Spring One-Acts: Load In!

Kennedy Alvarez checks to make
sure that the costumes are where
they need to be!

On Friday, the cast and crew of The Spring One-Acts began setting up the stage, the workshop, and greenroom for the show! The props and costumes crew, known as the "propstumes" or "crops" crew, labeled and arranged the costumes and props in their respective place. It was a lot of work, for the entire cast has certain clothing and other items that they must take with them on stage. The "propstumes" crew must make sure that every cast member has their costumes and props with them on stage.

ASM Carrie Babigian sets up the light
board on the stage managers' platform.

The stage managers and other cast members began to set up the platform from which the stage managers will be able to call light cues. Since the audience will sit on stage with the performers, the stage managers will need to be able to see the performance so that they can call the cues for the show. 

Liz Butler and Max Miller spike
furniture in the shop.

In the shop, Dom and a couple of us began to move the platforms out of the shop and onto the stage. While they were really heavy, we managed to move them! Meanwhile, some of us began to spike and arrange the furniture and larger props in the shop in order to make scene changes happen quicker and efficiently. Now that everything is out of the way, we are headed into Tech Week!

by Jeff Erazo, '15

Thursday Think Tank With Hung: Or is it Friday’s Feels?

Before I go any further, allow me to give my sincerest apology for the late entry. I am fully aware that today is Friday, that yesterday is Thursday, and that there wasn’t any Think Tank yesterday…

I should have known that AP classes can go a little out of hand in spring. But all in all, I have zero excuse for self-defense; I took a break I didn’t actually deserve, a quick nap, really, from 9.30 till 7 the next day. It was a good nap though, despite the fact my coughing got slightly worse. Also, my greatest apology for those who anticipate a sample video of theater’s Warm-up. Mr. H thought the Warm-up routine is a bit of a private portion of the rehearsal and was less inclined to have it publicized. And the truth is, I agree with that. I’m not a modernist novelist by any mean, but I believe that like many experiences in life, like this one time when I got locked out of my winter break’s host’s apartment, slept outside, and in the freezing cold woke up to the sunrise atop an abandoned house, or the other time when I waved good-bye to all the annoying problems and pains and just generally dead weights as I shaved my hair bits by bits and in came a Mohawk (if you look back at Jeff’s entry “Set Build # 2” last Sunday, you will find a picture in which there is a guy with a Mohawk having zero clue how to build a platform. That would be me.), Warm-ups are hard to be deemed beautiful unless one experiences them first-hand, not merely watches a snippet of them.

*That was a long sentence*

And yet, even when one does go through a journey first-hand, finding words and images that can do the experience justice is even more ridiculous of a task. So many times I have spent trying to breathe out the right words and phrases, to look for the right images in my mind, hoping they will catch on with my feels, so many times I have failed, and so many times I have looked like an idiot in front of more than one person. It’s hard and painful, really, to try to confine the feels with words. Just gotta feel the feels, I suppose.

While we’re at it, let’s name this entry “Friday’s feels”. And you guys know how I feel this Friday? I feel like a cheater.

Y’all know, cheater. I’m talking straight up A4 cheat sheets, invisible pens, atomic-size hand-writings, and all that good stuff. It’s cool though, cause everyone’s doing it; everyone’s making cheat sheets for tech rehearsal tomorrow, up until the opening night next week.

“They’re extremely important. The only time I made a mistake with my blocking was when I didn’t check my cheat sheets.” Rebecca commented, responding to Mr. H’s question with regards to the importance of making these cute little angels in disguise. Other than blockings of his/her own play, Mr. H noted, one is expected to know where to be, what to bring, whom to help, when to exit and enter during the remainder of the show. And cheat sheets are great aids, if not the greatest, in helping everyone plow through the show in the most efficient way possible.

“It helps you be less concerned about memorizing the chores off-stage, and gives you more room to focus on what is truly at stake on stage; the less you have to think, the better your performance will be.” Mr. H remarked.

After the speech, everyone stayed back to help with the load-in. We brought in the props and costume closet, swept the floor, prepared the stage to the most we could for tech rehearsal the next day. All the while, Mr. H’s words of advice kept hitting the replay button in my head; Less thinking. More feeling. ‘nough said.

