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LEWISTOWN – A fifth grade musical brought forth the inner actress of Hope Showers.
Shower is a 16-year-old from Millerstown who will be a junior at Juniata Mennonite School this fall.
She credits that very first spring musical held at Cedar Grove Brethren in Christ Church more than five years ago, as the moment she decided she had to keep acting.
Now the inspired actress is headed to Yale this summer as part of a National Leadership Conference. Students across the country are selected based on their personal essays and applications to be part of the conference July 14 to 31 at the Ivy League school located in New Haven, Connecticut.
There are several divisions of the conference, and Showers has been accepted into the acting intensive component of the program.
Showers received an email in January that explained the opportunity for students to get involved. She also earned a $1,000 scholarship to attend the two week intensive. Her English teacher helped her prepare her essay, and her Bible teacher wrote a letter of recommendation.
Showers has taken to the stage not just within her school over the last few years, but she participates with the Stone Arch Players in Lewistown. She became involved in the Stone Arch Players’ teen program last summer. This year she took a bold leap in trying out for the role of a 30-year-old married woman for the spring production of “June Groom.”
She was chosen for the role, and when the cast began rehearsing she was only 15 years old, acting alongside her 30-year-old co-star who played her husband.
“One day at rehearsal one of the cast members realized how old I was. ‘You’re only 15?’ They thought I was a sophomore in college, not in high school.”
Though it was a bit awkward at times to play the role of someone’s wife, Showers said the performance was “a great chance for me.”
The Yale leadership program is designed to teach students how to speak publicly and how to work in group settings. Shower said she is most excited for the second half of the day when she gets to focus on her love of acting.
“They’re going to teach us different techniques and how to use our body language,” she said.
Showers said her years at JMS have inspired her to use her creativity in her future. The musicals and high school performances have given her an opportunity to become another person for a short time.
She said she is planning to pursue a degree in acting after she graduates from JMS in 2018. Her hopes are to move to California and take to theater, TV or movies. If that career path does not work out, Showers has a dream of starting a Christian-based acting school for children.