The last couple of days have been absolutely insane, and I can't wait to tell you about them!  On Wednesday we had a run-through of Act II that went pretty well with a few fumbles, but I definitely left feeling confident about my choreography. 

Our show is going to be amazing. In fact, I was just talking to Heynor, the barista at our favorite coffee joint, about the show. He told me he heard really good things about it last year and that he would definitely be joining us this year. I replied with, "Yeah, I was here last year, too, and this year's show is going to be even better!"

Wednesday night was our weekly ritual of Common Cup Jam Sessions.  After our staff meeting, I walked down the hill with Vanessa, Michelle, Rachel, Alvaro, and Andrey to Common Cup. We pushed all the tables in the cafe together and jammed out for about two hours. We've gotten to know Heynor and Ken, the owner, really well these past couple of months, so getting to jam with them and play great music is a really fun experience. After expending all of our energy singing and playing various instruments, we needed food. Luckily, there was one restaurant open in town at 10 PM on a Wednesday night - Natcha's Pizza!  (Which is actually no longer called Natcha's, but its name is not prominently displayed anywhere on the building, so we continue to refer to it as Natcha's.)  We bought a ton of pizza and ate it outside before parting ways to get some rest.

On Thursday we had a run-through of Act I, and I was overjoyed.  We had spent a lot of the day working different sections of dances in the first act, and the effort really paid off. The kids did an amazing job.  I couldn't keep from smiling during "Skid Row"!  Everyone had so much positive energy and was totally invested in his or her character. This show is really starting to come to life. I can't wait till the production stops being our baby and goes into the hands of the kids. That's when the real magic always happens. For Oliver! I don't think that happened till opening night. This year with Little Shop of Horrors, however, I think that moment is going to come very soon. I'm waiting in anticipation. We'll see how our full show run-through goes this afternoon!

As for Thursday night, as far as I'm concerned, it still hasn't ended and it is 9:08 AM on Friday morning.  After our staff meeting  we all went separate ways for dinner and then Vanessa, Michelle, and I along with some of our randomly acquired volunteers (Katie, Paul, Rachel, Emily) and cast member Antonio made our way back to the venue to keep working on plant puppet construction. Vanessa and I (mostly I...) sewed the trunk of the plant, which is about 6 feet tall, together by hand, stabilized the leaves we cut out of the fabric with wire, painted highlights on the leaves, and painted veins over all the leaves and the entire trunk of the plant. It's essentially finished with the exception of maybe another hour's worth of painting.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group worked on the fourth and final plant. They constructed the skeleton of the top of the pod out of bamboo that Fiona's dad brought in by tying Boy Scout knots around each joint with the strongest string you've ever seen. Once that was finished, they took all the leaves and twigs that we stripped from the bamboo reeds and wove them into the skeleton so that the full shape could be realized. In the smaller puppets, Michelle used cotton batting to make the pod look nice and soft and fleshy, but since there's probably not enough batting in the town of Monteverde to cover this giant pod, we decided to be resourceful and environmentally friendly by using every part of the bamboo tree. It's basically like the Native Americans using every part of the buffalo.

At around 5:30 AM we decided to call it quits. By then the only survivors were Michelle, Vanessa, Katie, Paul, and myself. So, obviously, we decided to walk up the steep hill to Cerro Plano to the best view in town to watch the sunrise. Then the sun rose behind us and we missed it because there was a mountain in the way. And clouds. Welcome to the Cloud Forest. Either way it was a gorgeous view and after some of the clouds rolled along we could see the gulf.

In Spanish there is a phrase that people commonly use to describe something they really like: "me encanta." Literally, this translates to "it enchants me." Well, literally speaking, me encanta Monteverde.

-Erin Lafferty (Choreographer)