The Prologue

Hello, everyone!


As you all know, Thursday was our day of callbacks, which means that we had to cast the show on Friday. Casting is never a fun process. It hurts your head, and once you finally think you have everyone in the right place, someone comes in and messes everything up.

Here's how it went down for us:

Thursday night we were all pretty much in agreement about how we would cast the show if we were forced to make our decision right then and there. It would have been something like this:
     Seymour - Jonathan
     Orin - Antonio
     Audrey - Adriana
     Mushnik - Trevor
     Plant - Dario
     Bernstein/Luce/Snip - Jaden
     Customers/Mr. Martin - Luis Eladio
This was essentially what I wanted.

This is what we ended up with:
     Seymour - Dario
     Orin - Antonio
     Audrey - Adriana
     Mushnik - Trevor
     Plant - Luis Eladio
     Bernstein/Luce/Snip - Jaden
     Customers/Mr. Martin - Jonathan
While I am also quite content with this cast, I will explain what happened in our meetings and what I thought about the available options.

Jonathan is about 6'3" or 6'4", lanky, and a ginger. He's half Tico, but he looks straight up gringo even though he's never left the country of Costa Rica. He has the perfect look for a Seymour, and he acted it very well. He has a nice voice, but it could use some work. Dario, on the other hand, is 100% Tico, about 5'7", and has the most amazing voice you've ever heard. He can sing just about anything, and we all knew that. I wanted him to be the Plant because I thought it would be a challenge for him. Dario is one of my best friends, and I know for a fact that as Seymour, he is essentially playing himself: a slightly awkward, super sweet, optimistic guy. Of course, Dario doesn't have a giant human-eating plant to deal with, but as far as character traits, there aren't too many differences. The Plant, however, is tough, raw, and a bit of a bully. Watching Dario do his audition for the Plant was hilarious, and I could tell it was making him work a bit creatively. And he also has the range and power in his singing voice to make the plant come to life and completely overpower Jonathan as Seymour.

We were pretty content to have this be the case. However, we decided that we wanted Jonathan and Trevor to come in on Friday afternoon (we were considering Trevor for Seymour, as well) to learn one last song to test their vocal ranges. Both of them did very well! I was still happy with having Jonathan as our Seymour, Trevor as Mushnik, and Dario as the Plant. After Trevor and Jonathan left, Lisa, Scott, and I started talking things over, and Lisa called Dario over to the piano. (Dario is a fellow intern as well as an actor in the play.) She handed him the music and made him sing the same piece the other two sang even though he was completely cold. Jonathan and Trevor probably worked on the piece for upwards of half an hour, while Dario belted it out without warming up at all and after drinking a Coke (any kind of carbonated drink is really bad for the voice - the caffeine and the bubbles dehydrate your vocal chords). Even under those conditions, his voice was still incredible and he acted the part better than the other two. We had no choice but to completely start from scratch with him as Seymour. After that, I pretty much stayed quiet as far as casting the men because there was a huge part of me that didn't want to give Dario Seymour. He has been FCCMT's star since he was 12, and there are many different arguments that go back and forth on why he should or shouldn't continue this trend:
     1. He's shown incredible dedication to the organization.
     2. Musical theatre is his passion and he wants to pursue it as a career.
     3. He's had a lot of opportunities to grow and shine - maybe we should let someone else have a chance?
     4. He's the best singer we have - from a technical standpoint he should get the lead.
     5. The Plant would be a bigger challenge for him as an actor and singer.
     6. He has great stage presence - it would be a shame to put him off stage with a microphone.
     7. He's doing a ton of work for the organization as the show's Co-Producer - he would have to spend less time in rehearsals/learning lines as The Plant because he could have a script backstage.
As you all can probably see, we had a long, long talk about him and where he should belong. And we finally ended up with a cast list. It was a bit of a frustrating process, but in the end I didn't really get much say in it. I got a lot of say in who was cast as Ronnette, Chiffon, Crystal, and Orin because they all need to be able to dance, but as far as the debate between Plant and Seymour for Dario, dance really isn't a question in casting.

Overall, I am very happy with our cast. I know everyone will do an amazing job. It was really more from an educational standpoint that I was fighting having Dario as Seymour. At any rate, I am very confident in our cast and how the entire show will turn out.

Yesterday we had our first rehearsal with the entire cast. It was basically a day-long introduction to how the rest of the summer will go. We did a quick talk-through of the show, which was exhausting not only because I know the show better than any of the other staff members so that responsibility fell largely to me, but also because I was doing it entirely in Spanish. I have no trouble holding conversation in Spanish or writing a 15-page research paper in Spanish, but giving the plot of an entire musical while trying to be entertaining to a group of kids ages 12-18 in a second language is difficult. Either way, I made it through and did a fair job, I think. Scott, Lisa, and I also each took a 30-minute block to do a quick introduction into our specialty. They were basically like mini-master classes. Vanessa got to take all the kids upstairs and make them all try on various different costumes, and Scott, Fabian, and I got the principals together for a read-through of the show. It was an exciting day and hopefully we won't lose any participants!

Keep following and thanks for sticking it out through that super-long post!

Love,
Erin

P.S. Some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

We have men! 6 of them! From left to right: Trevor (Mushnik), Antonio (Orin), Jonathan (Customers/Mr. Martin), Andrey (Ensemble), Dario (Seymour). Not shown: Luis Eladio (Audrey II).

We found an Audrey II in the wild!

Clouds are pretty in the mountains here :)

From when Alvaro and I went to the Farmers' Market at 6 AM to publicize the show/children's programs. Alvaro drew the plant and title of the show by hand - he's truly an amazing artist!

FCCMT Staff! As of right now. More to come. Top Row from Left to Right: Alvaro (Art Director), Dario (Co-Producer, Press Director), Scott (Director), Lisa (Program Director, FCCMT Founder, Music Director), Adrienne (Producer). Bottom Row from Left to Right: Vanessa (Costume Designer), Me (Choreographer, Development Director), Sophia (Assistant Choreographer)

Me teaching our audition dance at Escuela Los Llanos!