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Checking in to the Directors, performers, technicians of Grand Hotel worked hard to create a whimsical world for the audience TOP: The antique chandelier and marquee are the cherry on top of the Grand Hotel set. The chandelier is from The Phantom of the Opera musical set. “For me, the most interesting part of the set is all of the fly stuff we’ve got going on,” Dooley said. Photo by Angus Sewell. MIDDLE: Junior Will Dooley follows along with the script from backstage. As one of two production coordinators, he stays backstage while the show is running in case sound and lighting issues arise. “To keep the ship running smoothly, it’s important to coordinate who’s working on what,” Dooley said. Photo by Alysa Spiro.
LEFT: Senior Mia Terminella and freshman Anderson Zoll perform “Valero”, an intense and emotional ballroom dance. “We have done a ton of character work throughout the rehearsal process and that has been a huge game changer,” Terminella said. “Everyone is very grounded in what they’re doing.” Photo by Angus Sewell. TOP: Emma Wallace as Flaemmchen performs “I Want To Go To Hollywood,” an upbeat dance number where Wallace’s character imagines herself as a Hollywood actress. “This show is just fun,” she explained. ”I wanted my choreography to make people happy.” Photo by Angus Sewell. MIDDLE: Junior Dashel Beckett makes calls over the crew speaker. “The process never really ends,” Beckett said. “There’s always more to do.” Photo by Alysa Spiro. BOTTOM: Charlotte Bearse (center) as prima ballerina Grushinskaya dances en pointe alongside ensemble members Kathryn Dooley, Lila Plummer, Mollie King and Mia Terminella. “Pointe is such an art form,” Bearse said. “I really had to sustain energy throughout the entire process.” Photo by Alysa Spiro.
BOTTOM: Junior Corin Vandenburg and senior Toshaan Arora hit their final poses in the number “Raise A Glass.” This song is a celebration of friendship between Vandenburg and Arora’s characters. Photo by Alysa Spiro.
ALYSA SPIRO staff reporter It’s 7:30 on a Thursday evening. The fluorescent lights of the McCallum Arts Center Theater dim into a foggy combination of reds and purples. A sudden hush falls over the crowd: whispers replaced with silent yet static anticipation. Suddenly, a limping, elderly doctor stumbles on stage. Music flares from the orchestra. The lights brighten and a marquee with the words “Grand Hotel” illuminate the stage. The audience is transported to 1920s Berlin, where they will experience the love and tragedy that makes Grand Hotel true to its name. For the audience, Grand Hotel spanned two hours and 30 minutes. But for the show’s
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dedicated cast and crew, Grand Hotel was not just a show, but a process spanning over three months that required much creativity and determination in order to create characters, dances and technical designs. Manifesting a vibrant, realistic character from the script took a lot of work from both the actors and the creative team. The entire cast was assigned a character analysis profile to help them bring their characters to life. “Mr. Denning kept talking about characterization, but this [the character analysis profile] really forced us to be specific,” said freshman Kathryn Dooley, a member of the dance ensemble. “We also got to request our own character props. It’s very nice because we got to add a little bit of ourselves into our characters.” For some actors, the process of character
development stretched even further and required more attention. Sophomore Charlotte Bearse played the role of Grushinskaya (she shared the role with junior Helena Laing), a 51-year-old ballerina. Bearse credited assistant director Sam Richter with helping her prepare for her role. “Sam made me walk around as an animal that represented my character,” Bearse recalled. “That actually really helped me. It made me think, ‘Is my character really motivated or is she hesitant? Would she care if anyone saw her walk like this?’ That exercise especially helped with the physicality because Grushinskaya is 51. That can be really hard for a 15-year-old to play because that’s literally the numbers of my age reversed.” Grand Hotel is also characterized by its stylistic dancing. The show is a melting pot
of different dance styles, including ballet, jazz, ballroom and Charleston. To get the dances looking clean and the dancers feeling comfortable took a lot of love and work. Senior Blair Kinsey, one of the two assistant choreographers (along with senior Owen Scales) believed that cleaning (polishing or fine-tuning) the dances proved to be the most difficult part of the entire process. “There were times it got tedious to clean number after number,” Kinsey said, “but once we worked on a number a lot it always looked so much better. It was so nice to actually see progress.” Dancing also proved to be the most difficult aspect of the show for Bearse, whose character dances en pointe throughout the entire show. Pointe is a technique of classical ballet that consists of a dancer balancing all of his or her
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body weight on the tips of their feet. “Pointe is such an art form,” Bearese said. “I had to start forcing myself to practice pointe work at home every day until I felt really comfortable so I wouldn’t mess up on stage. It was hard not to burn myself out. I really had to sustain energy throughout the entire process— both rehearsals and shows.” The depth of putting a show together extended beyond the on-stage performances. The technical aspects, including lighting, sound, scenic, props and costume design, took another army of students willing to put in many after-school hours. The responsibility of delegating, streamlining and making sure the show’s technical designs were completed on time fell partially on one of two co-production coordinators: junior Will Dooley.
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“Ms. Vandenburg, the tech teacher, was in charge of everyone, and she would tell us what we needed to do and what things needed to be delegated and planned,” Dooley said, “and so we made her job easier. Mr. Denning would have big ideas and plans, then Ms. Vandenburg would tell us what they were. With her, we worked to figure out how to execute everything.” Execution relied heavily on teamwork, according to sophomore Dashel Beckett, one of two scenic crew heads responsible for creating the show’s set. “So much of it was getting in the right mindset,” Beckett said. “A lot of the first week was talking to the crew and getting to know them so that the entire process was more fun and more productive as we went on.”
Unlike other shows MacTheatre has done, Grand Hotel had a very static set. “The show was very much in one location and that location was very interesting, and there was a lot to learn about it,” Beckett said. “Instead of having a lot of moving sets on wheels to signify moving positions, there was a bunch of stuff on stage all at once. Kind of like a grand hotel.” So what makes all the hard work, lack of sleep and long hours worth it? Realizing the show, says the cast and crew. “It was just the satisfaction of seeing the entire show on stage and knowing that you did that and your friends did that,” Beckett said. “You find these new people and you realize that everyone has grown because of the show.” Kinsey agreed and added that the show’s
opening elicited an influx of emotions, happiness foremost among them. “Seeing the end product and getting to see everyone’s parents be proud of their kids was so rewarding,” she said. “Even the people who don’t have kids in the show were like ‘Wow, this is so amazing!’ Just seeing the audience love the show; it meant so much.” For the actors, working towards inner satisfaction was a constant, never-ending process. “I know that I didn’t have that pure satisfaction the first time I performed in front of an audience,” Bearse said. “But I think near the middle and end of the run, I got so used to the routine I was able to not focus on my dancing and my lines and my singing. I was just able to enjoy myself in the moment.”
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