Video: Go Inside Rehearsals for Encores! THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA with Ruthie Ann Miles and More

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Up next at City Center's famed encores is Adam Gettle and Craig Lucas' gorgeous musical The Light and the Piazza

Will to run from June 21st through the 25th, and we drop by the rehearsal room to bring you a sneak peek

and to meet the company led by Tony Award winner Ruthian Miles

A central swim. The city makes that chills and stormy. The United States are they need

When I was on the dark You can feel You can follow

We're on vacation When I was asked to come to encore I basically asked with

Light and the Piazza's been done before Because this is my favorite musical And when Ruthie Ann was contemplating

Of being a part of this We talked about how we could make this A very different point of view And we thought maybe representing Asian Americans

in the role of Margaret and Clara, actually is a perfect fit without changing a word of it

refracting the story a little bit, and still making it very potent. So it's been a great way of looking at outsiders in Italy

which the original Margaret and Clara were also outsiders, being white Americans. Talk about this beautiful woman you play

and what you love about her already. What do I love about her already? I love that she's so familiar to me

I know very many women in my life who are like her, who are first generation

or an immigrant and they come into this country to create a life for themselves

who do their very best to assimilate and remove their accent in a way

to really truly become a marriage just like you and me and still feel discrimination and still feel like the other person And no amount of doing is going to get the respect from these other people

And then what happens when you have a child who has a handicap and the way that people view you and judge you and blame you

And there's no amount of pushing and showing that we are just like you that is going to change the mind of the people

And then what happens when those people go to a foreign country, and they are loved and accepted for just who they are

You know? And so it's been really moving for me to think about my past

and to think about my family's past and to start to marry that idea with who these people are

And the more you think about it, and the more you explore it

there's a lot of forgiveness and healing that can happen. And, you know, I wish we had more than 10 days or 2

two weeks of rehearsal so that we could really dive in to this material, but also for my

for my sake, you know, to be able to explore grief and regret in a deeper, deeper, deeper

deeper way is only going to help me personally. And so, you know, the only regret of Encores

is that I wish we had more time. Welcome to Oncores. How does it feel? It feels incredible. I mean

this is my first professional experience, period. And so, like, doing an Encore show is definitely

Definitely very daunting, but the cast and crew has made it so amazing and so unforgettable that I'm just, I'm having the time of my life. I never wanted to end

Okay, because everybody fell in love with you at the Jimmy Awards. And I'm sure you just dream of maybe one day I'll be on Broadway or get into the room to work with some people

This is your first job It is on course It light in the piazza It Ruthie Ann Miles I mean is it a a big pinch moment for you Yes and I had to remind myself that I mean I haven even had to It just been coming in waves

It's been, I guess, a week and a half by now since we started the process. And every day, there's just something to be more grateful about

It really does feel unreal because Clara is, I mean, it's every soprano's dream role. And, like, it was my dream role for so long. And this score is so rewarding

The company, obviously, is so incredible. So I just, I feel so so grateful to get to do this

What's it like living in the world of Craig and Adam? Yeah, I mean, it's incredible

It's what's so gut-wrenching is how little time we have to explore the, just the psychological complexities that they built into the script

And the script is so simple. When you look at the script, it's, you know, I remember looking at the first time, and I was like, oh, okay, great

And the second, I looked at it again, you know, and I first heard Chea talked

talking about it, I was like, oh, I had this completely, I completely missed so many wonderful nuances

and all of these sort of subtexts that are going into these characters and driving what they're

doing. I wish we had more time to play with it. And so it's been a wonderful challenge trying

to encapsulate as many of those as we can and to explore as many of those as we can in such a

short amount of time. But these actors are freaking pros. So they make it look really easy

I'm just trying to keep up. Oh, man, I'm so excited and a little craze

with our short little rehearsal process, but also just so awed and inspired and so happy to be here

back in New York, doing theater, being at city center and doing this beautiful, amazing show

with Adam Gettle's music, which is just a dream come true, so

It's a sonic bath. There are times in the opening number we all looking at each other we all have chills It incredible and to be transported into Florence in the 50s it an amazing world to live in And I know a lot of

people are very excited to even be in the audience living in it. So can't wait. You know, Adam is so

singular and unique, his compositional style, his musicianship, his musicality, what he hears

I mean, there's pieces where the harmonic progression is going places and you just think

How did you think of that? How do you think of that? It's so beautiful and it's so it can be driving

It's rhythmic. It's always surprising. It's just, it's just wonderful. I've hardly met a single soul, but I will not alone

I feel love. This is wanting something. This is praying for it

This is holding breath. and keeping fingers crossed. This is counting blessings

this is wondering when I'll see them go again. What a feeling is just a song on the truth

And the beauty is, when you realize, When you realize someone

could be looking for us somewhere like you