By Sophie Swenson
The lights are on, the stage is set, but instead of an audience, the actors of Lane’s new musical Gypsy are busily chatting away. In the front row, backpacks and jackets are flung over seats while their owners are spread out in large groups throughout the auditorium, excitedly chatting and laughing, still waiting for 3:30pm to come around. Slowly and almost unnoticeably, different cast members begin to migrate up onto the stage and rehearse their lines, while many still relax in the seats below.
This is only one of the many Gypsy rehearsals, and although there are about 25 students in the room, it’s only a small fraction of the whole production. The rehearsals and the performers are split into different groups, and it isn’t very often that they all share the same space.
Back in the rows of chairs, Megan Irving, Div. 278, Jasmine Garcia, Div. 252, Jazmyne Brown, Div. 182, a nd Ricardo Vicencio, Div. 183 are standing in a circle, comfortably joking about the issues they come across in the play, like kissing.
“It’s awkward because everyone’s watching you, and you feel pressured to kiss because you’re supposed to,” said Garcia.
Although she and many other students at Lane would share the same opinion, Irving and Vicencio are not fazed by the kiss they eventually share during rehearsal later in a scene.
Stripping is another seemingly difficult element of Gypsy, which revolves around a young woman who eventually becomes a burlesque dancer. Jessica Cleary, Div. 273, and Amelia Mroczowski, Div. 451, both have roles as strippers, and aren’t too concerned with playing the risqué part onstage in front of their peers, or parents.
“My mom laughed when I told her (about my role),” said Cleary.
Roles are another challenge that the actors face with Gypsy. For her part, Brown is learning how to play the trumpet, dance, sing, “and look good!,” said Brown, giggling.
Apart from learning to play the trumpet, Gypsy’s dancing numbers are also especially intense.
“June (a character) does a lot of dancing, and she has to do the splits and sing at the same time,” said Brown.
“Its really hard to do because I cant breathe, because I’m trying to dance and sing at the same time,” said Garcia, who plays June in the production.
“Rose is the most exhausting role,” said Ana Lovric, Div 267, who plays Rose, an aggressive stage mother. Irving, who also plays Rose, nods in agreement.
“People play Rose, and then they retire- and we’re doing it when we’re seventeen” said Irving.
Soon enough the conversation switches over to last year’s High School Musical, in which Gypsy’s cast agrees isn’t as serious or as challenging as this year’s number.
“With High School Musical, it was very kiddy,” said Vicencio, “This musical is completely different from a lot of musicals we’ve done.”
“It’s not winning a game, and getting a girlfriend,” said Irving. “It’s like, ‘my entire family has left me. Were poor, we’re not going to have any money anymore’.”
The story of Gypsy revolves around Gypsy Rose Lee, a famous stripper in the 1930′s and 40′s world of Burlesque. Mainly, the play involves Rose Lee’s (who is referred to as Louise, her middle name) experiences growing up with her family and the struggles that they face. Louise’s mother, Rose is a huge stage mom, and pushes her daughters to perform as Vaudeville stars. At first, Rose pays all her attention to June; Louise’s more talented sister, but after June elopes Rose begins to focus on Louise. This eventually leads them to end up in a Burlesque house, where Louise becomes famous.
“Really, it’s an incredible family story- lots of drama,” said Mrs. Hanson, the musicals director. “I think what makes it really interesting is that it’s based on a true story.”
Soon all the actors have moved onstage, surrounding the current scene taking place. With Mrs. Hanson sitting in front of them, a group of five or six students hold scripts in their hands while they work on how to move physically across the stage. Every now and then a line will be missed or messed up, which causes the entire cast, as well as Mrs. Hanson to break out in laughter.
In a scene, one character is supposed to shake another, but the actors try at pretend punching each other instead. It’s funny to watch, and contagious among the actors not rehearsing, who pretend to punch or be punched and then dramatically drop to the ground with alarming accuracy.
“Mrs. Hanson’s laid back,” said Garcia, watching the scene unravel from a flight of prop stairs. “She doesn’t yell at us for doing stuff we wouldn’t normally do in school,”
By 5pm the majority of the cast is onstage, reading lines or quietly chatting with friends; sprawled lazily on stage equipment or sitting comfortably in the audiences chairs. The quiet buzzing of conversation is interrupted every once in a while by a sharp outburst from an actor, or the an eruption of laughter coming from a scene.
Harrison Ornelas, Div. 172, has been in previous Lane productions and when it comes to plays, like many of the other actors, he is relaxed and ready for the production in Feb.
“The more you do it, the better you get,” said Ornelas, standing in front of the staircase and watching the stage.
With all the practice, the memorizing, and most of all the familial feel in the air, it is apparent that the cast of Gypsy is ready to perform. Leaving the auditorium, Ornelas sums it all up, surrounded by laughter; saying “Its theatre.”
