This week we were unable to meet with our groups due to Fall Break plans. Aleeza, Caroline, and I were curious if whether or not our group would be hurt or unaffected by this cancellation, because the first meeting did not go very well, so we were worried we would lose the group’s focus.

Over the weekend, Aleeza, Caroline, and I planned our next meeting with the group. We plan to introduce the theatre preparation game titled, “Zip, Zap, Zop,” discuss the plot of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, go over what Act II entails, and, if we have time, assign roles.

I thought that this week at youth life was one of our most productive weeks thus far. We finally had all five of our theatre students in attendance, and were able to distribute all of the roles among the students. Another very positive thing that came out of this week was that we were able to run through significant portions of scenes. One great thing that came out of this was that we finally were able to move “beyond the lines” so to speak and focus on how the lines were to be read and the appropriate movements associated with the scene. I thought that this was a huge step in the right direction for us as it showed that in some sense the play was finally starting to come together. In addition, one very bright spot of the play that really has the kids excited is Feste’s song at the end of the play. At this point the kids are thinking that they want to do some sort of dance at the end of the play, what that means and what it will ultimately look like is still to be determined. One really bright spot that came out of this week was, one student Marcus. Marcus has missed the last two weeks of rehearsal, and had not even seen the script yet. However, Marcus was thrilled by the story line of the play and even asked us if he could take on more smaller roles if possible. I thought that this was a very cool gesture by Marcus, given the trouble we have had with the other students thus far.

While a lot of things went well this week, one thing that was not good was the students attitudes towards one another. One of our students, Khalil, reads at a much lower level than the other students and sometimes struggles reading his lines. This week, some of the other students were making fun of Khalil which was completely inappropriate. As a result, Khalil became very offended and stormed out of the rehearsal. TJ was eventually able to calm him down and get him to return some time later. The students that were responsible for making fun of Khalil were disciplined by Dylan and myself. We let the students know that that sort of behavior would not be tolerated going forward. Even with this setback, however, I would still say that this was a productive week of rehearsal. I look forward to next week greatly when hopefully the students are ready to continue their development.

For the first time since Act 1, AJ, Dylan, and I had full attendance from our five students at Youth Life. When we arrived, everyone was relatively eager to begin rehearsal. With Marcus and Tamiya now present after two weeks of absence, we had some catching up to. Tamiya took the role of Viola with some apprehension, It’s a large part for someone who has not acted before, but Tamiya was a good sport about it and seems interested in being the lead role. Marcus assumed the role of Sebastian. This caused some tension with Janiyah (Olivia) because she was afraid that meant she would have to kiss Marcus, but AJ and Dylan assured her that there is no kissing scene in the play. Finally things were coming together and everyone had a part.

Things started to go south however when we started rehearsing lines. We decided to run things from the beginning of the play to introduce Tamiya and Marcus to Act V and give Tamiya a chance to get a feel for her role as Viola. When it came time for Khalil to speak as Antonio, he read his lines slowly and deliberately, as is his style. Midway through his first set of lines, Janiyah muttered under her breath complaining about Khalil’s slow delivery. Khalil overheard this complaint and immediately took to his defense, calling out Janiyah directily. The two bickered across the room with Khalil and Janiyah criticizing each other’s intelligence. AJ, Dylan, and I could inspire temporary cease-fires, but Khalil and Janiyah’s wanting to get in the last word meant extended conflict. Seeing this conflict was going nowhere and was derailing our first full strength rehearsal in weeks, Dylan took the initiative to take Janiyah out to the hallway to talk to her one on one. With Janiyah out of the room, Khalil could focus on being Antonio and we resumed rehearsing the beginning of Act V. However, this verbal fight had distracted our other students, so it was difficult to get back on track immediately. Soon enough, however, we resumed a productive rehearsal.

A few minutes later Dylan and Janiyah returned. Not long after, tensions renewed between Khalil and Janiyah. This time around I removed Khalil from the situation to cool him down. Khalil and I left our rehearsal room, walked down the hall, and found and empty room where we could talk. I tried to listen to him as much as possible and a Youth Life staff member reminded him not to get caught up in other peoples’ negativity. Once he calmed down, Khalil and I went over his lines and I tried to explain the context and vocabulary of what he says as Antonio and Sir Toby Belch. We spent around 20 minutes one on one so by the time we returned to the main rehearsal our time was nearly up. Without Khalil and I, Dylan and AJ led the remaining four students in a relatively productive rehearsal. By the end, Marcus asked to take on a second role and will now play Fabian in addition to Sebastian. I hope the ending on a high note will translate into more success next week. Of course that will be contingent on student attendance and cooler tempers than this week.

I was unable to attend this past week due to a family emergency but heard from TJ and AJ about rehearsal. It is unfortunate that Adrian was in time out for half of the rehearsal since he is always ready to act and participate. I was disappointed to hear that only three students showed up. Hopefully there will be more for week four, or we will have to do some rearranging of parts. I am glad TJ and AJ got a chance to work more closely with Janiyah even though she was less motivated to do her part alone. I am hoping that this new week will bring a fresh start for our students and that we will be able to have a successful rehearsal.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend our meeting this week due to prior travel arrangements, but Lexi and Matt were able to go and reported back to me regarding how it went. According to them our group consists of four members, two of which are working with the other St.Joseph’s Villa group on ACT IV. I think it will be very beneficial for our group that two of the students are also acting in ACT IV as they will have a better understanding of the characters and the plot and clearly have a genuine interest in the program.
Lexi explained to me that during their meeting they introduced themselves to the students, showed the group the trailer for She’s The Man to give them a general sense of the Twelfth Night storyline and then played games with them. I am excited to attend this weeks session so that I can get to know the students and begin to introduce them to the play with Lexi and Matt.

