By Evelyn Koch in Arts & Entertainment, Campus News, College Days, Feature Story, Student Life on November 13, 2025
Two freshmen who have been performing together since high school share their college theatre experience
On the weekend of October 16th, Claire Luebke and Jayden Hinton performed in the play Silent Sky, which is based on the true story of the astronomer Henrietta Leavitt. Luebke played the lead role of Henrietta, and Hinton played the role of Peter Shaw, the love interest of Henrietta.
Both Luebke and Hinton are freshman and graduates of Ripon High School, where they performed in numerous productions together. Their previous shows include Into the Woods, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Little Women, among others.
Both of them were encouraged by friends to do theater and stayed in it because of their passion for the stage.
“My sister had done it when she was in high school, so I already knew a lot of people who were in it. And then my friends that I knew dragged me into it, and then I just stayed because I loved it,” Luebke said.
“I’ve kind of just always liked singing and dancing. So, I was the kid in art class, and I would have headphones on. I’d be singing Frozen songs, and then I would get told to shut up…Our friend Lauren dragged me into [theater] in my sophomore year,” Hinton said.
Luebke, right, and Hinton, left, perform Silent Sky the weekend of October 16th in the Benstead Theatre. Photo courtesy of Ric Damm.
The two of them have very different approaches to getting into character. Hinton is a method actor who puts his sense of humor into every role.
“A lot of times when I’m acting, I bring my personality to the role. So, I don’t change much. I changed the character to be more like me…Kinda my twist in the character…There’s a term for it…[Stanislavsky],” Hinton said.
Luebke, on the other hand, has to carefully think through her character’s motivations and reactions.
“I feel like I do the opposite. I like having roles that aren’t like me so that I can act more…Typically for shows, if I’m on and off stage a lot, before I come on stage, I say in my head what’s happening and how I should react to it… And I often need to remind myself that the character doesn’t know what lines are coming back, so I can’t react to things that haven’t been said yet. That’s my biggest thing,” Luebke said.
In response to Luebke’s comments, Hinton said, “I feel like that comes naturally to me, though. My body just reacts…But you’re good at memorizing lines when I’m not, so I guess we have our own strengths.”
They agreed that the most surprising things about college theater were the shorter timeframe between the first rehearsal and the performances, as well as the small cast size.
“Typically, our high school show wouldn’t be for another month yet, and we just had our show last weekend. So we literally had a month less to prepare,” Luebke said.
“We were blessed with very large casts in high school and shows that required very large casts…So, that was weird. Only five people is definitely an adjustment,” she added.
They also mentioned other, more subtle differences between the theaters themselves.
“Our high school had a much bigger theater. Like the big proscenium theater,” Hinton said.
“I feel like at our high school theater, the entire audience felt underneath us. But this theater, the audience feels like it’s kind of on the same level. So that was really weird to get used to, to look forward and actually see that there were people in front of me,” Luebke said.
Then Hinton thought of another difference, “How hot the black box stage gets because the lights are so close to you…There were times where I’d have to fan myself with a script backstage or something because I would just overheat.”
What they miss about high school theater is the large cast and the fun pre-show dance routines, and the feeling of family that comes with it.
Hinton, left, and Luebke, right, pose for a photo in their costumes. Photo courtesy of Danielle Baker.
“I definitely feel like that comes with a bigger cast because you’re in it for at least two months together…And then, obviously, I do miss specific people and our directors,” Luebke said.
“It’ll happen with college, too. I’m sure. Theater kids! We’re theater kids. So, I’m sure we’ll build a little family,” Hinton added.
Despite the challenges of adjusting to the new environment, Luebke is grateful that the two senior actors, Angelina Bahr and Corinna Torres, were there to guide them.
“We could ask them, ‘what do we need to expect for this?’ or ‘what is tech week going to look like?’ and all that stuff. If we hadn’t had them and we were just thrown into it, I think I would have crumbled. A bit,” she said.
So far, they have enjoyed performing at Ripon College, and they shared their favorite memories from Silent Sky.
Hinton’s favorite part was instilling humor into an otherwise unfunny character, since, as he puts it, “I’m Jayden.”
Luebke enjoyed the overall experience, but she also had a particularly amusing memory of something that happened during the Saturday night performance.
“I’m very, very grateful, very thankful, very blessed that I got to have such a large role right away. So, obviously, that’s exciting. I really liked the performances. I just thought they were fun in general, until that fly flew into my mouth,” she said.