And with that, today’s entry has come full circle. But wait, there’s more. I have two comments in the last entry.

Guys.

Two.

Comments.

This is stupendous.  I look forward to receiving more comments from you two too, anonymous citizens.

Ok, now I’m officially calling it a day. Stay awesome, global citizens.

P/s: Mr. Howard’s close friend is, indeed, not Seymour. I was hoping while editing the blog, Heather would catch it and be like “O you little brat you” in a complimentary way. I didn’t know if she ever did. Maybe she did and just left the joke untouched so people can take me for Gump. Forrest Gump. I hate mind games.

P/p/s: Next blog entry, and most likely the last, will definitely be online on Thursday. One more Tank coming your way. Get excited.

by Hung Hoang, '13

Final Blocking and Load-In prep!

The cast of Small Actors recently finished blocking the last final parts of their play. The scene consists of the cast of It’s Not You, It’s Me and some actors from !Artistic Inspiration. This important scene involves the performance of Romeo and Juliet, the play that performed within Small Actors. We had a lot of fun performing the scene over and over again, making sure to perfect it. Mr. Howard stated that it would be one of the most “memorable moments” for the Spring One-Acts. The cast of It’s Not You, It’s Me also finished blocking the final scenes of the play, while !Artistic Inspiration will finalize their blocking today.

On another note, we unloaded all of our props today! With the show less than a week away, it’s time to get those props ready. The cast made sure to clean the stage, Green Room, and the Workshop in order to prepare for the show. The costumes crew made sure that all costumes were in check while the props crew put all the props near the stage to keep them handy. It also served as a moment for all of us to come together acknowledge all of the work we’ve put into making this show happen. Stay tuned for next week!

by Jeff Erazo, '15

Spring One-Acts: Set Build #2!

Yesterday afternoon, the cast of The Spring One-Acts got ready to get down to work! We began by painting the cubes and bench for our set, making sure to “paint with the grain” as Dom, our Tech Director, had instructed us to do. We were really careful so that we would not get paint on ourselves, but that was inevitable. Meanwhile, the other half of the cast worked on making a platform for the stage managers. They began by creating a cage-like structure so that our stage managers can stand on it to give light cues during the show. Remember, the audience will experience the show by sitting onstage.

After eating pizza kindly provided by Mrs. Humes (thank you!), we began painting the cubby for our performance. After the platform was built, everyone painted it black. The time seemed to fly, for all our cast members had generously provided their iPhones to play music on the stereo. What a productive and fun Saturday!

by Jeff Erazo, '15

Thursday Think Tank With Hung: Madness Is In. So is everyone.

The crew had just finished Dying Goat today when I suddenly realized I forgot to bring a camera to record rehearsal’s warm-up. For the fourth time. And people say third time’s a charm.

“Now think of something that happened today that you want to forget.” Mr. Howard, who was co-leading the warm-up with Tom today, spoke calmly. I dropped dead inside. There was no way I could forget that I forgot something four times in a row. The image of our beloved Heather growing two horns and stirring the inferno cauldron with a red trident, while bursting out the most diabolical laugh ever known to mankind, crossed my mind and sent a shiver down my spine.

The next thing I knew, we were sitting down as Mr. Howard switched to story-time mode and told us the story of how his best friend, Seymour, and he carried themselves through a musical that, as Mr. Howard argued, really sucked. It was my first session ever of Inspiring Thoughts With Mr. Howard. The story was short, but it was the conclusion he made from the story that got me thinking. So pardon me as I now fast-forward to approximately three minutes later.

“Thousands of high schools across the country are making spring shows. So if you think about it, really what we are doing here doesn’t matter,” confessed Mr. Howard, “What we do doesn’t matter. What matters here is how we do it.”

