Pratima's Ponderings

As irritatingly artsy as it may sound, I like to think that people exist equipped with their own personal ball of yarn in their chest. As everyone gets older, their yarn gets more and more tangled as they discover the complexities of their emotions. When you get upset, anxious or sad, your chest tightens because your yarn is so tangled, your body can barely handle it. Strangely enough, the same thing happens when you’re excited or happy.

It’s about that time of the theater season when my yarn remains tangled until bows of closing night. But for this show, I think it’s more out of excitement than of nervousness or fear. I’m thrilled to be able to share our little Into the Woods world with everyone.

On Friday evening, we got to give the community a quick glimpse into our world. We performed the Act One opening for trustees and faculty members in lieu of the usual chorus or improv performances. Every cast member was completely dedicated and in tune with the performance: everyone exhibited full commitment to his or her character; we were calm and collected backstage; and, most importantly, everyone had fun.

During warm-ups, we do an exercise where we hold our arms and attempt to physically put a feeling of palpable joy in our bodies. Which sounds completely ludicrous, yes, but it works. It works because when you go to find that joy, you’re allowing yourself to preview the feeling you get after a performance, and savor it for a moment to remind yourself of what you’re working towards. Because I believe that everything we do is in pursuit of joy. We want to be able to feel the yarn in our chests stretch so tight that it feels like it will burst out of your body. And sometimes it does, and you can’t help but smile for days afterward. All those hours of rehearsal in and out of the theater all lead up to that euphoric moment when you reap the joy because you refused to give up. The joy of success, the remnants of hard work. That’s what we’re working towards, people! Let’s come through for everyone, let’s come through for ourselves. Let’s come through for joy.

Until next time, this is Pratima, and these have been my ponderings.  

Pratima's Ponderings

I love podcasts. One of my favorite podcasts is “Radio Lab”, which releases weekly hour-long episodes featuring stories that revolve around a central theme or topic. This week’s episode focused on a theory the hosts composed of the “black box”. This refers to a situation where the beginning and end are apparent but what happens in between is unclear. For example, the thought process of a patient who undergoes surgery and has been anesthetized is discussed. The patient remembers “going under”, lying on the table ready to be cut open and repaired and waking up in a hospital room, connected to a myriad of beeping machines with no knowledge of what had inevitably occurred during surgery. Strangely enough, this made me think of the process we experience when preparing for a play here.

On the outside, you’re completely blind to exactly how much work goes into a play here. You’re unable to comprehend the complexity of the rehearsal procedure until you’ve experienced it firsthand. Even the most detailed accounts of the work that a play requires is still not an accurate summation. The middle is ambiguous, furnishing Berkshire Theater with our very own “black box” – a unique kind of Black Box Theater.

This week, we had out Act II line run, which was both amazing and anxiety inducing. As of this Thursday, we open in three weeks. It’s incredible to think that everything we have been doing up to this point, memorizing lines and working on the set, is leading up to a palpable goal: the performance. As the pre-tech week nerves start to kick in, however, it seems that our cast only becomes more tight-knit and supportive. Everyone is helping each other run lines and songs instead of just working on their own parts. Our run-through on Friday helped everyone realize the extent of Into the Woods’ potential, which wouldn’t be plausible without the love that everyone has for the process. I have enormous faith this cast (myself included) that we will all come through and put on an A-plus performance. After all, the mystery of the “black box” loses its intrigue if the end product is not ceaselessly fascinating enough to make you wonder how it all exactly happened. Let’s keep them on their toes, friends.

Until next time, this is Pratima, and these have been my ponderings.   

Hot minutes! Mini-Interview with cast member Merit Glover

Pratima's Ponderings First Saturday Set Build

This past Saturday, we had the first set build of the season. The concept for the set is to take place inside a child's bedroom in this case the child is Little Red Riding Hood. On Saturday we started by building the basic structures for her bedroom walls, including the window. It's been amazing to see how Dom has taken Mr. Howard's initial vision and together they've formed a different twist on Into The Woods. Although there's still a lot left to build the set idea seems much more palpable with a few of these pieces finished. At this point, the play feels like a quilt being made. Every cast and crew member is working hard on their individual patches: running lines, practicing music, doing tech jobs and rehearsing blocking outside of scheduled rehearsal time. The set feels like the stitchery that puts all the patches together to make this beautiful quilt. It's been a cold winter so I cannot wait to see what our quilt looks like!

Until next time this is Pratima and these have been my Ponderings. . . 


Sent from my iPhone

Weekly Walkthrough with Henry. Having just returned from the Holiday Break we had our first line run of the entire first Act of the play!

Hot Minutes- Mini- Interview with cast member Katie Soper!

Weekly Walkthrough come with Henry as he takes you on an adventure into what is happening behind the scenes of our production of Into The Woods.

Pratima's Ponderings

Hello blog readers, theater enthusiasts, parents, friends, fellow students and casual bystanders (a little nudge to the fall play- Plans).  

Welcome to the first edition of Pratima’s Ponderings. I was ecstatic to see that I would be writing for the blog this season. (Mostly because my dad is an avid reader of the blog, and if he can read about what I’m doing in rehearsal on here, it saves me a phone call!)

