After the successful performance of Tarzan, it would seem that the musical theater stars of STC, many of which are involved in spring shows and senior one acts, would be just about ready to rest their vocal chords. But just a few months after the curtain close for Tarzan it opens on In the Heights; an award-winning, rap-infused musical about life in Washington Heights.

The musical is written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is getting a lot of attention for his current musical, Hamilton. The story is about the Washington Heights, a community of mainly Latino/Latina immigrants and the lives they all lead during the New York City Blackout.

“I’ve always loved In The Heights and I’ve always loved rap music,” senior Austin Hyde said. “It’s been a part of my childhood, so I felt really honored when I got cast as a lead in the show because I knew that I would actually get to rap on stage.”

Despite his comfort with rap music, Hyde wasn’t expecting to do it for theatre.

“I never thought that I would get to do a rap on stage because it’s kind of a different style of music,” Hyde said.

The different style of music can be challenging to learn, especially after being trained for most of the time in traditional musical theatre style that can be heard in shows like Tarzan, Evita, and Hairspray.

“I didn’t expect rapping to be so rhythmically hard,” Hyde said. “It’s pre-written raps so you kind of have to have it perfectly on beat or you could get off really easily.”

The difficulty has increased compared to their usual style of music in the shows.

“I’d say that it’s harder than singing sometimes, at least because I’m not used to it,” Hyde said.

Being the last major show, the performance is graded and acts as the students end-of-the-year final grade.

“My classmates are really good and I think that the cast set-up is great because we have two sets of cast,” Hyde said. “Since it was kind of condensed into just our musical theater class we didn’t get much of a pool of people so our chorus isn’t gonna be that big but I think that we’re gonna do the best with what we have.

The show is greatly anticipated by students and the cast, making it an opportunity for many students to act with a different style.

“I saw In the Heights over the summer, I fell in love with the show right away, so I’m really excited to be a part of it here,” sophomore Michael Jefferson said. “This is a show that I thought I would only be able to perform in my dreams.”

Time has been cramped for students and directors involved with the production, making it difficult on everyone during this last six weeks.

“Rehearsals are definitely stressful given that we have such a short amount of time,” Jefferson said. “Everyone has been taking show very seriously because we have to prepare for such an amazing musical.”

Students of the production are having to go the extra mile to be as successful with their parts as possible.

“I’ve been doing a lot of vocal work, helping my voice grow and making sure I’ve been taking care of my voice,” Jefferson said. “The worst thing that could possibly happen is if I were to not take care of my voice and somehow lose it the night of a performance.”

Characters like Jefferson have been able to connect with their roles throughout the preparation for the show.

“What makes me love Benny so much is he has the best songs in the show, in my opinion, and he’s just such a fun, happy, high energy character and a lot like me,” Jefferson said.

In Jefferson’s opinion, this is the show to see of the year next to Tarzan.

“If you want to see a show definitely check this one out,” Jefferson said. “It’s such an amazing musical.”