Overall, I was fairly content with how the second rehearsal for The Tempest went. Bliss and I started off the rehearsal with introductions for the students who were not at the first rehearsal. We had about four new students, and I did not notice any students missing from last week. The large number of students we started off with combined with the new students and the high retention rate of previous students from the first week to the second week leads me to believe that we may end up having more students in this production of The Tempest than we have had in previous years, which I’m excited about. After introductions, we played a (very) long game of Zip Zap Zop. The students were much better at this game this week than they were last week, and the game ended up taking around 20 minutes. During our rehearsal debrief, Bliss and I decided that we will not be doing this game next rehearsal due to time constraints. After Zip Zap Zop, Bliss and I led a Shakespeare lesson. The Shakespeare lesson consisted of a combination of the history of Shakespeare and fun facts about Shakespeare. To my surprise, many of the students already have a large amount of knowledge regarding Shakespeare, and are already familiar with some of Shakespeare’s plays. At the end of our rehearsal, Bliss and I handed students a sheet with descriptions of the different characters in The Tempest.

Bliss and I are excited to begin the casting process; however, we are slightly concerned that some students will be upset at the roles they end up with. For example, almost every female student I have talked to about casting has indicated that they want to play Miranda. Bliss and I think that in order to meet this desire we may cast understudies for certain roles, as this would increase opportunities for students.