November 18, 2024

Football players and theatre majors team up on stage and on the field

When football player José Guillen’24 took a chance on an acting class, he found the discomfort surprisingly thrilling. He and two football friends then joined the spring play — and together, they made a positive impact on campus culture.

A theatre trust exercise with José Guillen'24, Jace Roddey'27, and other members of the cast. José Guillen’24, second from right, and Jace Roddey’27, far right, join a trust exercise on stage.
Credit: Amy Sarno

Act I: Setting the Scene

A number of football players have taken acting classes in recent years. José Guillen’24, a business economics major from La Pine, Oregon, enjoyed an introductory class so much that he convinced his friend Cyrus Roman’24 to take Amy Sarno’s Acting 206 course with him. She quickly became one of Guillen’s favorite professors.

“She’ll throw questions at you that make you think outside the box,” Guillen says. “She challenges you. She’s gotten me to do a lot of things, from acting like a horse on all fours to talking ‘Shakespearean.’ I like the idea of feeling uncomfortable until it’s comfortable.”

Guillen and Roman, a former football player and physics major from Smithville, Texas, contemplated joining a college play after attending one together, but worried about their busy schedules. Sarno told them that rehearsals for last spring’s play, Rehearsal for Murder, wouldn’t interfere with weekend practices and games, so they signed up together.

Act II: A Special Production

Guillen and Roman didn’t tell their teammates until after they were fully immersed in rehearsals, apprehensive not only of how they would react but whether they would be accepted by their seasoned castmates. The duo encouraged Jace Roddey’27, a teammate and friend from Rock Hill, South Carolina, to join them.

Sarno had never seen a group of players from the same sports team join a production together. She and Coach Ted Soenksen realized that this might be a special production.

“I knew that building a team would be important for this particular group because theatre kids and football players rarely run in the same circles,” Sarno says. But from the first week of rehearsals and team building activities, she recalls Roman breaking the group into spirited chants of “RFM!”

Soenksen and Sarno teamed up to schedule rehearsal during athletics’ off hours, and then arranged something even more meaningful. Soenksen acquired tickets for the entire team of 70 to attend the play and cheer on Roman, Roddey, and Guillen. But he never expected that the majority of the team would come to the play — and in some cases more than once.

Cyrus Roman'24 performing in Rehearsal for Murder. Cyrus Roman’24, second from left, performing in Rehearsal for Murder.
Credit: Amy Sarno

“[Coach Soenksen says] that’s what we should do as a team: support each other,” says Guillen. He was shocked to see friends and beloved professors and mentors, including President Eric Boynton, at every show. “Whether we’re on or off the team, we’re still family.”

Act III: Rehearsal for Community

The cast — both athletes and actors — interacted more outside of the production than any in recent memory, encouraging each other to break out of their regular social groups and make new friends.

“For me, Rehearsal for Murder became a rehearsal for community,” says Sarno. “I watched two campus groups who ordinarily see each other as strangers become friends and supporters. Maybe there’s something we can all learn there.”

Guillen and Roman included the entire cast in the football team’s activities: dinner in Commons, late night trips to Taco Bell, morning workouts, and pickup basketball. They also used athletic terminology to unite the group, referring to rehearsals as practices and informal hangouts as captain practices.

“Those little references to sports helped us treat it [seriously], because on the field, you’re a family,” says Roman. “We tried to make it like that with this cast and include everyone.”

The castmates continued to hang out after Rehearsal for Murder ended, attending dance professor Gina T’ai’s Performing Gender class’s drag show as a group. They stayed up until the wee hours of the morning together after their last show to watch the sun rise.

“I didn’t think the experience was going to be as great as it was, or that I would make so many friendships,” Roman says. “We were really a family, and that was the best thing about the show: how close-knit we were, and still are to this day.”


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