Music Rehersal

Despite the fact that everyone has a lot to do during exam week, we still had a very productive music rehearsal today with the cast and Dr. Wu and Dr. Davis. We went over all the ensemble numbers in the first act, and although some spots need some practice, it went really great in general. Music rehearsal was a big stress-reliever that really took my mind off of school work and everything going on in my head. 

It is usually front-loaded in the initial stages of the production, so when we block or choreograph the numbers, we will already know our parts. My favorite number rehearsed today has to be Blackout, which is the final number in the first act. It is not only pleasant to the ears, but also contains so many variations of rhythms and melodies that make it extremely interesting to learn. Check it out on YouTube if you want a sneak peek! As of now, winter break is approaching for us that means time to memorize the melodies and lyrics of the songs, and all of our lines. The show is looking great with high hopes and ardent anticipation for everyone’s performance.

Yours one and only,
Maggie

Introducing your Bloggers for In The Heights

12/11/2015

    Introducing the Bloggers!

    Maggie: Hi All, my name is Maggie Zhu, and I am an ensemble member in our winter Musical, In the Heights! I am most excited about the dancing in the show because all of it is so new and so interesting. The music is exulting as well, since I have never done a musical where hip-pop, rap, and latin music make up the majority of the numbers. As Mr. Howard said, “let the music be your energy.” The music and dancing pieced together makes rehearsals truly a stress-reliever from all the school work and the highlight of my day. 

    Izzy: My name is Izzy Maher and I’m taking part in my first theater production at Berkshire! I play the character Camila Rosario, the mother of Nina and wife of Kevin. I am most excited for music because each song is so diverse rhythmically and makes the dancing super fun. At first this concept was a little off-putting but now that I see what were doing I’m excited to dive in and get into it. I look forward to rehearsals each day because of our focus warm-up and contagious positivity. 

Noah: Hi, my name is Noah Faison and I’m a four-year senior at Berkshire.  I’ve been a part of the Berkshire Theater community since my freshman year, and I am so excited to be working on In The Heights!  I am always looking for new ways to challenge myself and improve my acting skills, and I expect both to happen in this challenging musical.  I will be playing the role of Kevin, a father figure and semi-successful car service owner. 

Auditions: Over 30 or students auditioned for In the Heights following the end of the fall season, and the cast narrowed down to 22 actors along with 3 stage managers. Everyone prepared a monologue, a song, and some brave souls presented a short rap for auditions. Nicole Rizzo, our beloved choreographer also taught a segment of highly complicated choreography for dance auditions. The most important part was that everyone had a lot of fun, whether or not they were cast. The “supportive vibe” was the number one thing that everyone loved, and it is, in my opinion, the best thing about Berkshire Theater. 

Accents: One of the most challenging and fun parts of this musical is sure to be the dialect work. When the show first came out on Broadway it won the Tony Award for Best Musical in part because it represented an authentic and often underrepresented view of New York’s diverse Hispanic community.  In order to authentically recreate “el barrio” much of the cast is being trained to speak in accents authentic to their respective character’s country of origin. We've already spent a couple dialect rehearsals learning and for me, trying to develop that mix of the New York and Puerto Rican accent, and then we have to see just how much would influence my character. I’m so excited because properly mastering the accents will allow us add an additional layer of authenticity to the performance.

In The Heights!!!!!!!

Presenting...

In The Heights!

A hip-hop & Rap Musical 

From Lin-Manuel Miranda (also the writer and star of the current Broadway sold-out hit, Hamilton. )

"Winner of the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical, In the Heights is the story of three days in the life of Washington Heights, a tightknit community at the top of Manhattan. Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, this hip musical will win you over with its sweet story and hot tunes

This high-energy show features lovable characters, a contemporary Latin-flavored score and Tony-winning hip-hop dance moves. But it’s also very sweet and sentimental, wearing its heart on its sleeve. You may even get a little misty-eyed by the end."

-Excerpt from the In The Heights website  

Friday Night

Friday Night Blog

Hi bloggers!!

