Well, this week our ring leader aka Sheryl was not in attendance today and practically no one was able to show today. Therefore, we thought it would be most beneficial to cancel practice today. We were planning on going over parts of Act 4 even though were act 5, just incase if our group needs to fill in for one of the other groups. Naturally, my group is very excited to do this and would be MORE than willing to read more lines and be on stage. If we have another meeting before the performance, that is what we will do. If not, we will speed read right before the performance! As for our actual act, we are feeling confident in our lines, costumes, and staging!

This past Tuesday was a big rehearsal night with Higher Achievement before the big performance! We started the night by having the kids line up and walk onto the “stage” (the front of the class), say their name to the “audience” (Kit, Melissa, and I), and what character they were playing. I think practicing this was beneficial to the kids because now they are more prepared and know what to expect for the beginning of the play since we are the first Act. The kids did a good job with this and I think it made them excited to start rehearsing.

After this we practiced Act I from the beginning. We got the characters from the first part of Act I together and had them walk on the “stage” in a line. They then started rehearsing their lines in front of the rest of the class. We then moved on to rehearse the second part of Act I with the Mechanical’s. They did pretty well with both parts of Act I but the kids were not really paying attention unless they were reading their lines. I think taking them outside to burn off some energy might be necessary for the actual performance because the kids don’t like to sit still and they are often very fidgety and like to annoy each other.

When there was about 15 minutes left in rehearsal we played a game which practiced dramatic expression on stage with the kids. Every student would come up in front of the class and say any line from the script in the most dramatic-emotional way that was applicable to the line. We told them the most dramatic/enthusiastic person would win. They got pretty into it and mostly everybody wanted to participate. Finally, we wrote the time they needed to be at Boushall in order to take the shuttle to UR on the day of the performance (just in case they forgot to tell their parents) and handed out the posters to each child. One of the adviser’s came in during our rehearsal to talk to the kids and try to get a final head count for the performance. A lot of the kids were unsure if they could come because they did not know if they would have a ride to/from their school because their parents work. It seemed as though there were about 6 kids who would definitely be there (mostly girls) and the adviser said she would call the kids’ parents’ who were unsure if they could go.