This week was definitely a test of Taylor and my ability to improvise– in more ways that one.

We arrived at the rehearsal with the intention of doing a few more auditions for any stragglers, and then we would announce the cast list and begin the reading of the script.

Things went awry almost immediately when some of our regular students announced to us that Chris, our choice for Caliban, was no longer attending the school.

Our cast list, which had been almost complete and perfect, would now need to be rearranged to accommodate this, and as such, we could not announce the roles nor hand out scripts. Thinking quickly, Taylor and I gathered everyone into a circle to play a storytelling game, in which one person built off of the previous person’s phrase to make a story, all the while incorporating large and elaborate body movements.

Then, we played a more intense game of “Tap-Out”, in which two people will do a scene and when their body is in a position that someone could use to make a new scene, someone in the audience claps, taps them out and begins their new scene. It is a difficult game, one that I have played in many community theatre groups, and I was slightly nervous that the group might have some trouble with it.

I was pleasantly surprised, and the students showed a strong ability to build off of each other and communicate, which will undoubtedly come in handy when we finally finalize the cast list and begin reading.