            As you guys know this weekend we opened Metamorphoses!  Opening night was a good experience for us to feel how the play would read in front of an audience.  We encountered moments of highs and lows.  And for Friday's show we took these moments and rehearsed them and made them even better.  A typical Berkshire Theater Friday show has the biggest audience and usually consists of 80% students and 20% adults.   Of course we wanted to put on the best show possible for our peers and teachers, but we faced some obstacles that proved to be harder to overcome than we thought.  For this show, we do not have the luxury of using microphones so projection and diction were very necessary in delivering our lines.  Due to nerves and the amount of people in the audience, as a cast we struggled to reach the audience with our volume.  All of the content of the play itself is very compelling, but it was up to us to draw the audience's attention to that very important content, and to do that we needed to be louder.  We still had a great show full of funny, happy, and sad moments, but our performance was slightly hindered by our lack of volume. Overall the performance went well. However, We are very excited to step up our game tomorrow!!!!

Thanks for floating with us,

Amani

OPENING NIGHT!!!

Thursday Night: Opening Night!!!

       

Tonight was a completely surreal experience for the cast. After two months of hard work on blocking, understanding our characters, memorizing lines, we’ve been preparing to share a kick-butt show with parents and students alike. Part of me was nervous that we might not have been able to pull it off, and part of me was excited that the show we had delved into was becoming a reality. In warm ups that night, Mr Howard pumped us up completely, while helping us focus on the task at hand. There was a fire inside of us; we were ready to jump in! The opening entrances gave us absolute jitters, for we were unsure of how the audience would respond to everything, but by the time we reached the final scene, there was a sense of joy and excitement among us. We had gotten laughs, tears, we even moved couples to hold hands and acknowledge the love that they had and the love that we shared. By the time we got offstage, it took all the robo in our bodies to not flip with joy before we got to the green room. But soon we were jumping, laughing, smiling and screeching with pride! Opening night had been an absolute success!

Swimming along happily,
Greer

     Sunday we spent the day using lighting and adding it to the scenes. It was really great to experience both Lights and sound. (Heads up, Mr Howard did a great job. Its all really intricate thus, amazing)

       Yesterday was Tech-Dress for Metamorphoses. After a regular rehearsal, we ate dinner and prepared for the runthrough. In Tech-Dress we use a many costumes, lights, sounds, etc. that we can. The main purpose of this is to fix the problems that arise from adding more complexities to the show. It was a long night, but we finished strong and we were content with our progress. 

        As I said, much of Tech-Dress is adding costumes to the show. I don’t even know where to begin with the costumes of Metamorphoses. The play is a collection of somewhat unrelated scenes. Because of this, each actor has several roles. Each actor also has several costumes. The entire cast throughout the show adds up to around 120-140 costumes, not sure by now, and many quick changes (even one underwater).

Oh yeah, and the whole pool thing. With a lot of hard work put in by all of us, especially our assistant director Annie, costumes may just work out.

Between Mr. Howards amazing job on the complex lighting and sound, Doms work on the set, and Annie's work on costumes We were ready to try a run through for tonight. 

        Today is Dress Rehearsal, which we like to treat as though we were opening. Tomorrow is opening night, at 730!! We hope to see you there!

Smooth sailing,

Riley

Load-in

Hi Bloggers!

Today is the beginning of a grand adventure here on the set of Metamorphoses.  Today is is Load-in day, which marks the first day of Tech Week.  From 3:20 pm to 5:30 pm we held a regular Friday rehearsal.  We finished blocking the Phaeton & Apollo and Eros & Psyche scenes.  We decided to take the Phaeton & Apollo scene in a new direction; Phaeton becomes so fed up with his therapist’s ramble that he acts on his irritation.  During the Eros & Psyche scene we continued on to the end of the scene and focused on the tender and hopeful relationship between the two characters.

 After dinner, we gathered and began the formal load-in. Throughout load-in, the cast and crew divide amongst our tech crews and execute our duties on the technical side of the show.  We clean and clear out the work space, place and spike all of the props, label and organize all of the costumes, hang all of our publicity posters, and focus on all final unfinished details of the play.  As this is a production with many challenging aspects on both the acting and technical side, we need to make sure that we have everything in place leading up to show time.

