Gangs take to the street

Published 7:00 pm Wednesday, May 18, 2005

‘West Side Story’ brings a message of non-violence to BHS.

“Jets” chalked on the sidewalk, and an outline of a shark swirled with graffiti are the first signs.

Entering Bainbridge High School’s LGI Room, the modern walls turn into the gritty brick of tenament buildings in 1950s New York City.

You’re on their turf now.

A lone whistle in the alley and ominous snap of fingers break the quiet; gang members swarm the stage like stray cats. The sky turns blood-red as music crescendos to a stab in the air, and the Jets and Sharks explode in a brawl.

“It’s so intense without a let-up,” said Bob McAllister, director of Bainbridge High School’s production of “West Side Story.” “You’re completely bought into the dichotomy of love and hate.

“We hope love will conquer hate and sometimes it does, but sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s the great tension in this play.”

The show plays at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through May 28 at the high school.

The ambitious production – with more than 150 in the cast, crew and pit orchestra and students as assistant directors and choreographer – goes through more than 80 colorful costumes from the closets of cast members, vintage stores and the needle of BHS librarian Marie-Elena “Ma” Baker.

The set took nearly three months to complete under technical director Mark Sell of Bainbridge Performing Arts. It boasts a climbable chain link fence, balcony and alley brick walls painted in three layers to blend with the LGI walls.

Cost of music rentals and audio equipment and lights tops $12,000, and on preview night last Thursday, McAllister urged the overflowing crowd to “come back and bring your money.”

Song, dance

It’s likely they will. “West Side Story” is an explosion of energy and color – edgy and off-balance like the music by Leonard Bernstein.

The jitterbug-like aerials, leaps and sultry mambo hook up with the music like a furious tango.

McAllister told choreographer Vince Palazzolo-Packard not to watch the movie version for ideas

Although the BHS senior felt intimidated by the task at first, “I thank him every day for that,” Palazzolo-Packard said. “He said ‘I believe in you, here it is. Do it. Mac likes to push things. He never gives you a minimum.”

Senior Nina Arens, playing Anita, said the dancing – steps, footwork and arm gestures – was tough.

“I had a lot of panic attacks,” Arens said, but she got through it with practice, reassurances from the choreographer and encouragement from the cast.

Working with mostly actors and not dancers, Palazzolo-Packard told them not to worry about hitting every move.

“You can do anything as long as you stay in character,” he said. “You will look good as if you are doing the choreography right on. You’re never just walking, it’s a strut.”

For the singers, the biggest challenge is “understanding this is not your usual musical,” vocal director Mark Power said.

“There’s musicals,” he said, “and there’s ‘West Side Story.’”

“For Tony and Maria, it’s virtually opera singing because of the (vocal) range and the line of the phrases. It’s incredible how much singing they have to do.”

Learning the music and the timing was challenging, said sophomore Kaura Mackey, who plays Maria.

The music changes time signatures seemingly at whim. The music demands high and low vocal ranges, soft and loud, and is written in keys that are usually only seen in a book of scales.

Power recalls spending the first few days just getting the singers to count through the music so they could then sing on the beat.

“Rhythm is always first when it comes to learning,” Power said.

But he was also describing a level of intensity and commitment that students had not seen yet, balanced with advice for taking care of their voices.

“I had to throw in my martial arts training, (to teach students) to sing with your body,” he said. “I threw in punching and kicking to get the intensity into it. That’s how we tried to raise the intensity.”

The result?

“I’m happy,” Power said. “These kids are great how they respond. They believe it. If you give a new concept to kids they might fudge and pull back, but these singers believe it and put their selves into it.”

The music

Anyone wondering if the physicality of the stage translates to music, only need ask orchestra director Mark Nichols, who goes through six bottles of water during the show.

“You can see every vein popping out on stage, and that’s the way the musicians are, too,” Nichols said.

He told the musicians, “you have to get past the notes. You have to put it in your muscle memory so it’s instinctive and you can dance to it as you’re playing it, and you’re feeling it physically.”

Surprisingly, the music only uses about 10 easily recognizable motifs that recur in different ways throughout the piece.

“I have nightmares that (play out to) the recurring motifs of ‘West Side Story,’” Nichols said. “(The music) is like being in a fight, a wrestling match. The physical output is huge. It’s like a tightly wound spring that’s ready to bust out, especially (tense in) the slow parts – you have to hold everything back, yet have all this power.”

Nichols gives high marks to the student musicians, their teachers and the Bainbridge Youth Orchestra for “putting us over.” He also directed the band when BHS staged the show 10 years ago, and says this year’s production is at a higher level with the largest show orchestra he’s seen in 20 years of student theater.

At the preview show last Thursday, smoke from stage unexpectedly blew into the orchestra pit, momentarily blinding musicians and conductor. But they held on.

Nichols tells the musicians, “Just strap in, listen, hold in and remember the top of the hierarchy is ‘the story gets told’ and the lowest is the notes.”

The story

The “West Side Story” is what McAllister emphasized with his charges.

“Violence is senseless and these superficial conflicts between people, (between) races is so superficial compared to our essential humanity,” McAllister said, “and it takes catastrophic acts for people to understand. We have less differences in our species than any other species.”

Arens credits McAllister for nurturing actors to bring out the “little things” that enhance the storytelling, like stopping before delivering a line to increase its impact. At the same time, he expects actors to pick up and remember stage directions the first or second time, Arens said.

Senior Kirk Nordby appreciates the subtleties of his character, Maria’s aggressive brother Bernardo.

“People see an antagonistic character (like Bernardo), but there’s a few minutes of humor when he talks with friends or his sister, and shows he cares,” Nordby said. “It’s not mindless hate, there’s a person behind it.”

“There’s a reason and a history. People stepped on his toes which is why he is the way he is.”

As Maria, Mackey threatens the others with a gun at a climactic moment, but in not killing, finally brings the sides together, an essential statement against violence.

Between the set, story, singers, actors, costumes and music, McAllister flatly calls “West Side Story” “the best music written in the 20th century.”

“This is one of the gutsiest ones, with Romeo and Juliet one of the greatest stories,” he said. “I’m hoping it will finally gel, and when that starts to happen, you think, ‘God that’s great!’”

* * * * *

Mean streets

“West Side Story” plays through May 28, at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays at the BHS LGI Room. Tickets are $15 adults, $10 students/seniors and are available at the door. Get advance tickets at the BHS main office Wednesday to Friday for tickets for the upcoming weekend.