Lily Gilliland, a theater obsessed sophomore who has been interested in theater since she was young has been acting at Central and several community theaters here in Omaha, if it wasn’t for her parents influence she might not be interested on being on stage.

“Both my mom and dad did theater when they were younger. My dad tap danced and did theater as did my mom and they met through that… it’s something that I have always done and I really like it,” said Gilliland.
When Gilliland says she likes it, it means she actually loves it. She auditions for anything she can that is local. If she doesn’t make it she doesn’t give up.

“I auditioned for things at the playhouse and my favorite theater is the Chanticleer…It is a smaller theater so the audition sizes are smaller. Those productions are easier to get into and I auditioned for about everything at Central. I audition for commercial and print ads sometimes as well,” said Gilliland.

Gilliland doesn’t just act because her parents did; she acts because it also plays a special part in her life. She also finds the acting experience to be something very special.
“I love the atmosphere, the team work and the people you get to meet a wide variety of really different people,” said Gilliland.

To improve in her hobby she takes acting classes. “I have taken classes in the past. I have taken drama classes here at central and a few classes outside of central last year. I have taken some of those classes through a modeling agency and also through the Playhouse,” said Gilliland.

She has also broadened her horizons by trying commercial acting. Acting in a commercial is not comparable from acting in a production.“Acting in a play, you often rehearse a lot and then you preform and you go straight through. With a commercial there is usually no rehearsal and you memorize your lines the night before or when you get the script, or there is no script and you just have to do what they tell you to do when so they’re directing you as you’re acting,” said Gilliland.

To most people acting seems simple but Gilliland has found it to be so much more work than it seems at the surface level.“It is really a lot of work. It’s a lot more work than people think because when I shot a commercial in South Dakota we drove out there and there was like a 17 hour work day,” she said. “That’s probably the most intense it gets, and with Aida the play that Central put on, we were her till way after school hours, like some of the Tec crew was here till nine.”

It is apparent that Gilliland is serious about acting because she takes her character she plays and she actually practices being them outside of the theater, to get ready for her role.
“I like to go throughout the day thinking about my character and who I am as a character. I make sure I have all my homework out of the way and I make sure nothing is on my mind that will be distracting me, and before I go on stage I start acting like my character if someone asks me a question I won’t answer as lily I will answer as my character,” said Gilliland.

Even though acting is a very important thing in Gilliland’s life she doesn’t see herself wanting to pursue it as a career just because of how hard it is to maintain that career. But she knows that acting has changed her because she sees things differently than most people.

“It broadens your world, it makes you a lot more accepting, because there is definitely a lot of crazy talented people and you have to except the fact that some people are going to be better than you and you have to cheer them on. You also have to know that everyone is important even the people behind stage, it teaches you the importance of team work,” said Gilliland.