This week we did not meet with our group as we had fall break. A part of me wishes we had met because I am unsure how this is going to go going forward. They enjoy the improv games, which is great, however once we get them going on those it is difficult to reign them in. I wonder if we should use the improv games as a reward. I don’t think candy is the answer considering they usually are already hyped up for some reason, I wish I had their energy. I think we will try to have them read lines while running, or have them run around for 10 or so minutes so that they can get it out of their systems. Also, this week we saw 1776 as a class. I know what you’re thinking, where is she going with this, but believe me, I have a point. In regards to 1776 I think it was interesting how much the geography impacted he performance. I wonder how the geography or social/cultural climate will affect ours. Although we already have a prop list, I hope that next class we can choose a setting (time and place) and consequently be able to get a costume list started.

Unfortunately I was unable to go to Henderson this past time because of my fall break flight, however I heard from Maren that the kids had a positive reaction to changing spaces. We needed this change because in the main room the noise reverberates all over and it was hard to say things and have the kids listen. I drew a love triangle last time and Maren said this strategy helped the kids a lot so we will continue to draw plot points that are more difficult to understand. The kids are mostly excited about having parts in the play. I am excited to go back and see them this week, as I am also thinking about my paper on twelfth night, I am realizing new things to go over with the kids and other ways to explain plot points.

Sarah

On Thursday (10/6), we had our first meeting with the kids.  We introduced ourselves, and gave them a general overview of what we will be doing together over the next couple months.  Our group this week consisted of one student from Brook Road Academy and three students from the Dooley Center for Alternative Education. None of the students have any prior experience with Shakespeare. We assured them that no one would have to memorize any lines.  Our first student seemed eager and excited, and he even offered to try memorizing his part.  We decided to show them the trailer to She’s the Man so they could visualize the plot of the play in a modern context.  Then we played a series of improv / warm up games (the adjective-name game, zip zap zop, “3, 6, 9,” and the number count off game).  Initially, the students were visibly reluctant, but I could see the group’s barriers slowly breaking down as we played each game and I think they actually had some fun.  After this first meeting, I definitely understand the importance of these games to get everyone laughing and comfortable, so the group will trust us and want to work with us.  I think we will try to play at least one or two new games in the beginning of each rehearsal to remind the kids that this will be a fun experience.  We plan to introduce the script and more details about our specific act of the play next rehearsal.

On Thursday (9/29), we did not meet with the kids due to another conflict.  We look forward to meeting them next Thursday. We plan to introduce Twelfth Night and play some improv games.

“Is it a world to hide virtues in?” – Sir Toby Belch (Act I, Scene I, Line 131)

I hate to toot my own horn but TOOT TOOT readers because my last rehearsal at Henderson was AWESOME.

First and foremost, we have our own rehearsal space now!

We have the whole choir room to ourselves so not only is it quiet, but there’s also a ton of room and a whiteboard to boot.

I wonder if this is how Shakespeare would have felt if he somehow managed to get a rehearsal space without, I don’t know, rats or something.

Other highlights include our troupe wanting to play the animal charade game again and being open to playing a quick round of Simon Says while I waited on a student to find me some whiteboard markers.

I had them just play the basic way but maybe in the future there’s a way I can Shakespeare it up a bit – director says perhaps?

Anyways, we appeared to have a large portion of the same people we had our first week, with only one to two new additions.

Since my partners were unable to make the rehearsal I decided to dedicate the day to explain the plot again – I had hoped it would make more sense now that they could actually hear me, and I could use the board to draw basic images and whatnot.

The second attempt to explain went wayyy better than the first, and it was actually really fun seeing them react to the complicated yet funny love triangles and other various parts of the show.

Some of their amusement was probably also caused by the fact that I kept accidentally calling “Duke Orsino” “Dork Orsino,” which while technically not his name, isn’t completely off the mark either.

I also went ahead and started tentatively casting the show after wrapping up the story explanation and am very satisfied with how that went too.

Most of the parts were happily selected by the players on their own – our adorable fifth grader is so thrilled to be playing the “captain,” and I’m really excited about our Feste too.

We hit one little snag when two of the girls wanted to play Viola, but they ended it up working it out so that one would play Mary and the other Viola, completely on their own, even though I offered various alternatives of splitting the part.

The only snag we hit with casting is that we’ve yet to cast Malvolio, Sir Toby, or Sir Andrew, and unless we have a dramatic fluctuation in numbers this week, myself and my fellow directors may be breaking out our own acting skills come December.

Although we have at least one girl who at first couldn’t seem to care less about the show and didn’t want a part at all, she seemed genuinely interested in helping with costumes, scenery, and such when I offered that option to her, so I’ll have to be conscious of finding ways of including her in that process as we move along.

I’ve also had the students make themselves name-tags so hopefully in the future I can start getting better with names, although for ease and privacy I will simply refer to any students by their character name from now on.

This coming week will be the first time they actually get to see and read through their scripts so I imagine new hurdles will appearing in the blogs to come, but for now I can’t imagine another way I’d rather be spending my Thursday nights.