Only one day before our final performance! I thought that this week’s rehearsal went very well. We had four students this week, and really tried to iron out a lot of the logistical elements before our performance. We began our rehearsal by answering the many logistical questions that the students had regarding the performance. Things such as what time the performance would be, how they would logistically be getting there, what they should wear, etc.. Luckily, we had Ms. Carin in the room with us to answer many of the transportation questions that students had that had been arranged prior between her and Dr. Soderlund. It was great to have Ms. Carin in the room to answer many of these questions given that TJ, Dylan or myself could not explain the exact nature of how this performance would impact the student’s schedules. One thing that I thought was funny in this section in particular was how much the students were concerned with what they were going to wear for the performance. Adrian was hung up on this subject for a good ten minutes of our rehearsal. He debated everything from what color hat to wear (he didn’t even end up wearing a hat), to wondering where he had left his jean jacket (again, he did not even wear this). All the while, I think that his anxiety regarding what types of clothes to wear, then got the other students worried. For instance, after we debated what Adrian should ultimately wear for the performance, Jeniah then became worried. She was debating whether or not she should wear a dress, and wondered what sort of stage makeup she would have access to. After we assured her that this performance would not require her to wear a dress, and that stage makeup would be provided, we realized we were already almost  halfway through our scheduled rehearsal time.

After we got through the aforementioned logistical debate, we were then able to move into actually rehearsing our act and our lines. I thought that this went well, however, we frequently had to stop reading and work on our stage movement. I thought that this was rather challenging given that our act is essentially one scene. There is not a whole lot of stage movement aside from people walking in and out of the scene. While this seems as though it would be easy, the students were reluctant to grasp the concept that they would essentially be on stage the entire time. One problem we had with this is that if a student did not have lines for a short period of time, yet they were supposed to remain on stage, they would evidently just walk off stage and sit down. While we attempted to tell our three students playing Duke Orsino, Viola, and Olivia that they essentially had to stay on stage the entire scene, our efforts were rather futile and we ended up compromising and allowing them to come off stage if they had a break in lines. Another challenge in our final run-through was with Marcus. While Marcus is probably our easiest student to work with, he had not been to rehearsal in over a month before this one. Thus, we essentially had to re-teach Marcus his lines and his stage movement as if he were practicing for the first time. Finally, in our last rehearsal, we attempted to improve our on-stage movement showing students who to face with given lines, and how to project their voice. While I thought that all of this was good to go over in our rehearsal, I was rather nervous that we still had not run through the entire performance without interference yet. I was confident, however, that come performance time the students would be ready to go.

Naturally, the rehearsal ended rather bittersweet. I think that by the end of this rehearsal, the students finally understood that the show was the next day, and really started to get nervous, and serious about doing well. While we assured them that they would do fine, it was evident that their natural nerves were setting in. While, this again, made me nervous as a result, I was still confident in their ability to perform. Looking back, I am confident that our rehearsals not only prepared the students for the performance, but also made the students more interested in theatre and arts as a whole, ultimately accomplishing the mission we set out in Leadership on Stage and Screen. Regardless of how the students actually do tomorrow, I have been extremely proud of their progression, not only as performers, but as individuals as well.