By Hannah Fleager SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — A passion can be defined as a strong liking, desire, or devotion to some activity, object, or concept. Passions can be something that you love or even that we can’t live without.
For Syracuse University student and current What Theatre Director Daniel Preciado, theatre is his passion.
“When I’m on stage, it’s just a crazy feeling. It’s just you are not yourself. You’re someone else. You’re just doing something beyond yourself and also telling a story. Just making people feel is something that I love so much. And that’s what stage and theatre is about.”
But believe it or not Preciado’s love for theatre did not always exist. He actually participated in a completely different past time before discovering musical theatre.
“I used to play football when I was really young for eight years. Then one day my parents they knew someone who needed someone for a production in Panama,” Preciado said. “And I remember vividly after a football practice, my parents picked me up and they were like “Hey by the way they want you to audition for this show.””
The rest was history. Preciado was hooked.
“And then I got the bug. I was 12 years old and I couldn’t stop going to auditions and being in musicals and all of that,” Preciado expressed.
When asked why he like theatre so much, at first Preciado was tongue tied.
“If I could give people one thing about why I love theatre or why theatre is so great, I couldn’t,” he said. “There’s so many different reasons why it is so great.”
But after some thought and consideration, Preciado attributed his love of the theatre to the community this form of performing arts creates.
“I really have gotten to know the greatest people in my life through theatre. I’ve really found myself through theatre,” Preciado said. “Coming from my country which is not at times the most accepting of them all, I really found a place within theatre. And I found that place with people who are so devoted to art that they are so accepting to absolutely everything and so embracing of everything.”
Now almost ten years after discovering his passion, Daniel is taking on a new role within the theatre: being the director of a college stage production.
“And the reason why I wanted to direct American Idiot is because it is a very important story and a very real story, told in a very unique way,” said Preciado. “I do try to make them realize how the story goes beyond just the lyrics themselves. That the lyrics are not just words, they are saying something. Everything that happens in this show has meaning.”
Daniel’s production of American Idiot will debut during the first weekend in December in the Schine Underground and you can find tickets on sale at the Schine Box Office next month.