It’s just like the new Mtn Dew commercial with Lil Wayne, only a helluva lot better. As such, it sent a shiver down my spine again, but this time it was a different kind of shiver. It was a kind of shiver that excites the particles within my body, that engraves onto my mind, vague as it may be, a work ethics ideal that, hopefully ten years from now, can still keep me in the hearts of the people I have been having the privilege to work with for the past month, and them in me. After all, when we say we miss a certain place, we are, in reality, only missing the people that make that place our home. And I am sure as hell starting to miss Berkshire. We have two weeks left until the first play. No more Thursdays off. Madness is officially in. But that’s OK, because so is everyone.

Anyway, for the rest of the day, my two lovely fellow cast members, Christiena and Kay, and I worked with Mr. Howard on the Canadian Rapping Scene in !Artistic Inspiration and the beginning of the Gargoyle scene. I still struggled with projection and diction, but overall everything had a way of working themselves out. The Canadian scene, in fact, has inspired me to make a public compliment to Heather that, you guessed it, rhymes. Here we go.

Hey Heather, it’s true,
That I did imagine you
Growing horns, groping trident, stirring a devil stew.
And yeah it’s true
I imagine that laugh you do
As the most diabolical sound human kind ever knew.
It crossed my mind, sent shivers down my spine,
But it only lasted for a second twenty-nine.
‘Cause your character design,
Is top of the line,
Everyone wants to sit with you,
‘Cause you’re real fine.

That’s all I have so far. I’m sorry but I do have some work to do. But before I go any further, allow me to say that the last two lines are inside jokes between Heather and I.

Now that I have made a compliment for Heather that rhymes, hopefully I am still alive by the next sunshine. But seriously though, Heather, I will have the video up by tomorrow.

Cause that is how I do.

Stay awesome, global citizen.

by Hung Hoang, '13

A Sneak Peek at the Spring One-Acts!

Have a sneak peek at two of the three plays
being featured in the Spring One-Acts!

Line Run and Black Box Theater Set-Up

Setting up the platforms
for our audience members!

With two weeks to go until opening night for the Spring One-Acts, the cast of the three plays began to prepare the stage in order to create the Black Box theater effect. As you may know, the Spring One-Acts will be performed in a three-quarter-thrust formation, meaning the audience will be able to experience the performance while being seated on three sides of the stage. After speaking to our Production Manager, Heather, she stated that the stage will be able to seat a little over a hundred people per show. So if you’re planning on attending the performance, make sure to get there early!

Waiting for the second half of
the line run to begin.

On a different note, today was our first off book line run. After performing all three plays without our scripts, we knew that the show was going to be a success. Mr. Howard stated that we “did a great job,” but of course, our work does not stop there. There is always room for improvement! A week from now will commence Tech Week, a week in which we run through the play several times with light cues, music, and costumes. It’s time to get this show on the road!

by Jeff Erazo, '15

Max's Monday Thrinterview: The Stage Managers

Max Miller interviews Stage Manager Jake Diamond and 

Assistant Stage Manager Carrie Babigian, part of the stage management team 

for the 2013 Spring One-Acts!

The Four-Minute "Hot Minute" with Christiena Auguste: Light Hang

Christiena Auguste is on the scene with members of the
Light Hang crew at today's Light Hang for the Spring One-Acts!

Thursday Think Tank With Hung: Warm-Ups

Hi you! Yeah you, you beautiful, gorgeous, random blog reader! I know you’re out there! You’re just a little too shy to comment but that’s OK! That can change, and that will change! But for now, welcome back to Thursday Thought Tank with me, Hung Hoang. Side note: starting this week, the official name of my weekly blog will be Thursday Think Tank, not Thought Tank, just to spice it up a little. Truth is, when trying to come up with the name, I over-thought and doubted if Think Tank would fit the bill since what we are doing here has little - if at all - to do with, as Webster dictionary told me, “interdisciplinary research”. Little did a guy fresh off the boat like I know that Mr. H thinks Think sounds so much better. Should have guessed that. But anyway, there you go. Think Tank.

So, without further ado, let’s get right onto our topic this week. Let’s get it. Let’s warm up. Just like athletes. Loosen the muscle, release the tension, avoid injuries, and stay on top of the game. 

