After a weekend of shows, theater’s “The Beggar’s Opera” will continue rehearsing their show until December, for the Texas Thespian State Festival in Dallas on Dec. 1, 2 and 3. This play is to showcase as a marathon show, a 40-minute show designed to showcase different schools. This is the first time in a few years the school has submitted a marathon play entry, and the entire cast and crew of “The Beggar’s Opera” is working to perfect the show. Here’s a quick look into some of the actors and actresses of “The Beggar’s Opera.”

Nathan Cheatham, senior

Character: MacHeath

Description: MacHeath is the leader of the gang, a womanizing rogue, and the husband of Polly. He is also the lover of Lucy, Jenny, and countless other girls.

Q: How has theater helped you in your life?

A: “It’s an environment that I can express myself in and I feel free to be myself in there. It’s really fun to be with all my friends acting on stage.”

Q: What is your opinion on your fellow actors/actresses?

A: “They’re really enjoyable and I love to be with them and the rehearsal experience has been fun just because of them.”

Q: What was the preparation like for the show?

A: “Slow and painful.”

Q: What was the biggest challenge for you?

A: “The biggest challenge for me in this process is getting used to the new directors.”

Q: Favorite actor/actress?

A: “My favorite actress is Blake Lively, because I love her, and Gossip Girl is amazing. Also I love Gina Rodriguez because I love her viewpoints on life and Jane the Virgin is an amazing TV show. My favorite actor is Grant Gustin because he’s the Flash and that’s my dream.”

Q: Favorite rehearsal moment?

A: “My favorite rehearsal moment is the warm ups, because they’re really fun.”

Q: Favorite role?

A: “My favorite role was Tumnus in ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.’”

Rayan Moosa, junior

Character: Mr.Peacham

Description:  He’s the father of Polly Peachum, and the husband to Mrs. Peachum. He’s a very over-the-top character, very crazy, because he has a very bipolar attitude and he’s just very excited all the time.

Q: How has theater helped you in your life?

A: “Theater has helped me build a family that I can fall back and rely on whenever I need them, and it’s just always fun being with them.”

Q: What is your opinion on your fellow actors/actresses?

A: “My fellow actors and actresses are very, very talented and it’s so much fun working with them because they bring so much excitement and fresh acting to our group.”

Q: What was the preparation like for the show?

A: “Preparation for the show took a lot of effort and a lot of homework and studying outside the classroom, and we had to do a lot of research.”

Q: What was the biggest challenge for you?

A: “The biggest challenge for me in the show was embodying my character fully and going 100 percent, because my character is so big, that sometimes it feels a little weird going a little bit too much out of my box. But it’s always good to go out of your box and do new things.”

Q: Favorite rehearsal moment?

A: “My favorite rehearsal moment is when the whole show comes together and it just clicks and everyone just does a really great job. That’s my favorite rehearsal moment.”

Q: Favorite role?

A: “Mr. Peachum has been by far my favorite role because it really requires me to think a lot and put a lot of effort into the character.”

Spencer Kahn, senior

Character: Mr. Lockit.

Description: Mr. Lockit is the father of Polly. He is the jailer of Newgate Prison. He looks out for himself, and is easily bribed. He works closely with Mr. Peachum.

Q: How has theater helped you in your life?

A: “Theater has taught me lots of communication skills that allow me to better my social skills. It also helped me with my life. Being in theater is fun. Just being able to tell people a story on stage is life-changing.”

Q: What is your opinion on your fellow actors/actresses?

A: “I think everyone is very good at what they want to be, and if they’re passionate about something they shouldn’t give up.”

Q: What was the preparation like for the show?

A: “Preparation for any show can be very fun, especially when you do it right. Preparation for this show was very fun in a different way. For ‘The Beggar’s Opera,’ we had to dive deep into our characters and it’s a very ensemble-heavy show, so everyone has to be creative. So creating our characters was probably the best part about it.”

Q: What was the biggest challenge for you?

A: “The biggest challenge was definitely the audition process. Once you actually have a role it’s easy to dive into, but the audition process is hard, because you have to put yourself into a completely new position.”

Q: Favorite actor/actress?

A: “One of my favorite actresses is definitely Kristen Wiig, because she’s such a chameleon. She’s a very great actress.”

Q: Favorite rehearsal moment?

A: “My favorite rehearsal moment was when we all agreed we needed to make the show fun for ourselves, because if we were having fun, then the audience will have fun.”

Q: Favorite role?

A: “My favorite role was definitely Frank N’ Furter in ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show.’”

Maddie McPherson, sophomore

Character Played: Polly Peacham

Description: Polly Peachum is the sweet, innocent daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peachum. She is the wife of MacHeath. Hopelessly in love with her unfaithful husband, she does the best she can to keep him alive.

Q: How has theater helped you in your life?

