The document summarizes an Ithaca College production of the Broadway musical "A Chorus Line." It discusses the show's significance for retiring director Mary Corsaro, who previously directed it in 1991. It describes the intense two month rehearsal period and challenges of the ensemble performances. Actors discuss relating to their characters and finding freedom in their roles. The production allowed the cast to experience the lives of Broadway dancers.

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2. Ithaca College debuts ensemble piece "A Chorus Line"
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ITHACA, NY — The Ithaca College theater season continued this week with
one of Broadway’s longest-running musicals, "A Chorus Line."
The show is also a “swan song” for Director Mary Corsaro, who will be
retiring from Ithaca College at the end of this school year. An associate
professor in the department of theatre arts, Corsaro said the show occupies

3. a special place in her heart.
She saw the original cast of A Chorus Line in the fall of 1975 as a recent
college graduate, and then directed and choreographed it at Ithaca College in
1991.
“It is bittersweet for me although everyone working on this show has made
this project an absolute joy,” she wrote in a set of director’s notes distributed
to press before the show.
In her speech at the opening night, Corsaro expressed her gratitude to
everyone who worked on the show, especially the “incredible" cast, crew and
orchestra.

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Focused on seventeen Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus
line, the musical allows viewers to plunge into the lives and experiences of
real Broadway dancers.
The characters tell their stories to the imperious director Zach, who is quite
full of himself, according to Charlie Crawford, who portrays him.
“He is trying to get this whole show together to make the next big step in his
career and become the king of Broadway,” Crawford said. The actors have a
hard time opening up to him, but their painful confessions on the bare stage

5. allow them to discover their true selves.
“'A Chorus Line' is a symbolic bow to the anonymous chorus dancers known
as ‘gypsies,’ who have been the backbone of the American musical for over a
hundred years,” Corsaro wrote in her notes. We can all identify with their
nomadic existence and desperate quest for employment, with their
vulnerability, hopes, dreams, and heartbreaks, she said.
The cast met for about fifty rehearsals over the course of two months, and
worked hard to function as an ensemble during this intense period. Actor
Caroline Gorland, who plays the character of Judy, called it “a team effort
show.”

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CONTENT CONTINUED BELOW

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ANNOUNCEMENT
“If one of us messes up, everyone does. I think that was the hardest part, just
getting to the point where we were all at the same place together,” Gorland
said.
Even more experienced dancers, like Joshua Rivera, who plays Richie, said
that the show was definitely “a big leap” from everything they had done
before. Rather than rehearsing in small groups, the full cast always practiced
together, creating a deep sense of community, according to Rivera.
Many actors praised the guidance of director Mary Corsaro, associate
director Roy Lightner and musical director Joel Gelpe.
“They were just really specific and really precise and they didn’t beat us over
the head with the choreography. We took our time and they made sure that
we brought a good product out in the end,” said Aaron Alcaraz, who plays
Paul.

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Most actors saw themselves in the characters. According to Caitlin Ort, the
show felt pertinent to everybody on stage, because they “were living the lives
of the people (they) are going to be once they leave school.” They could really
identify with the fear of not finding a job, living day by day, hoping for their
big break to come.
Aaron Alcaraz was reminded of how he was before getting into theater. Both
Alacaraz and his character Paul found their voice when they got into acting.
“There’s just this fierce person inside of (Paul) that’s fighting to get out. For
his whole life he has such a conservative upbringing with two other sisters.
He never felt that he lived up to his parents’ expectations. He just always kind
of sunk into himself. He is fighting to be free. This is how I see him,” Alcaraz
said.
And that’s how he danced him in the finale: He said he danced “as Paul finally
being free.”

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