Omigod you guys! RHS’s production of Legally Blonde, directed by Mr. Brian Dietzler, opens this week! Based on the hit movie, the musical follows the story of Elle Woods (played by Katie Cleffi/Katie Bowman), blonde Delta Nu at UCLA who decides to head to Harvard. Along the way, she meets Emmett Forrest (Jackson Diskin), learns from Professor Callahan (Julian Kusnierz), and connects with Paulette Bonafonte (Sarah Browne/Hailey Gasink).
Radnor students have been hard at work since early January preparing. Rehearsals are split into the three categories of music, blocking, and choreography. Each piece is different, but they all have one thing in common— the cast. “Spending time with [her] castmates” is Hailey Gasink’s favorite part of rehearsal. “I like building friendships with everybody,” she says of her experience playing Paulette. Though sometimes tedious and long, rehearsals bring together a cast of people.
The process of putting a show together is relatively simple. First, each piece is learned separately. For Legally Blonde, dancers met every Tuesday night last month to learn choreography. It wasn’t until two weeks ago that the choreography was performed in the context of the play as a whole! Isa Bucci, who is a part of the Greek Goddesses/featured dancers has a clear favorite dance, and it’s “Positive.” “It’s a fun, upbeat song… and it’s a great number,” she explains.
At separate rehearsals, cast members also learn music and are given directions for their scenes. Those directions are commonly called “blocking” in the theatre world. “A lot of people hate the blocking part of rehearsals,” according to Quinn O’Donovan, who plays Vivienne, “but I enjoy blocking… I think it’s pretty fun.” Her favorite part of rehearsal is not only hanging out with friends, but also “giving input on [her] character’s motivations in the moment.” Through blocking, characters (and their motivations) come to life on stage. In “Legally Blonde Remix”, Quinn’s character changes the course of the rest of the show, but you’ll have to come see it this weekend to find out how.
After the actors know each piece, or at least most of the pieces, they’re put together into a rough run, which is when the entire cast makes their way through the show over the course of a couple days. At this point in the process, there’s no costumes, no tech, and no sets. These bare-bone rehearsals help launch the next stage, though, which is just practice.
The cast drills music, harmonies, dialogue, entering, and dancing, until they know it all by heart.
“Whipped into Shape”, the act two opener, is a tough song for the actors. Brooke Wyndham (Izzy Pruett/Natalie Tyburski) and an ensemble of dancers jump rope in rhythm for the majority of the song. Precision and endurance are a necessity— so the actors practice, practice, and practice more! For dance captain Amanda Evans, the hard work is worth it: “It’s such a fun number, and it can be so tiring, but I feel like it’ll be so amazing… It’s gonna be the most memorable part of the show.”
These final rehearsals before tech are where everything begins to fall into place. Hailey’s favorite part of the show is a scene she’s not in— it’s “when Jackson [Emmett] and Katie [Elle] sing ‘Legally Blonde’… I was the one crying yesterday [at rehearsal]. Had me in tears, full body chills.” In rehearsal, with everything together, lines become meaningful and the story becomes real.
After the practice is done, comes the last, but certainly never forgotten, tech. “I’ve been in a number of productions both at Radnor High School and outside, and Radnor’s tech week is always the most chaotic,” Quinn mentioned. Tech is one week of putting everything together, from sound to set changes to light to costumes. Anyone in the show (actors, tech, and the pit) stay late at school to put everything into place. It can be a lot, “but the show does always come together,” as Quinn says.
And it’s all worth it once the curtain swings wide on opening night.
Before the show, the cast of Legally Blonde will come together one last time. They’ll gather in the green room, warm up, and wish each other luck before places are called (Though, if you were backstage, there’d probably be more “break-a-leg”s than good lucks due to theatre superstition). Five minutes before the show begins, actors will wait backstage for their moment to shine.
Come see the show February 27, 28, or 29! See the cast (including the dogs and cameos!) and buy your tickets online at rhspa.org— you don’t want to miss the spring musical Legally Blonde!