Now, imagine yourself being in a circle, surrounded by eighteen other people. It’s 3:20 in the afternoon, school just ended, and you have a couple of tests and quizzes the day after (in case your days as high school students are long gone, let’s replace that with professional development meetings). You have had a pretty rough day already, and you have so many things on your mind. You feel like exploding. You feel like screaming. You feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. 

Then the song starts. 

That peaceful melody emerges out of thin air, swoops down and enwraps you, consumes you. And you let it take you away. And you begin the warm-up. You close your eyes, shut down your mind, and let your instinct take over. Every day’s warm-up is different. In no particular order, a typical warm-up shall be a combination of, but not limited to, Dying Goat, Syllables, Twelve Counts, Word Association, Pass the Clap, High Pitch to Low Pitch, 2 slows – 2 fasts, so on and so forth. This is not Yoga, by the way. But the effect is equally powerful, I must say. Also, if you encounter any problems while imagining what these exercises are, don’t worry; I’ll upload a sample warm-up in the near future.

If you were like me, after a few days, you would realize that regardless of how different every day’s  warm-up may be, the circle would always get smaller at the end. We wrap our arms around our fellow cast members, our friends, and look into each other’s eyes, for a really long time. I always had goose-bumps around this particular moment of the rehearsal, especially on the days when the warm-up song ended just in sync with the closing of the circle. It felt as though time has stopped for a short while just for us boys and girls, plus Mr. Howard; just so that our bodies can freeze in space; our souls connect; and our trust in one another forever strong. I always had goose-bumps, and I always loved it.

It’s been about three weeks since I started shouting at the top of my lungs, jumping up and down, squatting, and letting all the pains drip down my fingers. And in the past three weeks, I feel as stress-free as humanely possible. I got my mindset right before every rehearsal, I forgot the bumps I had during the day, I managed to set aside the worries of my life, and, like my good friend Sami “Shades” once told me, to feel like a Beast from the East. #MinorityPride. (I’m from Vietnam, btw).

Again, I will upload a video of our typical warm-up in the near future, possibly next Thursday. But in the meantime, should you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, so on and so forth, don’t hesitate to drop in a quick comment. If you’d like to come to our rehearsals, you are always welcome to (I have never asked Mr. Howard about this, but I don’t think he would mind).

Have a great day, global citizens. See you next Thursday.

by Hung Hoang, '13

Monday Minerview with Max: Christiena Auguste, Hung Hoang, Kay Humes

Max's Monday Minerview continues this week with

Christiena Auguste, Hung Hoang and Kay Humes!

Spring One Acts: Set Build #1

In the video below, Max Miller shows us some of the things 

that happened at today's set build for the Spring One-Acts!

Thursday Think Tank with Hung

Hello everyone, my name is Hung, and welcome to the first ever Thursday Think Tank. Every Thursday starting from now until quite possibly the end of May this year, you are cordially invited to join me as I recap the major/ memorable events of the week that take place in/outside the Allen theater, during rehearsals, break-time, off-stage, in the Green Room, up in the Film Lab, and watch me throw them all into the gigantic tank of pure philosophical awesomeness, mix them all up, and paste the fine mixture up here on the official Berkshire theater blog.

Now, with the introduction out of the way, let’s jump right into our first topic, which is a not a rhetorical question, but a legit concern that has many times been mentioned by our dear theater director, Mr. Howard, at school meetings but never been documented in written verses:

What would I get out of the theater experience?

If you are as impatient as me, Googling the answer can become an utterly frustrating experience. So let’s start this off nice and slow with a little story.

Since spring is here, and the ice-cream machine has officially returned from hibernation, I decided yesterday afternoon to treat myself with a cone full of brain-freezing happiness. When I made it to the machine, something struck me. Keep in mind I didn’t come to Berkshire with the intention of earning a degree in Desserts and Bakery though. But at the same time, it didn’t really take a genius to notice how limited the flavors the machine has to offer are. Vanilla. Chocolate. Or both. Cool. But what about other flavors?

I’m not in any way questioning the time and effort the Sage Dining Service has put into their work (on the contrary, I know they are all awesome people. #Scottmakesmyday). But,

When will we get to have those industrial-size buckets of ice-cream again?

When will we have the privilege of topping our bowls of ice-cream with hot chocolate melt?

