Students from Boston Arts Academy star in “In the Heights,” a production that will be staged at the Strand Theatre this weekend. Photo courtesy Boston Arts Academy
¡Arriba!
Nothing will be holding down Boston Art Academy’s cast and crew this Friday and Saturday as they take audiences soaring in presenting the muy Latino hit musical “In the Heights” (ITH) at the Strand. The sheer size and professionalism of the production represents a high-water mark for the school where 32 percent of the student body hails from Dorchester.
ITH features music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. Set over the course of the three-day weekend, the show follows an ensemble cast of characters in the largely Dominican-American barrio in northern Manhattan’s Washington Heights. The focal figure Usnavi tries to keep his little bodega from being vandalized as he helps neighbors and sighs over young women who seem to have made it out of the hood.
With its eclectic mix of jazz, hip-hop, rap, pop, salsa, and merengue, ITH swept most of the music-oriented Tony Awards in 2009, including Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Choreography, and Best Orchestrations. New York Magazine hailed it as ‘‘a groundbreaking 21st-century musical. This extraordinary blend of old and new pushed the sound of Broadway deeper into new territory.”
“Heights” Director Maura Tighe reflects on the parallels between the barrio characters in the musical and the BAA students portraying them: “This play centers on a neighborhood in NYC that is struggling to maintain its Latino culture and identity at the same time it expands and innovates. The characters in the play are also trying to hold onto community without giving up their dreams. The Strand is the perfect place to tell this story and have our students experience performing on a ‘big’ stage. Many live in Dorchester, and most are also Latino immigrants.”
BAA theatre student and ITH Assistant Director Shanelle Chloe Villegas observes in the program notes: “The PBS documentary of In the Heights, featuring the Broadway cast and their journey to Broadway, opens with the composer Lin-Manuel Miranda saying, ‘Every day has the potential to be the greatest day of your life.’ The characters of this story yearn to make sense of the factors that shape their community. There’s no way BAA students could miss the opportunity to tell the story of these characters, who are so interconnected to our own lives.
“In the Heights is the biggest show BAA has ever done – in terms of everything! The stage is big, the hype is big, and the journey that we’ve had as a cast/crew has been monstrous. This was the first show that combined the music and theatre departments. We have had professionals from every end of the spectrum – choreographers, vocal teachers, instrumentalists, and directors – pushing us to be the best that we can be.”
BAA is the city’s only public high school for the visual and performing arts, serving over 440 students. Its academic-blind admissions process ensures that students of all levels of academic ability have the opportunity to pursue their passion for the arts. Forty percent of the school’s students enter BAA reading below grade level, 30 percent speak English as a second language, and over 70 percent are from low-income households. It is through the arts, coupled with a full-college preparatory education, that an average of 94 percent of BAA graduates are accepted to college, many of them being first-generation college students.
For details on this weekend’s three performances, visit Boston Arts Academy on Facebook and check out the preview video.
