Athens Drive theatre department welcomes the new play “In the Heights” by holding dance workshops this winter. The theatre director says the show will be unlike anything people have seen at Athens Drive. The play will be diverse and give students many opportunities for the spring season.
“In the Heights” is about a girl, Nina, who returns to a town called Washington Heights. Nina is returning from her freshman year of college at Stanford and gets there to find out that her parents are struggling to keep their business alive. The main lead of the show follows a guy named Unvani who loves interest is Vanessa, but Vanessa wants to move to the richer side of town. A winning ticket, lottery and romantic tensions are all things included in this play.
“We’re trying to have our audition process as close to the quote on quote ‘real world’ auditions as possible,” said Ashlyn Hayes, visual and performing arts teacher.
The theatre department helps students who are not as comfortable with auditioning come out of their shell. The workshops are what help the students get experience so if they have never auditioned for anything, the workshops will be there as a support system. The ending result will help students for future auditions in the real world so it will not be as intimidating. The ultimate goal is making sure students are ready for the process to come.
“The workshops have been so fun, you get to practice the dance over and over until you get it,” said Isabel Kaczmarek, junior.
Chaste Hamilton a professional choreographer will be coming to Athens Drive to show the students the process of what it takes to dance in a musical on December 19. Students will learn how to do the dance, so they can have time to practice it over the break. This will give students time if they are uncomfortable with dancing and realize that doing things in front of people is not scary.
“I’m looking forward to it because the workshop is the first step in this long amazing journey that is going to be the spring musical,” said Peyton Joyner, freshman.
