Juliana Gutiérrez Arango didn’t expect a can of soda to reduce her to tears, but there she was, fully choked up before rehearsal.
Gutiérrez Arango is a native of Colombia. She plays the role of Daniela in “In The Heights,” staged by Springfield Little Theatre and Mosaic Arts Collective Jan. 26-Feb. 11, and the can of soda in question came from her home country.
“I did not know that they were there, but Amari (Snead), who plays my friend Carla, was drinking one and I was like, ‘Where did you get that?’ and I started crying,” Gutiérrez Arango said before rehearsal Jan. 23. “I was not expecting that, but it just overwhelmed me with emotion.”
There’s a reason for that. Gutiérrez Arango is in the process of getting her green card and therefore can’t leave the United States. The 21-year-old Missouri State University student hasn’t been home to Colombia in more than a year and a half.
“It’s been really hard for me to be away from my home and my family,” Gutiérrez Arango said. “Being able to do this show brings me back to my community and my roots, and personally it has been very fulfilling. Being able to speak Spanish with other cast members when I’m used to speaking English around everyone else — except my parents when I call them — it’s just amazing.
“I know people say this every single time in every interview, but it’s true: We’re like a family. And people bring food and gifts for one another, and we hang out outside of rehearsals and we’ve really created a close, tight-knit community within us. It’s a wonderful experience.”
‘They cook for each other, they check on each other'
It’s an experience that has been shared by the 60 cast members of “In The Heights” over the past few months, and co-director Nki Calloway said it’s a credit to them.
“The energy is just overwhelmingly positive,” Calloway, a co-founder of Mosaic Arts Collective, said. “They cook for each other, they check on each other, they really brought the essence of the Latino community into the theatre. I think that’s why it feels different. It’s literally the essence that they are lending to us. It’s pretty cool.”
And it’s perfect for this production. Lin-Manuel Miranda, of “Hamilton” fame, conceived the show and wrote the music and lyrics. “In The Heights,” won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical and has been adapted into a movie.
The show centers on an ensemble of characters in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. It’s a show about a community that is going through change.
“Honestly, it’s going through gentrification and the neighborhood is breaking up,” Calloway said. “But it goes through some of the personal relationships and family relationships, and how the community responds to each other as a whole. And it’s a celebration of culture and of community and of home. It’s kind of a big lovefest once you get to the end of it, but it just goes through the trials and tribulations of a neighborhood that’s changing.”
Directors spent six months recruiting actors
Assembling what is believed to be the largest Latino cast in Springfield theater history was a long and intentional process for Calloway and co-director Amanda Snead, who also choreographed the show. It began with a social media post.
“It started with me on Facebook, just asking where are the Latino and Hispanic people of Springfield,” Calloway said. “People would tag me in events, they would tag me in networking groups, or they’d introduce me to somebody who had a large following in that population. And then I basically stalked them for six months.”
Calloway attended every Hispanic and Latino event, gala and get-together she could, asking attendees if they could sing or dance and if they’d be willing to do those things on stage.
“We went into the community and we picked these people who have never been on stage and were like, ‘Just come and hang out with us. We’ll teach you whatever you need to know,’” Calloway said.
While New York's Washington Heights is mostly a Dominican and Puerto Rican neighborhood, the directors cast a wider net when recruiting talent. That’s how they ended up with people from Chile, Panama, Colombia, Spain, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and more in the cast.
“It became a giant melting pot,” Calloway said.
‘I'd put them up against the Broadway cast any day'
That melting pot includes Blanca Mallonee. She and her husband first got involved in Springfield Little Theatre 12 or 13 years ago through their children, working on props, helping with costumes and volunteering a lot of time. The kids are no longer involved, but Blanca Mallonee is the volunteer coordinator for the theatre’s boutique and her husband is the house manager.
“This will be my fifth show that I’ve been on,” Mallonee said. “I’ve done props and tech for several shows. I like the background better, but once in a blue moon I think, ‘I need to get on stage again.’”
This show was worth getting back on stage for.
“Nki was getting people to come out and I thought, ‘This is going to be fun and I can kind of speak my language,’ so I came out,” Mallonee said.
And while Gutiérrez Arango, Mallonee and others have previous theater experience, there are many newcomers, too.
“Most of them have never touched the stage before,” Calloway said. “The other ones that have, they’ve never been trusted in a leading role before. And so not only do we have people who’ve never been here, we have in the leads people who are not veterans and they’re carrying it with pride and joy. They’re phenomenal. I’d put them up against the Broadway cast any day.”
Art show, ‘Gift-A-Ticket' program part of community outreach
Mosaic Arts Collective isn’t just embracing the community with whom it is putting on stage. It's also celebrating artists and finding ways to give more people access to “In The Heights.”
Mosaic co-founder Keegan Winfield has curated an art show that is on display in the Landers Theatre auditorium, which guests can see before and after the show. She did the same when Mosaic teamed up with Springfield Contemporary Theatre to stage “The Color Purple: The Musical” at the Fox Theatre.
“With ‘The Color Purple’ she went into the community and got different African-American artists to showcase their art,” Calloway said. “She did the same with Latino and Hispanic artists here in Springfield, who live and work with us every day. One of them is a muralist and you can see lots of her murals around town.”
And there’s the Gift-A-Ticket Program, where donors were invited to buy tickets to be given to people who might not otherwise have access to live theater. Gutiérrez Arango called it a “beautiful thing.”
“A lot of time people see the ticket prices and they can’t come,” Calloway said. “So we’ve asked people in the community who have the means to donate the tickets to the community. We are able to provide community members, family members, foster kids tickets to the show. Hopefully, we’ll find a way to do that with every show we do going forward.”
‘This is what shows should look like, period'
When the curtain goes up on opening night, Gutiérrez Arango could once again find herself choking back tears. She loves singing the song “Carnaval del Barrio” — it’s also a favorite of Mallonee — because it reminds her that, even though she’s been living in the United States for four years, she will always have a deep connection with Colombia.
“It says, ‘Alza la bandera. Y cuando yo me muera, entiérrame en mi tierra,’” she said. “‘Raise the flag. When I die, bury me in my homeland’ and I get emotional every time that I sing that.”
Gutiérrez Arango has been listening to songs from “In The Heights” since she was 15 and said doing this show in Springfield is important to her.
“I feel like this show is a testament to the fact that there are a lot of minority groups in Springfield that deserve as much power and recognition as the majority,” she said. “I think putting on a show like this is very important because it shows all of those people that may have been overlooked or discriminated against that we are here and that we are a community that loves and supports each other. And, hopefully, it encourages everyone else to view us with a little bit more love and empathy.”
It’s also important to Calloway, who hopes it will encourage diversity in more Springfield theatre productions.
“This is what shows should look like, period,” she said. “All shows should have this level of diversity. There’s no reason that they can’t. I think it’s just a matter of opening our doors and saying, ‘Hi! We want you here. We’d love to work with you and we value you. You matter to us.’
“I think when we do that, the people will come and hopefully through the years we’ll see that we don’t have to do these huge shows representing specific cultures; that we can just do shows and all the cultures are represented because they are wanted and valued on stage.”
Want to go?
What: “In The Heights,” presented by Springfield Little Theatre and Mosaic Arts Collective
When: Jan. 26-Feb. 11; Shows start at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sundays
Where: The Landers Theatre (311 E. Walnut St.)
Tickets: $22-$42, available at the box office, through the Springfield Little Theatre website or by calling (417) 869-1334
For more information: Visit the Springfield Little Theatre website; follow Mosaic Arts Collective on Facebook
