With only a few more rehearsals left, we have been much more focused with the students at Higher Achievement. This past week we were missing quite a few students but were able to continue working on more of a group presentation verses our usual break out groups. We had the students practice walking on stage and introducing themselves and their characters. Although this seems like it would be more simple it was a good thing we practiced it because the kids would have been all over the place as to how they introduced themselves.

Next we had the students go through each act and read through the lines from each section of the act in front of the whole group. Reading through definitely showed us where we need to work on for the final performance. The students are always improving on being able to read the lines but they don’t do much acting but more of stand and read straight from the paper. This is understandable but gives us something to work on. We need to get them to be more theatrical. In order to help out this we had them do a competition. For those who were willing and wanted too we had them try to be as theatrical as possible while reading through about two lines. We have a few that when they put the effort in they can be quite good, but others could use more practice.

For the final few practice sessions we hope to be putting the play together more fully and have them try more acting along with reading through the lines.

This week week I was unable to attend our rehearsal due to a swim meet, and they decided to cancel due to low attendance.  We have a pretty solid hold on our scene so a week off will not set us back.  I plan on getting the script for act 4 out to the group relatively soon, if we are still needed to fill in.  The OSHER participants expressed an interest in being able to look at the scene prior to the production if they were to perform it, so I will do my best to get that to them in the next week.  We are getting more excited as the date of the production gets closer and look forward to seeing all the work the other groups have put into their scenes! We continue to leave the very end of the play up in the air until the day of the performance, but beyond that all of the staging etc. is set in stone.  I have been very appreciative of the enthusiasm the OSHER players have exhibited thus far in the process and hope the high energy level will continue till the day of the performance! We will not meet next week as it is Thanksgiving break and the leaders will all be home for the holiday.  Our next meeting will be December 2nd just two days before the production.  We feel confident as a group that our scene will go smoothly and plan on working out any last minute details on the 2nd.

Today was without question our best day yet. Coincidence that Haley wasn’t there? Probably not. We managed to walk through almost all of our act, and the kids were actually attentive and involved. I am hoping that we have finally solidified our group of students, but we unfortunately found out that one kid will not be able to come to the performance (the 3 of us will be doing a bit more acted than we originally anticipated). We were in a very small room today, which made it a bit difficult to walk through transitions of people being off and on state, but it managed to work out. We also handed out some props. In hindsight it may not have been the best idea because some students were just wildly swinging around swords, but things realistically could have been worse.

All in all the three of us were very happy with today’s work. Now that we are only a few weeks from the performance I hope that we continue to see productive meetings.

Well, this week our ring leader aka Sheryl was not in attendance today and practically no one was able to show today. Therefore, we thought it would be most beneficial to cancel practice today. We were planning on going over parts of Act 4 even though were act 5, just incase if our group needs to fill in for one of the other groups. Naturally, my group is very excited to do this and would be MORE than willing to read more lines and be on stage. If we have another meeting before the performance, that is what we will do. If not, we will speed read right before the performance! As for our actual act, we are feeling confident in our lines, costumes, and staging!

This past Tuesday was a big rehearsal night with Higher Achievement before the big performance! We started the night by having the kids line up and walk onto the “stage” (the front of the class), say their name to the “audience” (Kit, Melissa, and I), and what character they were playing. I think practicing this was beneficial to the kids because now they are more prepared and know what to expect for the beginning of the play since we are the first Act. The kids did a good job with this and I think it made them excited to start rehearsing.

After this we practiced Act I from the beginning. We got the characters from the first part of Act I together and had them walk on the “stage” in a line. They then started rehearsing their lines in front of the rest of the class. We then moved on to rehearse the second part of Act I with the Mechanical’s. They did pretty well with both parts of Act I but the kids were not really paying attention unless they were reading their lines. I think taking them outside to burn off some energy might be necessary for the actual performance because the kids don’t like to sit still and they are often very fidgety and like to annoy each other.

When there was about 15 minutes left in rehearsal we played a game which practiced dramatic expression on stage with the kids. Every student would come up in front of the class and say any line from the script in the most dramatic-emotional way that was applicable to the line. We told them the most dramatic/enthusiastic person would win. They got pretty into it and mostly everybody wanted to participate. Finally, we wrote the time they needed to be at Boushall in order to take the shuttle to UR on the day of the performance (just in case they forgot to tell their parents) and handed out the posters to each child. One of the adviser’s came in during our rehearsal to talk to the kids and try to get a final head count for the performance. A lot of the kids were unsure if they could come because they did not know if they would have a ride to/from their school because their parents work. It seemed as though there were about 6 kids who would definitely be there (mostly girls) and the adviser said she would call the kids’ parents’ who were unsure if they could go.

This past week was a little different than our past few weeks. It was a little more chaotic than the last few but we were still able to get the students to practice the play. They were definitely more energetic and distracted but that was good practice for when we have to deal with them on the day of the play.

This visit we split the students up by character. Those who interact together in the play were grouped together so we could practice reading through the play. I was given the girls who would be playing Helena and Hermia. We have multiple girls playing these parts so we reviewed how they would be paired up. I first had them read through the lines as pairs and practice pronouncing the words they typically struggle with. We had quite the laugh with the word bosom, but they eventually were able to read through with minimal hesitation.