Looking forward to hanging out on the deck,

Amani B.

Ana Tolvo helping to create costumes

Water Rehearsals and Shipwreck Scene

Wednesday October 28, 2015

            During our second day of water rehearsal, we moved the shipwreck scene, one of the most involved with the water, into the water and began finalizing it. First, we ran through the original blocking that was made without the pool.  Then we resumed in the pool.  Our sailors set off to sea, wondering if they’d make it back from their voyage. Our trusted captain, Mr. Howard, set the sails in the right direction. Our ship was skimming on top of the water, making great pace. We learned how to properly row, after years of experience. We had learned the way of the rower. Until we reached the serious seas, filling with white capped waves and rough currents. It was our time to go down, and the dreadful sinking of the ship began.

This involved a great deal of splashing, drowning, bailing, and weeping.  Being that this was rehearsal, we repeated this scene, splashing and all, over and over again until we carried out all of the nuances to satisfaction.

Safe diving,

Amani 

WATER!!!!

  On monday the pool was filled and we began our first water rehearsal. Focusing on the shipwreck scene, we spent much of the rehearsal adapting to the new element of the set, as well as tweak the scene itself. 

We had bathing suits and towels at the ready backstage because, well, we got a little wet. On top of their usual work, the stage managers were busy mopping up the water that the rest of us soaked up from the pool. It was, as Narrator 2 puts it, “an enormous green catastrophe”. Overall we had a very productive day, like most. This first water rehearsal marked the beginning of a new phase of work for the show. With only a week until dress rehearsal, finally getting into the water was very helpful.

Just keep swimming,

Riley

Set Build 10/24

Saturday we had our final set build! We got to work on the backdrop, the pool, and the deck for around the pool.
We also got to add lights to the inside of the pool. It is all really starting to feel real and come together now that there is an actual pool on stage. Soon Dom will be able to fill it with water and get the filter going so we can start water rehearsals!! We all worked really hard today between drilling, cutting wood, and assembling the set. It was a long but rewarding day. The set builds help us work together as a team, contribute to the show, and also is a way to learn new things!!

Throwback blog post from the beginning of blocking!

Hi everyone!! On Monday we began the next step in our process on the show, which is detailed blocking. We worked and put a lot of great ideas together and produced a substantial rough draft of a scene.  After we finished with all of the hard work we had done, we were lucky enough to loosen up with a fun, cheerful dance party. This playful activity was recorded and will be featured in a very cool dance number with the dance program here at Berkshire. 

We showed off our awesome dance moves to the song September while the dance teacher, Mrs. Keefer, captured the theater crew in our prime.  Can’t wait to see how we look up on the big screen!

Don’t run, it’s slippery!

Amani B.

Rehearsals Continue

Blocking:

Now that we are getting deep into the blocking of the show, it has become much of what we do during rehearsals. Blocking is just planning out where, when, and what actors are doing at every moment on stage. For most of the common movements we use blocking shorthand, and for the rest we just write out the action in our scripts. For example, “E6 • XUL (table) • sit” would mean Enter 6 (we’ve labelled each entrance with a number), cross the stage to the Upper Left area (more specifically to the table located there) and sit down.

Some photos of the process:

(Annie's diagrams that make sense... in the moment)

Watch for sharks,

Riley

            On their return trip from Tamps, As Greer and Riley previously mentioned, Mr. Howard and Dom got straight back to work.  While Dom continued to work on the logistics of the set, Mr. Howard introduced a new activity he learned while at the conference.  This activity showed us how small changes in various aspects of a scene are very important.  We focused on three main aspects: connection, level, and focus.  To begin the activity, we walked weave-like across the stage in an attempt to to fill the space.  After getting this into our bodies, Mr. Howard introduced the next step of the activity.  We would continue to walk around the stage until Mr. Howard would call “spotlight”.  At this moment, each actor would find the nearest of five spotlights, and create a pose with the other members in that spotlight incorporating focus, level, and connection.  We then focused on one of the five poses, and discussed which small details had a huge effect on the scene.  We repeated this activity for approx. a half an hour.  After learning about the importance of level, focus, and connection, we applied them in rehearsal as we worked on new scenes.  Personally, this really helped me understand my characters and my relationships with characters that I am close with in all of my scenes. Thanks for reading.

