With advanced drama, intermediate dance, and Marquis at the top of his schedule, senior Joren Francisco lives to perform, and strives to improve every day.

“My passion in drama, choir, and dance is just performing. I love the idea of being onstage and telling a story,” Francisco said via Facebook.

He fell in love with performing after joining drama during his freshman year and has been going on stage ever since. He also joined musical theater as a sophomore, and later, dance and choir as a junior. Now, Francisco is the dance captain and historian of Marquis, choreographing the dances for the choir and preparing the group for competitions.

“It kind of helped me come out of my box and become more active in things. Basically, I found musical theater and realized that’s really what I wanted to do. It’s really shaped my future and made me who I am now,” Francisco said.

Furthermore, Francisco places choir as his favorite activity, as it combines aspects of dance, singing, and acting. However, he feels that his acting skills are the strongest while he has a lacking in singing.

Choir teacher Patty Breitag is able to work with Francisco with the rest of the choir every day during class, and tries to give tips to improve each student’s abilities.

“He’s a very talented, energetic young man. He’s always center stage and he has this great personality on stage. He’s just a really good performer,” Breitag said.

Next year, Francisco will attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles where he hopes on becoming a successful performer. After graduating from the academy, Francisco plans to stay in Los Angeles for several months, where he will focus his time in auditioning for roles. He hopes to move to New York to audition, but also has plans to return to business school if he is unable to receive any roles.

His ultimate goal in the show business is to perform on Broadway, and though he acknowledges how difficult the task is, the idea of performing continues to motivate him to succeed.

“I know the performing arts industry is really hard to get into, and of course, it has broken me down a lot, but somehow, I’m always led back to performing and I can’t get out of it. It makes me happy,” Francisco said.

Outside of performing, Francisco is also involved in class committee as historian. While he dedicates most of his time to rehearsals and class committee, he also works at Afters Ice Cream in Chino Hills when he’s not performing.