How Las Lomas performing arts is putting together a show

Written by SABRINA TUCKER

In the town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of young girls go dancing in the woods, sparking a witch hunt filled with betrayal and intrigue. This is the plot of “The Crucible”, the two-act play that Las Lomas Performing Arts is putting on this November. The Las Lomas cast and crew of “The Crucible” spent around two months rehearsing the show, a process that is much more complicated than normally perceived.

As the performance date comes closer, the cast puts in their best effort to get the show off the ground, which requires a lot of energy and dedication. However, before any preparations, the show must first be cast. When casting a show, many factors are considered. “It really depends on the character and type of show. Sometimes you need someone who can hit some really deep emotional moments and sometimes you need someone who has really great comedic timing. It’s also important to think about who’s going to work well together. Sometimes you have two amazing actors who don’t have any chemistry together … When it comes to ‘[The] Crucible’, there’s so much ground we had to cover. We needed a lot of people that could play the depth all of the characters had,”  said “The Crucible” director, Owen Atteberry.

When the cast is finalized and schedules are compared, rehearsals begin. The schedule for rehearsal is released on a week by week basis, based on the availability of the cast and crew. “…we start off with a read through of the show so that everyone knows the story,” said Atteberry. Then, the actors start blocking, where they walk through the physical portion of the show — when they move and where. This gives them time to do character work and learn their lines, before they have to run through the show off book–without their scripts. “We’ve been working chronologically and doing about 7-10 pages a day. I start each rehearsal with a table work session which is where the actors have a conversation about their characters in the pages for the day. We started table work on the first blocking rehearsal so we could really start building their characters,” said Atteberry. 

In the week leading up to the show, once the show has been blocked and run through, the cast starts tech rehearsals. This is a long and strenuous process, filled with many late nights. “Tech week starts during the weekend with 2 [sic] very long rehearsals for lights, sounds, costumes, and all other aspects of tech. It can be very tedious for the actors but is incredibly necessary for the tech department. At this point, it’s about the tech not the actors. After we finish the weekend, tech week is running the show at performance level. Cleaning all the bumps and making sure it looks ready for an audience,” said Atteberry. 

The cast had put in long hours into this production, and is very proud of their work and accomplishments. “I’m very proud of the cast we’ve built, they bring so much life to the show,” said Atteberry.