Dreaming of the deep end,

Amani     

Rehersals continue

        Today we focused on the Eurydice and Orpheus scene. We spent a lot of time giving each ensemble character a level, focus, and connect so that the whole stage picture could become one scene, rather than only the leads of the scene having specific blocking. A lot of what we try to focus on is making every actor on stage seem equally engaged even when they have no lines. Meanwhile, actors have been working at learning lines. Line run is not not too far and, now that we are getting closer to the show, every moment counts.

The water’s fine,

Riley

Monday, October 5^th

            On Friday and Saturday, Mr Howard and Dom were at a conference in Tampa, so it was up to us (and Annie of course) to rally and I think we did a pretty great job! We spent Friday sort of ironing out the beginning scenes, in which I have a few different parts. For my first show at Berkshire, I think it’s really cool how quickly I’m picking up blocking cues. It’s also pretty cool to learn how to channel three different characters in the course of just one or two scenes.

            After a bit of review, we ran all we had done for the first four scenes. We made quite a bit of progress in blocking the show; meanwhile tech crews have been working on acquiring costumes, makeup, bios, props, and headshots. The publicity crew also worked on putting together a skit for the pep rally (see below!) to advertise our show.

            We’ve only got a month to go, but we can’t wait to see you then!

Bring your swimsuits!

            -Riley and Greer

Peter (and Ben not in the picture) doing the skit to tell the campus about the show!

Set Build #1!!!

Saturday was the first set build, which is always a cool milestone for the play.  We’ll help Dom construct the start of the set that we’ll be using for the show. It’s a great way to get work done and involve the actors in the technical aspect of the play. We get to be in the mix, deciding the ideas for how we want it to look. So far, the beginning pieces are looking grand!!!

 

Rehearsals are under way

First rehearsal we began the arduous yet greatly rewarding experience of putting on a Berkshire School theater production. We read through the whole and untouched script. Of course, we did this while eating cake because… because cake is pretty awesome. The following couple of rehearsal were spent doing some improv games and learning blocking shorthand. This is just symbols/abbreviations we write into the script that describe the actions (or blocking) an actor does in the scene.

Once the script was read and the cake was eaten, we could begin to roughly block the show. Starting with the first full week of rehearsals, we went through the first few scenes in chronological order. The main purpose of these early blocking rehearsals was just to discuss and discover the purpose of each scene and what direction we wanted to take.

Each blocking rehearsal has started with a mini read-through of the scene at hand. We stop often: ask questions, mostly answer them- which generally just results with more questions- and in the process generate a plethora of ideas. It will be a long process before a few of these ideas will be realized, but we are super excited to get things in motion.

Float On For Now,

Riley And Greer

Meet your Bloggers

Hi, my name is Amani Bethea and I am a four-year senior at Berkshire.  I have been a part of the Berkshire Theater community since my freshman year, and I am so excited to work on my 5^th play!  I am always looking for ways to push myself and improve my acting skills, and I can always look to the theater to help me with these goals. Each of my characters and their scenes are very unique to each other and bring something I have never done before, and I can’t wait to work on each of them!

           

Hey! My name is Riley Bona. I am a sophomore and an avid lover of Corgis. Last year I was a member of the ensemble in Grease and have been wanting to continue the experience ever since. I personally have a fascination with ancient Greek mythology and am extraordinarily excited to work on Metamorphoses. My goal is to fully adapt into the Berkshire theater mindset this season and to really improve my acting by meeting the bar set by my fantastic peers.            

Hi! My name is Greer Gibney and I am a junior here at Berkshire. A lover of the arts, I had always been interested in the theatre at Berkshire but never had the courage...until now! I am so excited to be a part of the Metamorphoses cast and to shed some light on this process. I can’t wait to see how this play changes me and changes in general. Also, I love coconuts and cheese! Nice to meet you!

We hope you guys enjoy watching as we delve into this show! Thanks for reading!

            

See you in the deep end,

Amani, Riley, and Greer.

