MYSTERIES OF MARIA; Inside Artes de la Rosa's Maria De Buenos Aires - BLOG 6 - What IS a musical operetta tango ballet?

Today we blog with actress Lorens Portalatin who plays Alma, The Voice of the Brothel... one of the two youngest members of the cast, Lorens is proving to be quite a fierce company member! You'll have to see what we mean when the show opens May 11th at the Rose Marine Theater. You can be sure that you'll be seeing more of her on stage at Artes de la Rosa!

Lorens Portalatin with JP Cano

What IS a musical operetta tango ballet?

Whenever I first recieved the Facebook audition event invite for Maria de Buenos Aires I skimmed through it and disregarded it, thinking that someone would consider me either too young or unexperienced for this type of production. But after really going through and reading the description of the show, and hearing through the wording how passionate, and intense, and how physical the show was going to be, I just knew I had to be a part of it.

While reading the synopsis I knew that nothing like this had ever been done in Texas and that peaked my interest even more! A musical, operetta, tango ballet, that is NOT a musical, operetta, tango ballet... Honestly? What does that even mean?

I went through the audition process, was fortunate enough to be called back and then was cast as the Alma, the Voice of the Brothel. And in knowing that I was one of the two youngest in the show I knew that I could learn and experience so much from this production. Between the cast, dancers and production staff I have truly seen how much work and time and thought has gone into this entire process. From the storyline, to the characters to the very point or flex of a dancer's foot. It's going to be a marvelous monster within itself. Full of love, hate, anger, jealousy and every other deadly sin that you never knew could be portrayed in such a sensual and unseeingly beautiful way.

While being in rehearsal with the cast, crew and Adam (director), we've had the show broken down piece by piece, and all the way down to the heart of the story. The music. Astor Piazolla, wrote a show that did not have to be physically interpreted or represented. The story line drives the music, where it's going and where your mind takes you.

This is going to be a production that the audience walks out knowing and what we were portraying and telling them about Maria and her choices. They have never seen anything like it and it will be unforgettable