¡Hola amigos!

We are less than month away from opening night! Today was a busy but fun rehearsal. We pieced together the music, blocking, and choreography for 96,000, a.k.a. Mr. Howard's favorite number in the show. 96,000 is the centerpiece in the first act: Usnavi from the bodega announces to the neighborhood that someone won a lottery ticket worth 96,000 dollars. The people all started fantasizing what they would do with that much money and started rapping, singing, and dancing in the neighborhood. As much as the music very upbeat, it contains a bittersweet layer of reality's heavy burden mixed with the faraway hopes and dreams. "I find it very hard to get through the song without crying," Someone said during rehearsal. The cast try very hard to portray the situation and feel what the characters and feeling, and put the music and the ideas into their body, in their expressions.

We also started to design hair and makeup for the show today! Liz Wheeler, a local makeup artist who has done many shows with Berkshire Theater, came to help. Each one of the actors were called in to try on foundations and discuss their characters. Annie and Liz made a customized makeup kit for everyone, which consists of foundation, lip colors, blush, a pencil and a sponge. 

Lastly, please take a sneak peak of the video of the first band rehearsal from last week!

Video credit: Rafael Arredondo.

Yours truly,

Maggie​

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