Load-In-- It's Crunch Time

Today we finished up the Finale of In the Heights. With opening night exactly one week away, nothing else makes me feel more like the show is really happening! So far we have finished all the major dance numbers and blocking, with only a handful of small scenes left. Rehearsals have been very productive and exhausting at the same time recently. Mr. Howard broke the numbers into sections, for example, Carnaval del Barrio had 16 of them, and progressed through them in order and strung up a complete scene.

From 6 to 8 pm tonight, we started what is called "load-in", which consisted of setting up backstage, props, costumes, hanging up posters, taping chords, safety procedures, etc. One crew arranged the hair products and posters in Daniella's salon, while the other set up the merchandise in the bodega. Some people cleaned up the green room and organized all the costumes. Headshots printed out everyone's portraits that they have taken.

Dom Sayler, our technical director, is the low-key mastermind of the backstage. He directed everyone to do their assigned crew work and made sure everything ran smoothly. Meanwhile, Mr. Howard and the stage managers have been writing light cues for the production relentlessly.

The cast and crew had our first team dinner tonight: it was a quality bonding time for the ensemble to feel more like a close group and be show-ready.

Yours Truly, from on average 6 hours a day of theater,
Maggie

Dom Sayler

Load-in meeting

Team Dinner

Friday's rehearsal was special-- we did not do any blocking, choreography, or music, but it is probably the most important thing we’ve done, even more important than the musical itself.

With opening night less than three weeks away, we are quite excited and nervous and working really hard! Watching the documentary before rehersal Wednesday on the broadway production of “In the Heights” really got everyone pumped up for some fine theater. We got to see the real actors themselves, the places they came from, and their own life stories.  More important than the musical itself is the people who are a part of it. Today, we gathered around the “neighborhood” in the set and shared our life stories to each other, circling around race, ethnicity and cultural backgrounds. I sat down with Annie, our assistant director in front of the “neighborhood salon” and chatted with her. She told me she grew up in a circus, and lived in both New York City and Southern Connecticut. As for me, my life story is very different from hers because I grew up in China and think myself as a foreigner to the United States. It was interesting to shar about our culture and the differences and similarities to the show. However, both of us connect to “In the Heights” in such a way that we all come together through a great process of a Berkshire Theater production. At the end, we all sat in a circle to share our interesting stories-- important parts that our castmates may not know yet they construct who we are. It may seem like a surprise to some that a bunch of high school kids like us would take such a deeply personal activity seriously, but we not only did it, we also are infinitely grateful for the diversity we have and the impact we will have on the Berkshire community especially through this show.

Yours truly from Rosario's fire-escape,

Maggie