A: “Theater has helped me in my life by being able to talk to people. It makes it a lot easier.”

Q: What is your opinion on your fellow actors/actresses?

A: “My opinion on the other actresses is that they all strive for a goal and we all work really well together. If they want something, they really work hard to get it.”

Q: What was the preparation like for the show?

A: “We had to do a lot of background information on the characters, so we can really embody them well, so we focused a lot of time on that before starting on stage. We had to research about marriage, what people wore back then and relationships.”

Q: What was the biggest challenge for you?

A: “The biggest challenge for me was trying to get my character right, because there’s a lot of directions I could take the character.”

Q: Favorite actor/actress?

A: “My favorite character is Jennifer Lawrence, because she strives to be believable in all her performances and that’s what I try to do too.”

Q: Favorite rehearsal moment?

A: “My favorite rehearsal moment is being on stage and being able to bond with everyone. When someone does something funny, it just sticks with us.”

Q: Favorite role?

A: “I really like the one I’m playing right now; it’s pretty cool.”

Dalton Currey, sophomore

Character: Flich

Description:  Flich is Mr. Peachum’s servant initially. Weak, stuttering, and easily seduced, Filch is often beaten and blamed when things go wrong.

Q: How has theater helped you in your life?

A: “It’s helped me make new friends and gave me something to do after school. If I didn’t have theater, I would be sitting at home doing nothing.”

Q: What is your opinion on your fellow actors/actresses?

A: “I love the Bravo class and everyone here is really fun and nice. And we’re all just trying to get better at acting.”

Q: What was the preparation like for the show?

A: “It wasn’t too strenuous, you know, the play is pretty short, so we didn’t have that much to get down. Most of what we did in the course while we were rehearsing the show was just polishing.”

Q: What was the biggest challenge for you?

A: “The biggest challenge was trying to deal with screaming over and over again, just kind of shifting into this big character.”

Q: Favorite actor/actress?

A: “Favorite actor would have to be Bryan Cranston.”

Q: Favorite rehearsal moment?

A: “Well, Nathan Cheatham and Maddie McPherson were running toward each other and Maddie, completely by accident, fell on Nathan. It was extremely hilarious and now it’s cemented as part of the show. We decided to put it in as a stroke of genius.”

Q: Favorite role?

A: “I haven’t been involved with outside theater, so it’s basically just been this role.”

Alexis Geddi, junior

Character: Mrs.Peacham

Description: Mrs. Peachum is the conniving wife of Mr. Peachum, and mother of Polly Peachum. With a wandering eye, Mrs. Peachum is seductive and remorseless. Her and her husband are equally crazy in marriage, and run the gang together.

Q: How has theater helped you in your life?

A: “Theater has helped me by, I don’t know, let’s say you have a project and you have to present, it helps me with my teaching skills and speaking skills. I’m not really afraid to go out of my way to talk in class or present a project.”

Q: What is your opinion on your fellow actors/actresses?

A: “I love them. It’s like a family and you really build an awesome bond during the show. It’s just fun to see the amazing talent everyone’s got in theater.”

Q: What was the preparation like for the show?

A: “We started off reading the show and then we started blocking it. It just kind of formed and came together. We had to do historical research. My character’s Ms. Peachum, so I had to figure out what my daughter was like, what I’m like and what I like to wear.”

Q: What was the biggest challenge for you?

A: “Probably just really finding my character and becoming that character to make it believable.”

Q: Favorite actor/actress?

A: “I have to say Jennifer Aniston.”

Q: Favorite rehearsal moment?

A: “I love tech week, you get to dress up in costume and see everything come together.”

Q: Favorite role?

A: “Probably this role. I really like it.”

Alyssa Biasatti, junior

Character Played: Lucy

Description: Lucy is the daughter of Lockit, the jailer, and the spurned pregnant love of MacHeath. She’s stubborn, crude, but deeply devoted to MacHeath.

Q: How has theater helped you in your life?

A: “It’s kind of like a safe haven. It’s a place where you can be yourself and let go around people you feel comfortable with.”

Q: What is your opinion on your fellow actors/actresses?

A: “I love them all and they’re so fun to work with.”

Q: What was the preparation like for the show?

A: “Since it’s a play within a play, we got to make up our own beggar character and after that we add in the people who have the main characters. So that was a lot of backstory work and finding the connection with the people on stage. Also, how you sound and present yourself on stage. It was a lot of fun.”

Q: What was the biggest challenge for you?

A: “My character is really evil and gross and I’m not like that. My voice is sweet and my disposition is sweet, so it was hard getting into that character.”

Q: Favorite actor/actress?

A: “My favorite character is Austin P. McKenzie. No one will know who that is.”

Q: Favorite rehearsal moment?

A: “I fell off the stage last year.”

Q: Favorite role?

A: “Alice in ‘Alice in Wonderland.’”