A little slice of New York is coming to campus as Washington Heights is being recreated in Cal State Fullerton’s Little Theater for the production of the “In the Heights” musical.
Written by Quiara Alegría Hudes with music by Lin-Manuel Miranda, “In the Heights” is a four-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical that tells the story of Usnavi, a man who yearns to leave the barrio of Washington Heights in spite of what he has built and the connections he has made.
The inception of this Latin musical at CSUF began with an invitation to the production’s director, Sara Guerrero.
“To be invited and asked to do the show was a great honor,” Guerrero said. “I had a scheduled fellowship to work at another university, and I set that aside so I could stay here and work on the show this fall.”
Lizette Torres, a member of the ensemble cast and understudy for the role of Abuela Claudia, shared her experience of the audition process and how it made her feel more connected to the cast.
“We got a callback where it was multiple days. The first day, we danced as an ensemble, and it was super fun meeting everybody, and all we did that day was sing harmonies and dance,” Torres said. “So it was a lot of community-based, and that was a really nice way to set off this whole production’s process.”
She further elaborated that because of the sense of community she felt in the audition, students going for the same roles did not feel as if they were competing against each other but rather were lifting each other up and supporting one another.
Aside from the cast, the production of the musical showcases the effort from the crew that had to work with many physical features.
“It seems like it would be really simple, and like there wouldn’t be a lot going on, but there are 740 costume pieces, 150 pieces of jewelry, 112 costume changes and a cast of 28 — that makes it a huge musical,” said Haven Hanson, the costume designer for the production. “Modern pieces are complicated because you have to think about details you wouldn’t think about in a period piece, like watches and bracelets and bangles and how does that impact a character?”
The specificity of this musical had to be accounted for to accommodate a diverse set of characters who may undergo multiple costume changes.
For props, gathering items was no easy feat either.
“In terms of props, there were at least over 150 props,” Prop Master Ulises Jimenez said. “It was a very chaotic process gathering everything, but in the end we could see it was very rewarding and how much every single prop goes.”
Overall, what brought the cast and crew together during the production was an understanding of the representation the story aims to convey.
When talking about how much joy she had working on “In the Heights,” Guerrero hopes that what the audience takes away from the musical is enjoyment and a sense of relatability to their own experiences that they share with characters.
“As an audience (I hope) that they take away joy; it’s entertaining, it’s relevant to them, that they may or may not see something about their own life or their own world existing on the stage, that they talk about it when they leave,” Guerrero said.
“In the Heights” starts today, Oct. 22 at 8 p.m. in the Little Theater with the final showing on Oct. 31 at 2 p.m.