Cherries and gummy bears?

Reddi-whip cream? (Btw, spring theatergoers: You guys will get this whip cream joke soon.)

I pondered my way back to my advisor’s table (shout out to Dr. Davis) as the melting ice-cream started dripping down my fingers. Mr. Howard’s table situated diagonally from mine. I looked at him while licking my thumbs (Glory to Buddha Amitabha for he didn’t see me doing that) and wondered if the past two weeks spent working with him and nineteen other human beings for the first time ever, also the last, have turned me into a nagging son of a gun, or, as Heather puts it, annoying.

I hope they have.

I’m glad if they have, because that, I believe, is the side-effect that will slowly but surely be embedded into my system the moment I subconsciously start regarding Allen theater as my new home – A home where I get to work towards the same goal with Jeffrey, Kay, Christiena, Max, Kennedy, Liz, Alyssa, Merit, TJ, Michelle, Craig, Tom, Ethan, Rebecca, Pratima, Alex, Amy, Mr. Howard, Dom, Heather, Jake, and Carrie, a home where I am confident that all of us are carrying out our own respective responsibilities, where I can learn to be aggressive against no one but myself alone, where deciding the position a chair on stage has to be violent, and where making mistakes isn’t something to be embarrassed about, but rather encouraged and, later on, very rewarding (I’ll talk about that in the near future).

We have no tests, no pop quizzes, and no paper to write. What we do have is the chance to be normal, frustrated, confused, excited, enthralled, crazy, sexy, indifferent, arrogant, classy, down-to-earth, greedy, flamboyant, depressed, cool, jock, attention-seeking, fame-thirsty, and so much more. What we do have, is the chance to deliberately demand more from ourselves, from others, and to be more than one flavor in life. What we do have, is the chance to have fun, to go crazy with people of different origins, personalities, tastes in music and movies, socioeconomic backgrounds. In other words, Berkshire Theater is just like any other sport team on campus, only slightly more artsy. There’s more to life than Vanilla and Chocolate; that’s what the theater experience has shown me.

But hey, you don’t have to take it from a guy who got into a play for the first and last time in his entire high school career. Come and see us rehearse if you have free time. If not, Thursday Think Tank will happily provide a virtual tour for you. Also, feel free to comment down below if you have any suggestion on what the topic of next week should be.

Until then, stay awesome, global citizens. And have some mint chocolate chip scoops while you’re at it.

Hung’s out.

P/s: Arwen, squirrels are wickedly cute. Here’s a picture to validate my point.


P/p/s: Whoever has my pair of pilot sunglasses, return it now and that will be the end of it. But if you don’t, I will find you, and I will huff you.

Update: Guess who just telepathically heeded my outcry at lunch today? Sage, you guys rock.

by Hung Hoang, '13

Monday Minerview with Max: Merit Glover

Max Miller takes a minute to interview our 

Tech Assistant and Student Director, Merit Glover!

Spring One-Acts: Tech Crews

Who's excited about tech jobs?
The props crew is definitely excited!

First of all, congratulations to the cast of the Spring One-Act Plays—!Artistic Inspiration, Small Actors, and It’s Not You, It’s Me. With about five weeks until opening night, we have gotten down to work on memorizing our lines, working on our blocking, and developing our unique characters. Now that we have received our tech jobs, this is really when the rubber hits the road!

The bios crew discusses their plan for
writing the best bios we've ever had!

Ranging from costumes, props, bios, and headshots to publicity and blog crew, the Spring One-Acts has, in essence, become our play. Many responsibilities have been entrusted to us, giving each and every one of us the experience of being both a cast and crew member.

Meet 3 of your bloggers: Hung Hoang, 
Christiena Auguste and Max Miller!

After receiving our tech jobs, each crew got together to discuss and plan out their work for the next five weeks.  Everyone was enthusiastic about their jobs and could not wait to discuss their ideas with Mr. Howard, Heather and Dom. Each group met with them to outline responsibilities, deadlines and any details needed to do our jobs well for the next five weeks. These meetings were necessary to ensure the smooth sailing of this awesome production! 

by Jeff Erazo, '15