Junior Connor Austin took his first lead role in November, but he didn’t get just one part. Instead, he got the dual roles of Dr. Jekkyl and Mr. Hyde in the theatre production of Chemical Imbalance. It was a big change for Austin, who only had small roles before.

The Eagle’s Eye interviewed Austin about his experience, leading a play for the first time.

EE: What made you want to audition for Chemical Imbalance?

AC: “I love being funny and making people laugh. It just seemed like it would be really cool and I looked at this script before and it was funny, so I had to audition.”

EE: What mental preparation did you do?

AC: “Oh, mental preparation that was pretty tough. Switching between two characters. I had to learn how to give myself a lisp, accent and to uncontrollably spasm. All were kind of tolling on me.”

EE: What was your favorite moment from the play?

AC: “My favorite moment is the park scene where I got to hit that pigeon into the audience with my cane.”

EE: How hard was it to develop two different characters and make them distinct from one another?

AC: “It was pretty difficult. Although I admit the play did help me by highly contrasting both of the characters, Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

EE: How tiring is doing a play day after day?

AC: “It was very exhausting… because we didn’t use microphones so I had to constantly like projects to the whole theater. I had to do that every night and I always went home and I couldn’t move. I was asleep on my couch, like right when I got home and it was rough, but I’ve recovered.”

EE: Are you confident in taking another lead role?

AC: “I don’t know. I definitely could if I really wanted to. But I know it would be hard for me because being a lead role is very, very heard. It’s a lot of work. But I definitely could do it.”