Our group went on our first visit this past week. We found out we are working with about 16 fifth graders. They are quite the group but it should always be energetic and fun. As it was just our first visit we did introductions so that we could get to know all the students. We then did a short review of who Shakespeare was and what plays are. The three of us also tried, and it is not easy, to describe the plot of the play to the group of fifth graders. They were starting to understand what would be happening in act 1 but we will have to do much more explaining so that they continue to better understand their characters.

After our description of the play we went over the list of characters in our act and did our best to describe them to the students. We then gave out the parts to the kids based on who they wanted to be. There wasn’t many problems on giving out roles and we came up with solutions to help solve any issues. That means two boys will be playing two parts together and we will have a few extra mechanicals in act 1! Next week we plan on giving out the scripts to gage how difficult the reading is for them and seeing if we need to cut more for them. The students seem interested and excited about the chance to be in the play, which is a positive for us.