Lights. Camera. Action.
It’s getting to the end of the semester and while some are begging for summer break and dredging finals others have bigger plans in between.
The Drama Department is currently working on ‘Working’ a musical directed by Ashlee Temple that is set to premier on May 4 at 7 pm and continue on through the weekend and the next in the Tillie Lewis Theatre.
According to Temple the cast consists of 14 actors with some actors taking multiple roles .Singing rehearsals started in January which was roughly eight weeks of just singing followed by full rehearsals in March.
“Their amazing, they put in so much time…on Saturday the come in for 12 hours, on time and they don’t get paid. On weekdays they go to class and they come here,” said Ashlee Temple.
Working takes place not in a specific location but in a specific occupation setting. The play shows the occupations of different workers going by a course of a day, 24 hours.
“It’s about a bunch of different people, each person gets only five minutes with each character,” said Nick Giovannoni.
Very much like Giovannoni had said each actor plays a character for only five minutes. The audience will only get five minutes to understand each occupation. Which could be a bonus because as college students you study something in a specific field not understanding the situations of others in other occupations.
“That regardless of the job or occupation that an individual is still a person,” said Imri Tate.
‘Working: a musical’ could remind one of ‘Into the Woods,’ a musical with each story being different but fixing like puzzle pieces. Unlike ‘ Into the Woods’ the latter would be more real, tied together through monologues and songs.
As mentioned most actors took on multiple roles which might seem challenging to some but not to these actors.
“As an actor we are meant to mold and develop our craft so it’s enlightening for us about all these individuals and the service they provide,” said Nick Giovannoni
“It’s like you got four different skins…the more distant you can make the four of them makes it all the more better.I play three characters the tech support agent, ironworker, fireman which are three distant characters the Iron worker is introspective, the Tech support agent likes people and the fireman lives to serve,” said Naraz Chan.
In other words for them it’s easy because the characters are so different with different actions, ways, feelings, etc.
“It’s very diverse because you get a mix of many different people,” said Antonio Munoz.
Though there had some drawbacks the show and these actors have gone above a beyond to get this done most say they would do it again.
The cast seems to be looking forward to opening night through it all.
“I am looking forward to the crowds reactions…the roars of applause,” said Miguel Bedolla.
With a cast using words like “relevant”, “diverse”, “alive” to describe the play it must be a sight worth seeing.