Emma Fischer| feature editor

Like Hamilton earlier in the year, Les Miserables’ masterclass was a once in a lifetime experience. It was a smaller class, but with the smaller class we could work in smaller groups and smaller, technical parts could be seen and critiqued. The eight of us in the class worked with Darrell Morris, who played one of the knife brothers that night for the show.

Morris was wonderful. He never stopped smiling. When he taught us the choreography, he commented on our technique and was surprised that some of the people there had never taken dance before. Every time we did something he enjoyed, we would laugh and clap. He was always pushing us to do the best that we could.

I am kind of a shy person when I’m by myself on stage, but after the first hour, I had lost all caring that I would mess up, even though I did several times. 

I got to learn about thirty seconds of choreography from the song, “Master of the House.” Although that doesn’t sound like much, it was a lot of choreography. After learning the dance, we were given character cards and then told to the choreography again based on the card.

It was kind of funny because I had never seen the show, or heard the music before. I was thankful that the cards had key characteristics at the bottom. After the class, I haven’t got the song, “Master of the House,” out of my head. I haven’t downloaded the soundtrack yet, but I will soon.

Morris was so encouraging–and really tall. He warmed us up by teaching us how to breathe and got us comfortable with each other so we could expand on the characters that were assigned to us.

I was chosen to play a Homing Pigeon. They are girls in the scene that are giggly, youthful and joyful. They are said to be the prettiest girls in the bar. I was with two other girls as Homing Pigeons and because we were so involved in the characters, I had forgotten that I didn’t really know one of them. We used chemistry to enforce the characters.

It was so fun. Morris really pushed the acting portion of the masterclass. He said that if we messed up, then we needed to do it as our characters. I met so many new people at the masterclass and had a wonderful experience.

During the question and answer portion at the end, Morris really talked about how we have all the time in the world. If it was to be used on something we hated, it would be wasted. We even talked about Harry Potter and found that he was a Gryffindor. 

I listened to some of the songs and I haven’t been able to get them out of my head, but it’s not making me miserables.

I really need to download the soundtrack now, don’t I?