Metamorphoses

Welcome to the Berkshire Theater Blog! This season we will be blogging about our experience working on the play Metamorphoses!  Metamorphoses, written by Mary Zimmerman, is play that poetically links together a series of Greek myths. There is also an unconventional addition to this play, a pool!  This pool will be an important set piece in all of the scenes, and in a lot of the scenes, actors will find themselves both in and around the pool.

Among the cast we have a crew of twelve actors, and in Metamorphoses there are over 30 characters!  Because of this, each actor is playing between five and seven characters.

Happy Swimming,

       Amani, Riley, and Greer.

Last Hurah !

This is the final post for The Crucible! We had three incredible shows last week and have wrapped up our “mobile home” in the atrium. Thank you to the cast, crew, Mr. Howard, Dom, and Sam for all the hard work that went into this show and thanks to all that attended our performances. Sam, we will miss you greatly, thank you for all of your contributions to Berkshire Theater in the past two years! We would also like to thank our seniors for all the effort you have put forth into making this program great. See you in the fall!

- Alden, Gerry & Anna 

Tech Load In

  We are less than week away from opening night! Today is Load-in day for the cast and crew of The Crucible. We moved the set, props and lighting for the show into the Berkshire Hall Atrium. Mr. Sayler coordinated the operation by dividing us into groups to optimize efficiency. We were all very excited to see how it all pieced together in a matter of three hours. The final countdown starts as we approach the finalization of this journey. Stay tuned for more details about the upcoming events!

I Am No Longer a Theater Rookie

Hello, I am Alden Weiss, I am a one-year Junior at Berkshire School, and this is my first time in a theater production.

Recieving the role of Judge Danforth in The Crucible was a dream come true. Ever since I came to Berkshire last fall and saw Berkshire Theater, I was fascinated by it. In fact it all started out during the first days of school when I met many of the people involved in Theater. I was struck by their friendliness and their invigorating personalities. It seriously made me consider switching to Theater, despite already having had a fall sport. When I watched the original play Scrutiny and what the crew had crafted, I was amazed. I knew this was something I had to try out. Long story short, I ended up auditioning for the spring play, and somehow got a role. I was really happy to say the least.

Working in theater has been an incredible experience so far. Contrary to what I thought working in theater is very demanding and requires a lot of focus and discipline; more so than any of the other sports I have engaged in at Berkshire so far. There is a lot of different aspects that come into play (pun intended) when creating such a complex production like The Crucible — and in order for it to go smoothly on opening night, each one of them has to be treated with equal importance. While this can be quite challenging at times, it has also taught me to be more accountable and a better team player.

There is only 8 days left until our premiere in the Berkshire Hall Atrium. It is really cool to see the play coming together, and we are all very excited as we slowly enter the last week of the production.

-Alden Weiss

The Crucible Does Yoga

                         

Last Monday, the full cast of The Crucible took a day off from scene work to do some relaxing--but difficult-- yoga with Sam as the instructor. We have been working in the dance studio for the past couple of weeks and it has been a great space for us to practice in in preparation for the atrium in Berkshire Hall. We have only two more weeks until opening night! Stay tuned for more updates on tech load-ins to the atrium as we come down to the final days!

- Anna Flaherty

Playing John Proctor

I am Gerry Gimenez and I play John Proctor in The Crucible. This experience has brought me a new appreciation for the performing arts and what being an actor means, to a completley new level. I have experienced a wide range of emotions through living, and working with this very talented cast. I'm coming to understand the simplest meaning behind what theater is, and what it can do for people who love and have a passion for it. Berkshire Theater is open for any type of person, just as long as you want to build something truly memorable. My passion for working with dark material has made me extremely curious to discover the depth and intensity of this play.

In Act 3, my character John Proctor experiences a wild mixture of emotional stages. It has been a adventure for me to understand and manage these different layers of emotion. A very specific challenge that I have while playing Proctor is his contrasting body language to my own. One of the character exercises we did in rehersal helped me to find a center of gravity in my body. I began to see how to control and administer my own physicality through that center. This was an enlightening experience that helped me channel my energy into John Proctor’s body. All of these concepts and ideas from The Crucible generate a creative outlet that is highly applicable to every aspect of life.

