I first attended Eagle Rock High, I was mentally unprepared for all of it. In turn that greatly affected my grades. I failed a lot of classes and I ended up having to go to summer school, which I hated with a passion. Besides my grades it affected my social life. I was incredibly shy and I always isolated myself from the rest of the world. I suppose this is all to blame on myself and I finally realized that when I got into the 10th grade. So I decided to get my act together and work on fixing up my life. This was hard to do since I've never been able to pick myself up from anything. Then in my junior year I got a great opportunity from Mr. Copley to go to a film program with a non-profit organization called People's CORE. There I learned how to use Final Cut Pro and edit my own documentary. I also made friends from different schools and learned how to open myself up to people. Taking part in a program like this was so fun and I enjoyed every minute of it.

People's CORE gave me the skills I needed to make up my much needed credits in summer school. I took drama once again and our assignment was to write and film a short movie about something that happens in high school. So my group and I decided that our story would be about a teen girl named Christine whose father hates her and whose mother dies, in turn she becomes depressed. Soon after she turns to drinking and loses her relationship with her boyfriend and her best friend. Going to People's CORE helped me greatly in editing this movie. Without that program I couldn't have made that movie as good as I would have wanted it to be.

When I found out that I had been cast as Bogwig in Cancel Christmas I was so happy that there were times when I couldn't believe that it was actually true. Sometimes I woke up every day and thought that maybe it was all a dream. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would have a lead role. When I told my family they congratulated me and said that they were very proud of me, and that's when they finally took my acting seriously. What surprised me most about myself was that eventually I was able to let go of my insecurities and do what I needed to do for the play. I danced in the play as Bogwig, if you ever ask Vanessa to dance, she would say: "Hell no!" I learned how to throw my shyness away and that shocked me because I never change. When I read the review for Cancel Christmas I was overjoyed beyond belief that we had gotten a positive review. And I was glad that I was able to be apart of it.

I have grown a lot since the beginning of the semester, mostly as a filmmaker and an actor. With filming I've become a lot more creative. As an actress I've learned that I can't hold myself back just because I'm shy. When I'm on stage I'm not even supposed to be me and I love that. I've learned that Play Production and Stage Crew are not two separate worlds. Both are a team and we have to work together to accomplish all of the great things we do. Without the help of each other, everything would fall apart. And I hope that I can continue acting and crew work even after high school.