By Kayla Hoang
A crowd full of audience members are seated and in anticipation for the show to begin. The rhythmic tip-tap of actors’ shoes scatter across the stage floor as they rush to their starting position. Stage-lights flood the stage with brightness, and at the center of it all stands actor Michael Bell, eager and prepared for what awaits him.
It is no secret that the art of performing is one that takes skill and training. For Michael Bell, acting is not only an art form, but also a life passion.
Bell cites the beginning of this passion sparked the summer before his freshman year at FVHS, when he and his family traveled to England and he watched Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe Theatre. This spark further ignited later in the school year, when the school’s intercom announced the FVHS Theatre program’s auditions for Hamlet.
“I was in marching band at the time, not particularly enjoying it,” Bell recalls. “And I remember thinking to myself, well, I saw Shakespeare, and it didn’t seem that hard and seemed pretty fun, I might as well give that a try.”
As his first role, Bell received a smaller role, collective of only one line, but he marked that experience as the moment he fell in love with acting, a creative outlet he found he truly belonged in. Throughout his high school years, Bell participated in as many high school theatre productions as he could, from Shakespeare plays to classic musicals to even the FVHS annual haunted houses hosted by the theatre program.
Bell believes that through his time in his experience with the performing arts, something that truly differentiates him is his affinity for the “strange and weird of acting,” bringing a fresh, new idea of what acting could be. Whether it be extra props added to his character during live performances to provide extra authenticity, or special effects he included into a music video he created for a class project, Bell never settles for the minimum, instead striving to make the best out of his ability.
Michael’s journey in acting has been my pleasure to watch and learn from,” his younger sister, Katie Bell, said of him. “His journey is far from done as I see him pursuing a career in it,” she said. “Ten years from now I see him preparing for auditions and possibly even working on a few things.”
Bell prides his ability to take scenes that can be perceived as “evil” or “ugly,” and transform into his own vision.
“How can I make them beautiful, in a way?” Bell said. “If I was to go back and do Hamlet again and they were like, ‘Okay, you’re Hamlet,’ I would be like, ‘Alright, let’s see how far I can take this. I love incorporating smaller things into it. Like when I played Macbeth, and, like I had the blood capsule pop in my mouth- that was my own thinking of, like, let’s make the inanimate seem real.”
Bell pursues his passion as a freshman in the exclusive Theatre & Acting major at California State University, Fullerton, a top 20 university for the performing and visual arts, where he believes college to be a much easier outlet to express your passion compared to high school where he can now place all his focus towards acting. Even in a new, unfamiliar, environment, he is sure to make a name for himself and his purpose .
“You need to be ready to show off,” Bell advises regarding being an actor in college.
His most recent project at university was in the play “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot.”
Bell believes his experience with his university’s theatre program pushed him to explore a different side of acting that he was exposed to in high school. He emphasizes the blood, sweat, and tears that are often involved in his acting process before a production.
“It’s hard being an actor, and that’s something I feel that people don’t necessarily always understand,” Bell said. “Because generally, the audience only sees the actors when they act. There were nights that I was in tears because something just didn’t work that time. And you know that puts something on you because you care about the show. The show is very much the adopted child of all of the people who work on it.”
Although he’s aware of the stigma that often follows people who dream of a career in the arts, Bell is positive about wherever life takes him.
“I think that’s the great part about theatre and why I really think that anybody who is going into any sort of field where you need to talk with people,” he said. “I think it should be mandatory that you take a theater class because it’s a class that basically teaches you how to be charismatic and really break out your shell and get to talk to people. Every time I like going to a job interview, I’m using the skills I’ve learned in theater.”
Although he dreams of acting as a career, Bell knows his one true life goal is to make people happy and serve as an inspiration to put some more grace into their lives.
“That’s what theater is about is, it’s about making people feel something. Yeah. And I think all too often in life, we go through not really feeling stuff. And I think that’s where I would want to be,” Bell affirms. “Whether I’m like off on a giant mainstage production of the newest Broadway show. I would want to be wherever I am and making people happy.”
When asked where he finds his inspiration, Bell considers FVHS Theatre teacher and program director Robert Zick, who he gives credit as being the reason he decided to stay in FVHS Theatre the remainder of his high school years.
“After Hamlet on closing night, Zick walked up to me and asked me if I sang, and I said, ‘why I like to think I can,’” Bell warmly recalls. “And he encouraged me to try out for the musical, and with that, it made me realize that she saw something in me and that was something that I didn’t have in marching band. And it was that kind of driving force that keeps me in theater.”
Bell also credits his family for their support in his pursuit of the performing arts as a reason he has continued through college.
“They love to really put their all into me and I love them for it,” Bell said.
His message to other fellow dreamers?
“Some of the best advice that I can give to anybody, is some of the best life advice, the best spiritual advice, the best acting advice I can ever give anybody, and that is don’t be afraid,” Bell said. “You have every, you have every right to be cautious. But do not be afraid, and go forward. If you go forward without fear, then you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.”
Wherever his journey takes him, Bell’s talent and love for what he does is something he’s sure to bring forth onto the world.
