The big day of the performance finally arrived. We came early to organize props and highlight the finalized scripts for our actors. The night started off with a setback as the Higher Achievement bus pulled in a little after 5, over an hour late due to a miscommunication. When the kids did arrive, they were a little hyper but we gave them lunchables as a snack and they slowly started to focus on the show. Since we didn’t have time to do a practice run on an official stage, we sent them right to Professor Bezio for makeup and got them their props. I took our group of girls to the bathroom to change into the outfits they brought. They had each brought one of their favorite, nice dresses and were so excited to wear them on stage. One girl even brought a floor length mini ball gown because she was playing Hippolyta. The biggest test of the night was organizing them all outside the hallway, handing out scripts, trying to get them to calm down, and giving helpful tips to remember for when acting out the play. We had two people missing from our original group and needed two other members to step up with their role. One of our boys had been nervous to have more than one line but he stepped up when people were missing and took on the role of two different characters. I was so proud of their enthusiasm for taking on multiple roles.

Some of the kids were definitely a little nervous, but all of them stuck with it and made it onstage! For the age level they are at, I thought our group did a good job. There could have been more acting involved and smoother transitions between scenes, but they definitely did their best considering their nerves. There wasn’t much enthusiasm to their tones and they stuttered more on stage than they ever had in the classroom, but overall I was pleased with their performance. It was more about the overall experience than how they actually acted. Although they could have gotten stage fright, I think many of them were happy with their performance and were so excited to hear Dr. Soderlund tell them how great they did.