HARLINGEN — She’s a rising star.
The Harlingen school district is all the buzz about Adrianna Rodriguez and her dashing performances on stage and off.
She’s won the state champion three years in a row for Speech, Drama and Debate.
This year, she was cast in the title role of “The Giver” at Gutierrez Middle School. Now she’s been cast in the Harlingen Performing Arts Conservatory’s “Legally Blonde.”
“I recently got cast as Vivian,” said Adrianna, 14. “She’s a big role for me, and I’m really happy to be playing her.”
Adrianna first caught the acting bug at age 10 when she began listening to musicals and watching them online.
“I realized that it was super,” said Adrianna. “It’s just amazing that people can put on a story like that with dancing and singing and acting, and it looks super tough. But I wanted the challenge, so I wanted to find anything that was related to that.”
And so she did while attending sixth and seventh grade at Vela Middle School.
“I was on the speech and debate team there, and it was super fun,” she said. “My first year I won state champion in prose, and I was a national finalist. It was super encouraging for me, and it really showed me that this is a thing that I want to keep doing. So I carried it forward.”
This year’s performance of the one-act play “The Giver” at Gutierrez opened new possibilities for her.
“I grew close to everyone in the cast,” she said. “I love my coaches. They were super encouraging throughout the entire process. It was just a really fun experience to have. I learned a lot about what I can do acting wise.”
She’s already charged and ready for next year when she’ll attend the Dr. Abraham P. Cano Freshman Academy, perform with the speech, drama and debate program at Harlingen High School South, and hone her theatrical skills at the Conservatory.
Performing onstage has empowered her in so many ways. She’s a more confident public speaker, and she’s found a vision for her life.
“I’ve made so many friends through this activity,” she said. “The fact that I can just share a message, maybe that message will help change someone’s perspective on something. Just sharing my story is empowering and I feel so grateful to be a part of it.”
For 14-year-old Adrianna, the world is at her fingertips and she can go anywhere she wants. But she can’t imagine doing anything else for the rest of her life except acting.
