For many, learning lots of lines, devoting countless hours of practice, and performing in front of hundreds of people sounds like a nightmare, but for Jared Eddy, it’s a passion. He manages to juggle theater in addition to taking honors classes, playing three sports, and being Vice-President of his class. In fact, sophomore Jared Eddy is preparing for his tenth production since he first started taking the stage in 2012.

“I started with ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ One day after cross country, the music teacher’s daughter told me to go try out, and I was like, ‘Okay!’ I was tired, I didn’t have anything to do that night, so I just went and auditioned,” the son of Beth and Alan Eddy recalled wistfully.

Keeping up with school-work, sports, and a social life on top of practices is a challenge but definitely not impossible.

“You just gotta balance it out and use time management,” he commented.

This upcoming show is “It’s A Wonderful Life – The Musical” in which Jared is a dancer.

“I think dancing’s the hardest, but I normally go for acting. I go more for the comedy character – I love being funny more than anything. You have to start out though. I’ll take any role, honestly. You just got to work your way up there, I guess, ” the cross country runner/ football kicker/ track star shared.

Woodland Park Baptist Church owns “Storyteller Productions,” the company putting on this show. This is Jared’s second show with them, and he has high expectations for this weekend’s performances.

“The cast is great! Most of the actors and actresses in the show are from Woodland Park,” he informed.

Jared offered some advice to up-and-coming actors.

“Leave everything you got on stage! Don’t be yourself on stage – embarrass yourself! You have to embarrass yourself in order to let yourself become the character,” he shared.

So what are Jared’s plans for future productions, you might ask? He has one more show in mind and then plans on taking a recess from the theater for awhile.

“After ‘Seussical,’ I’m taking a much-deserved break,” the busy sophomore spilled.

Jared gets along with most everyone at school and on stage, which is an important part of theater.

“He’s pretty awesome! Everyone loves him,”  commented producer McKenna Dean.

Most people do not have hopes of making a career out of theater, but Jared certainly has not counted it out.

“My long-term goal would be touring. It would be hard doing the same show over and over again, but it would be fun if you’re touring and every night’s not the same. You have a different hotel, a different area, different things you can explore. I’m also considering somewhere in communications, secondary education, philosophy, psychology, and sociology,” Jared listed.

The future looks bright for young Jared, and his Central family is backing him up all the way. Showtimes and tickets for “It’s A Wonderful Life – The Musical” can be found at http://colonnadecenter.tix.com/Schedule.aspx?OrgNum=410.