Despite our relatively short sessions I feel like each week I come away feeling like we have accomplished a lot. This week that came in the form of our casting. We had probably 90% of our total cast (which is relatively high for us) and were able to solidify all the roles we needed to fill. While this was great, we accomplished much more this week. Once we finished casting we began talking about the more creative aspects of our production. We first broached the topic of setting and we were excited to see that everyone had something to say. They were making connections to movies and video games that they had seen and getting very excited about the idea of acting the play out in that time period. We also talked about that costumes everyone wanted to wear and everyone was equally if not more enthused to talk about their outfits. The best part of this was it got everyone out of a work oriented mode and allowed us to talk and joke with everyone. While we have been connecting with everyone a little more each week this was by far the most in all our time there. While we didn’t get around to reading the script this week (to the aggravation of some students) we will begin reading and acting next week and I’m looking forward to making more progress.

As with every practice we have had, there are always many moving parts. One of our leads was not there today, making blocking difficult. We have not had a practice where everyone is together, so we have not been able to see the blocking fully done. I am hoping that next week everyone will be at rehearsal, so we can practice it fully!

The participants were very enthusiastic when practicing the fight scene. Honestly, I was a little scared during it because they were getting very into it and I was afraid someone was going to get hurt. Thankfully, no one did. We spent todays rehearsal going through the play and blocking scenes we had not had a chance to get to last week. The main critiques we were able to give them is they need to work on moving around the stage and not standing still during a full scene.

At the end of rehearsal, the participants asked us if we are going to have a cast party at the end of the semester! It was so sweet that they want to get together to commemorate our experience! Another great and productive rehearsal as usual.