But in all honesty I have wanted to write for the blog since this spring. Once in a while, someone comes around that is so inspiringly talented at something that you can’t help but notice them. My blogging inspiration is Hung Hoang (’13), who wrote the remarkable Thursday Think Tanks for the Spring One-Acts. He made this whole blogging thing seem so effortless.

Emphasis on seem.

But then again, maybe it’s not so hard to write about something that I love so much? Berkshire School Theater.

The routine and vigor of rehearsal has become a comfort to me. Into The Woods is my seventh play here because I just keep coming back for more. I love so many things about Berkshire Theater, but my favorite aspect of every production is the undeniable camaraderie that develops almost immediately at the auditions. This very connection is often the reason that everyone in each cast is able to reach the pinnacle of their Berkshire Theater experience. Needless to say building up this network of joy, love and trust, as cliché as it may sound, is the most important thing we do here. And this cast has already started to cultivate this special bond with such fervor that makes me even more excited for this show than any other show I have ever done here. Everyone in the cast works so hard at rehearsals that we cannot help but respect and care about each other. That sounds like the kind of nurturing environment that yields success stories to me!

Which is exactly what we intend to bring you come February with this production.

Until next week, this is Pratima, and these have been my ponderings. 

Team Blog

Hello Blog Readers!

Our names are Henry, Pratima, and Rebecca and we will be your bloggers for the next several months! The entire cast and crew is extremely excited for our winter production of Into the Woods and we are thrilled to give you a look behind the scenes of the show and help you get to know this awesome cast and crew.

Henry, a sophomore playing the role of Rapunzel’s Prince. Henry will be making “Weekly Walkthrough” videos to show you what the rehearsal process looks like for a show as complicated and challenging as Into the Woods.

Rebecca, a senior theater captain playing Cinderella’s Stepmother. Rebecca will be sharing weekly interviews with the cast and crew to help you get to know all the people involved in the production.

And finally Pratima, also a senior theater captain playing the role of Jack’s Mother. Pratima will be posting a weekly entry called Pratima’s Ponderings sharing her thoughts and personal process while working on this production.

So keep checking in for new content! If there’s anything you want to see or hear about on the blog, comment below and let us know.

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

-The Blog Crew

Into the Woods music rehearsal

Watch the cast of Into the Woods practice their musical parts for the upcoming play.

It's official! Into The Woods is the Berkshire Theater winter musical

We are very excited to announce Into the Woods as Berkshire Theater's winter musical. It is a funny play with lots of twists and turns. The play features many familiar fairy tales and mashes them into a wonderful musical adventure. You will recognize a lot of familiar faces such as Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and many more. We are now having a lot of music rehearsals because the music in this show is quite complicated. To learn it well, we are front loading music rehearsals with Dr. Wu and Dr. Davis. 
The audition process for this play had a huge turnout from the Berkshire student body. Auditions featured individual monologues and music solos. Then, everyone sang as an ensemble and we worked on individual song.  As we go into break, we are learning lines and songs. Excitement is building in the theater as we work on this challenging play. Keep up with the blog for all the latest updates, info, and progress.

Into The Woods cast list:

  Max Miller
Noah Faison
Kennedy Alvarez
Andrea Cass
Jordan Greco
Pratima Singh
Christiena Auguste
Alyssa Cass
Rebecca Rovezzi
Katie Soper
Annie Love
Greta Dorsey
Henry Thomas
Hayden Graham
Catherine Xu
Merit Glover
Jeffrey Erazo

Stage Manage: Jake Diamond
Assistant Stage Manager: Anna Kravtova
Assistant Stage Manager: Carrie Babigan

Plans strike with Chrtistiena Auguste

Fun at the Plans strike. Afterward, everyone went to the cast party and had a great time.

Theater Insider with Amy Rowland

Second Performance!

This Friday, November 1^st, we held our second performance of Plans. The cast and crew couldn’t wait to put out hard work into action for the second night in a row.

Opening night is always slightly nerve-wracking, performing in front of an audience for the first time. However, being the second night, we were able to get all the jitters out of our systems, and put our best feet forward! Friday evenings are the most popular show times, so the crowd is always packed. Knowing this, we were so excited to perform for hundreds students, teachers, parents, and friends.

We felt Plans turned out to be quite a success! Thank you everyone for coming out to support the cast and crew.

Light, Stage, and Cardboard Houses

Light, stage, and cardboard houses?

The opening performance for Plans was last night! As the audience flowed through the doors they were mystified by the actors who were already on stage. The audience got to experience an average day in the life of the three neighbors. The exciting buzz is flowing around campus. From puppets, to pianos, to cat fights Plans has it all. It is sure to stir up a mixture of all emotions happy and sad. All are highly encouraged to come out tonight or tomorrow night and watch the original work of the Berkshire Theatre department. 7:30 show time and doors open at 7:15. Don't be stuck in your normal routine experience something new and come see it!
PS when the lights come on intermission has started!

Wednesday Walkthrough: Backstage

Follow senior Christiena Auguste backstage before dress rehearsal. Get your behind the scenes look peak at the Plans cast and crew getting ready to perform before an audience. The first performance is tonight at 7:30 in Allen Theater