Watching all the videos together was really cool! There definitely were some holes in the plot across all the acts, but I think this made the project especially interesting because each group of kids was given full creative freedom to do what they want with each act. I thought it was really cool to see each different groups approach to the storyline and what they changed to make the adaptation. I also really appreciated our group’s decision to turn Claudio into Claudia, yet still respect the original romantic storyline. There was another act that also decided to use Claudia, which was awesome! It is really amazing to see these kids be open to changes in the plot and include representation of the LGBTQ community while challenging stereotypical gender constructs. Overall, while the final product had a few plot line confusions, I think the heart of the project truly showed through and I am really grateful to have had this experience to work on this, especially  through covid. It’s awesome we were able to figure out a way to make it work even though we could not be in person with the kids. I hope the kids had as much fun as I did!

This was our last meeting with the kids! This experience absolutely flew by and I was a bit sad that it ended — meeting with these kids was always a highlight of my week, they always have such a positive attitude and are so engaged. This week we had a bit of a hiccup with the technicalities of the meeting (there was a new coordinator), but once we got it working we had some final discussions with the kids about the play. We decided not to re-record since the kids were happy with our previous recordings of the script and we wanted to leave as many of the decisions as possible up to them. They showed us some of the drawings they made and they were really good! At the end of the meeting, one of the kids said “have a nice rest of your life!” Which was pretty cute. This was such a cool experience for the class and I am so happy we got to do it despite covid restrictions. I am so excited to see the final product of the adaptation!

I unfortunately was not able to meet with the group this week due to some wifi issues from home, but my team members were able to bring me up to speed with how it went this week. Originally we were going to start recording, but then it was decided that they would finalize the drawings for the play and do a few practice runs of the script. One of the kids noticed that Hero did not have any lines in the first act, so they added in a few lines for her. Still, we did not want her to have too many lines as we wanted to keep true to her original reserved character from the play. Overall, it appears it was a successful week! I was sad that I was not able to join but I am looking forward to recording the play after Thanksgiving!

This week meeting with the kids was another successful one! We started by asking them if they have any new ideas they wanted to share about the play and of course many of them were really engaged and participated. We also had a few new kids this week which was really exciting because we got to run through the whole project with them!

We also ran through the script a second time to go over some edits and give more kids the chance to experience reading some lines. We also decided that our Beatrice (Bea in the play) would be voiced by multiple kids so that more of them would have the opportunity to be involved. I was really impressed with how animated these kids were and how good at acting they were! Also, in each scene, we asked the kids how they wanted the scene to be portrayed. Many of them offered various artistic skills they could contribute to portray each scene. It was a really successful meeting and I am excited for our next one on Monday!

This week’s meeting was one of the most exciting so far, as we read our first draft of the script to the kids and they loved it! Each member of our group wrote a scene from Act 1 and we randomly assigned roles to the kids and had them read it aloud. I was really surprised to see how excited the kids were and also how animated they were when reading the script! They got really into the roles and lines and had a lot of fun. It was really cool to see the adaptation of the play really come to life! The only issue we face now is actually assigning the roles; the kids are all really enthusiastic about being involved so it will be hard to decide who gets to play which character. We thought of potentially giving the characters multiple actors so that more of the kids could be involved, but that is still up for discussion.

Our script definitely still needs a few tweaks and changes to make sure it lines up with the rest of the acts, but overall we are doing well and on track!

Week two meeting with the kids went really well! There were a few more kids present for this meeting so we had even more participation and enthusiasm from them. Essentially, we went through the plot of Act 1 and asked the kids about what major plot point they would want to adjust or alter. The kids were actually really enthusiastic about changing Claudio’s gender and renaming her Claudia, which I thought was a really cool idea and also really impressive that these kids wanted to do that. Also, one student was excited about potentially doing some drawings for Act 1. Overall, the meeting went really well and I am excited to keep working with this group!

Monday was my group’s first meeting with the HEF students from the Wilder virtual program. I was originally pretty nervous to meet the kids, especially because I have never used Microsoft Teams and wasn’t sure how the meeting would go virtually. However, because of my group and how engaged the kids were, the meeting went very smoothly! We started with an ice breaker and had the kids say their names and their favorite ice cream flavor. Next, we talked to the kids about what what the plot of Much Ado is, and introduced the characters. Finally, we suggested some ideas for the adaptations we’d be doing. The kids were really excited and funny, I am excited to work more with them!