WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BE A... (THIRD OF 10 PARTS)

Roberts checked her makeup.

Jason Merkler who plays Jesse Kiplinger kissed Rachel M. Roberts during the rehearsal of "Plaza Suite."

Hours of rehearsal go into each scene on the set before the public sees a play.

"If you work on one show, you'll never leave," Rachel Roberts said of her first love -- the theatre.

At only 20 years of age, Roberts, a junior at Southeast Missouri State University has already performed in more than 10 plays in the last three years, including her first professional work this past summer at Huron Playhouse in Ohio. She opens Friday in "Plaza Suite" at the university's Rose Theatre.

But Roberts is quick to point out that the life of an actor is not all glamour and glitz and that actors are not, as people often imagine them, beatniks living on the street or prima donnas who are too good for others.

"Life in the theatre is hard, but it's wonderful at the same time," she said.

One of the most difficult aspects of acting is the amount of time that a performer and the crew must put in just to get a show produced. When she performed in the university's "Henry IV" last year, many of the rehearsals would last for four or five hours after the student actors had already put in a full day in the classroom or in the backstage shop.

This past summer, the Huron Playhouse produced five shows in seven weeks. Roberts acted in four of the five shows and worked as the head of props for the fifth show.

"We had about a week to learn the shows, and if it was a musical, that included learning not only the lines, but the dancing, music and blocking," she said.

The acting company worked, ate and slept in the same building that housed the theater. Because three shows were in production at a time, the company's day began early and ended late.

After breakfast, they would begin rehearsal on one show at 8:30 and work on that show for three hours before breaking for lunch. They would return from lunch at 1 for a company meeting, then begin rehearsing a second show at 1:30.

The second rehearsal would end at 4:30, giving them just a short break to eat supper before answering their call at the theater about 6. At night they would perform a third show.

In addition, members of the acting company took turns working on the kitchen crew, meaning that some of their free time at meals would be used to clean up the dining hall. Roberts recalls that during one show, "Ten Little Indians," she was mopping the floor of the dining hall 10 minutes before she was supposed to be in the dressing room putting on make-up and getting ready for the evening's performance.

In addition, the cast was sometimes given backstage assignments on top of their performance duties. During "The Secret Garden" Roberts was the assistant backstage manager as well as a cast member.

Despite the hard work required by life in the theatre, Roberts said she enjoys the life, both on stage and backstage.

"I feel lost when I'm not doing it," she said.

Although she got her start performing in talent shows at Nell Holcomb, the performance bug was a part of her long before she first took to the stage in fifth grade.

"My parents would say I started acting when I was born," she said.

But she didn't really know anything about theatre until she visited a cousin in St. Charles. The cousin, who had just been in a play, showed Roberts a videotape of the production. It came, Roberts said, as a huge epiphany.

Roberts recalls: "'What?' I said, 'You had all those people watching you?'"

She told her mother of her interest and her mother took her to see productions at Cape Girardeau Central High School, Notre Dame High School and the university's Rose Theatre. After seeing "Pirates of Penzance" at Central High School and "Romeo and Juliet" at the Rose, Roberts was hooked.

Her first role at the university came two years ago when she was cast in "Independence." She won the University Players' Best Supporting Actress of the Year award for her performance in the play.

Since then she has performed in "The Music Man," "WASP," "Animal Farm," "Henry IV," "Miss Julie," "Naomi in the Living Room" and "Dancing at Lughnasa" at the university and "Ten Little Indians," "Brigadoon," "Lend Me a Tenor" and "The Secret Garden" at the Huron Playhouse.

The work she is most proud of is last year's production of "Miss Julie" in which she played the title character. She credits director Rob Dillon with bringing things out in her performance that she never thought possible.

During the rehearsal of one scene in which Roberts' character was supposed to grow angry, Dillon was not satisfied that the anger was present and told Roberts to take a piece of firewood and beat it against the cinderblock wall. The wood, which was triangular in shape, began cutting into Roberts' hand as she hit it against the wall.

She said she felt anger, mainly at her director for making her do it, but that she was able to take anger and use it on stage and in her characterization.

"Acting is both a craft and an art form that takes work," she said. "At the core is keen observation of everyday life. It requires that we are observant, that we watch people."

There have been, she admits, times when she has wanted to stop, when she would become discouraged and burnt out because of the hard work, but then she would make discoveries about the play and her character that would make the show work.

"It makes me want to do it all over again," she said.