BWW Blog: Marina Maldonado - Three Weeks Left: BYE BYE BIRDIE

It's cutting down to the wire on our production of Bye Bye Birdie! We have about three weeks left until opening night on May 11th, and we have so much left to do. We've blocked and choreographed everything except "Shriner's Ballet" and "An English Teacher", so now it's time to polish our dances to make sure they look perfect! Choreography is such an important part of this show, so we definitely have to work extra hard with our choreographer and vocal director to make sure that when we dance, our vocals stay strong, which has been sort of a weak spot for us so far. Another huge part of this show is off-focus acting, which really comes into play the most during "Honestly Sincere" as all the teens, adults, and even the mayor's wife can't help but be mesmerized by Conrad's charm.

As far as technicalities go, we're slowly getting there. We build all of our sets and gather all of our own props as a club and as a cast, so kids in drama class are really working themselves hard to finish building Penn Station and painting the backdrops. The MacAffee house is halfway completed and painted, so now we just have to finish the downstairs. I can definitely say it's been hard trying to build the sets, paint them, learn choreography, block scenes, and run each of the acts all with only three rehearsals a week, but we can do it. The only thing that has been making it difficult for us is our school's lack of an auditorium. We have to rehearse in the school's cafeteria until two days before the show, when we get to use a county-operated theatre for two dress rehearsals and our three performances. It's definitely a huge transition for us! With three weeks left, we're all putting in overtime to make this show great!

Love,

Marina