The day of the performance was exhausting all the while amazing to see our work and our student’s work finally paying off. My group was the first act on stage and our students definitely got a case of the pre performance jitters. We had no idea which students were going to actually show up, but we were delighted to have Amanti, Conald, Shania, Aiyonna, and Jamiriah. Conald and Amanti have been our shining stars from the beginning of this all, they were always so attentive and eager to learn, and in turn they each played about three parts. They both got excited for the stage makeup and the three girls enjoyed all of the fun props.To our extreme surprise when Jamiriah arrived she announced to us that she finally wanted a huge part and in fact she wanted to play Viola. She was not even bothered by the fact that she would have to play a boy, she was excited. The smile on her face was all the confirmation I needed to know she was really ready for this! We went over her new lines and whenever she got stuck on a word we would try to help her but in the end I told her if she got stuck and scared she could always skip over a word because in the grand scheme of things no one would notice or care. After telling her this tie bit she seem relieved and I saw her posture relax a bit. I just wanted her to have fun out there and to feel like a success. She told me afterwards that she was really happy she stepped up to the plate, and she said talking to Olivia(Shania), was so easy because it felt like a regular conversation between the two of them. After some slight costume mishaps and a frazzled Amanti, I think the kids were super excited to take their final bows and to look out at the tons of audience members who came to see them. I wish we had put them on the steps closer to the audience because I do realize that they must have been very hard to hear. We encouraged them to project their voices, but in the end I do not think any of them felt comfortable being loud. I was hoping Jacob’s confidence on stage would rub off on them! The other acts were fun to watch, each group had a completely different set of kids that came with a different set of challenges, but it was so cool to watch all of my classmates interact with their own students. I felt that everyone had strong connections with their students and it really paid off when we successfully put on a production of Twelfth Night! In the end I do not care what went wrong because I am just so proud of each and every one of them, it has been so challenging and rewarding to be one of their directors. I am going to miss their sweet faces every Thursday, who knows maybe I will go back to Henderson for my Justice hours next semester!