Reflecting now as a senior, with three weeks left at Berkshire, I am coming to understand and appreciate the significance of learning from this present experience and applying it to my future. It's clear, that what I am learning from Berkshire Theater, will never be forgotten.

- Gerry Gimenez

Berkshire Theater goes to Salem!

7:00 am - Cast Breakfast and Getting on the Bus

We started our day by eating breakfast as a group before we headed to Salem, MA. Everyone was very excited to learn new things about the town and the origins of this play. We hoped to get a better perspective on how people lived in the 1600’s. It was a beautiful day, 50 degrees and not one cloud in the sky, a perfect day for traveling. We left Berkshire at 7:30 to enjoy a three hour bus ride with the cast. A couple days before, everyone was assigned to research about the play to find:

​-Three interesting facts about our character

​-Three facts about Salem itself and the time period

​-Five questions you may have through your research

         -One theory of what could explain the witch trials in Salem

I learned through my research that my character, Ruth Putnam, was actually named Ann Putnam Jr. after her mother. Arthur Miller changed her name in the play to avoid confusion with her mother. We shared our research with each other on the bus ride. I think we all had a better idea of our characters after knowing how they interacted and lived in real life.

10:00 am- Arriving in Salem

The cast arrived to Salem and headed straight to the Salem Witch Museum. When we got there, we experienced a mannequin narrative of the witch trials where our characters were identified in context . I learned that Ann Putnam lived very traditionally-no holidays, no playing, basically no fun. Tituba, a slave from Barbados, told Ann and a few other girls, like Betty Parris, made-up tales. This started to make the girls act strangely, which made people believe their behavior delivered from satanic spirits.  Eventually these girls were questioned and the trials began. Giles Corey, John Proctor, and Elizabeth Proctor were among the 19 that were accused and killed during the trials, most of them hanged. It was interesting to see our characters in The Crucible come to life. We then were guided through a timeline on different types of faiths involving witchcraft like Wicca and Pagan women.

12:00 pm- Lunch and the Witch Dungeon

We had a quick lunch and then went on our way to the “Witch Dungeon.” We saw a reenactment of Mary Warren and Elizabeth Proctor in the court. Many other characters were mentioned as a part of the play. After that, we headed down to a replica of one of the dungeons. We were told that the actual dungeon was destroyed in the 1950’s when the building it was located in was rebuilt. The dungeon was poorly lit and very cold, similar to how it would have been in the 1600’s.

2:00 pm- The Graveyard and Memorial

​We entered the graveyard and got to see the tomb of John Hawthorne. There were many other people buried in this family, grouped with their family members and loved ones. Some were captains on The Mayflower. All of the stones ranged from the early 1600’s to early 1900’s. In a separate section of the graveyard, there was a memorial for all the people who were accused of witchcraft, which included Rebecca Nurse, John Proctor, Giles Corey, and Martha Corey.

3:30 pm- Looking at the Documents

​We then drove to a research library where we were able to look and touch the real documents our characters were involved in from the 1600’s. It was a surreal experience to be able to hold something so old that was so important to these people. The writing was different than how we write today as it was much neater and they used different symbols to express certain things. Some of the documents included Samuel Parris’ deposition, Mary Warren’s deposition, and documents written by John Hawthorne.

In all, It was a fun and educational day to be able to get a better idea of what life was like for our characters and everyone enjoyed the company of each other and the experience we had while in Salem.

Pre-Trial Hearing # 1 - Wolfskinn

Real Talk with Jeff

Howdy everyone! Welcome to another season of Berkshire Theater! They say that "April showers bring May flowers," this phrase applies perfectly to what's happening in Allen right now. We are currently in our first week of "The Crucible." So far, everyone has learned their lines, giving us the opportunity to explore our characters in more depth within the scene. Since, we "reap what we sow," we have to make sure that we have a solid foundation before moving forward and with all this hard work I feel very good about where we are as a cast.

Although the show is six weeks away, it is our job to make the most of this month and prepare ourselves for the flowers of May! Before we know it, we will be reenacting the Salem Witch Trials. Until next time!

-Jeff Erazo