After reading through their lines, I had them practice reading through the lines while standing up. I had them try moving around and adding their personal touch to their characters voice and presentation. They were not as comfortable with this but they slowly came out of their shells and started to add more theatrics to their parts.We ended our time with them by doing tongue twisters which they loved and got really involved in.

Hopefully this coming week we are able to put the play together more as a group rather than small groups.

It seems like every week of success is followed by a week of regression. I blame a lot of the difficulties to the change of setting. We were moved to a small, smelly, classroom that was clearly lacking on room for the kids to move around. From the get-go, they were distracted and it took them about 15 minutes to even start the Act. Every time one of the kids began their lines, they were immediately interrupted by other kids. Nia was particularly distracting this week…but she was certainly not the only one responsible for our trouble. I was attempting to help them with their acting but the constant disruptions were aggravating and I started to give up. We did all we could to finish the Act, let them run off, and left.

I’m begging next week will be back in a conducive room for our purposes but I doubt it. One can only hope that the kids are in a decent mood to actually work with us all. This week was very tiring…next week has got to be better as we are almost at showtime.

Last Tuesday we had another meeting with our kids from Higher Achievement after having not seen them in two weeks. Overall, the meeting was successful and ended in a fun tongue twister game that the kids enjoyed playing. We started the meeting by going through attendance and making sure everyone knew which character they were playing. We then divided into three different groups based on chronological events in the play. I led the third group, which consisted of the Mechanicals and the final scene of Act 1. Everyone read through their lines, but there was a clear distinction between the kids who were eager about the upcoming play and those that were not. Two boys in my group were being difficult and didn’t want to participate, which makes me nervous for when show time comes around. I tried giving them the least amount of lines so they didn’t feel overwhelmed. On the other hand, the other boy in the group, who plays Quince did a great job last week. He had always been a good reader when it came to his lines, but he really embraced the acting/public speaking tips I gave him and he was much more enthusiastic about his lines the rest of the time. I am excited for him to perform on stage. His newfound enthusiasm reading the lines also inspired the two other girls in my group to read more dramatically/energetically. They were splitting the lines of Bottom and both did very well. I am impressed with how the kids did reading their lines this week, but I am nervous because they were very easily distracted. I am hoping it may have just been a bad night because they aren’t typically like that. Hopefully tomorrow they will continue to keep up the good work and stay more focused !

Last Sunday afternoon, we sent out an email to our John Marshall students with a survey to see who would be attending rehearsal the following day. Only one student replied, and she told us that she couldn’t make it to the next rehearsal due to other commitments, but was interested in attending later rehearsals.

Since we only received one reply to the email, before we left Richmond on Monday I called John Marshall High School to speak to Mrs. Ramsay and ask her how many kids stayed after school. When the secretary transferred me to her class room phone, no one answered and I was redirected back to the main office. Molly called again to try one more time before we left. She was told that Mrs. Ramsay didn’t come in that day. Annoyed and frustrated, we stayed on campus.

Apparently Molly got into contact with Mrs. Ramsay the following day, and was told that she was going through some family issues and didn’t know when she would be back. Everything seems very up in the air at this point and we aren’t sure where to go from here. I really hope everything is okay with Mrs. Ramsay!

In class on Tuesday, we brought this up with Dr. Bezio. There is a possibility that we may have to give our act to the Osher group, and start joining rehearsals on Wednesday evening. So far, we are still waiting to hear back from Ms. Ramsay and/or Verenda Cobbs to see how we can fix our dilemma.

I have some catching up to do for the past few weeks, so I will cram it into this post.

8 October: Today we had a very productive meeting with our students. It is clear that sitting around for an hour and reading the script is not the best use of our time as most of the kids lose interest very quickly. To keep them interested we played a game that Kieran introduced everyone to. It worked as a nice ice breaker, and team building exercise. Getting the kids acquainted has been pretty important because they are all from different schools within the Villa. We definitely need to focus a bit more on Mid Summer next week, but I think that today went well.

22 October: Unfortunately I was unable to go to the Villa today due to an interview. I will comment on what I heard from my group members, and what we need to do in the coming weeks. Benjamin had to go to the Villa alone today due to my interview and Kieran’s battle with a concussion. To Benjamin’s dismay it was the most eventful meeting yet, and not a great time to be alone. During the week there had been several altercations between students in the Villa, and Haley warned us that there had been issues among some of our students. Midway through Benjamin’s trip a fight broke out directly outside of the window, and it quickly grasped the attention of all of our students. It was clear that the meeting would be a wash and all of the students lost interest. Haley threatened that if anyone left to get involved in the altercation they would not be welcome back. Unfortunately, this did not seem to phase the students and several left, leaving Benjamin with 5 students. Going forward we need to stress to Haley the importance of a permanent group of kids who will be dedicated and stick with the program. The only problem is that we don’t even know if Haley will be permanent and stick with the program.

29 October: Again, I was unable to attend today due to an interview, though I do have good news to report. The group began reading through lines, and supposedly did a wonderful job. While the majority of the students are not great readers they all completed their lines with a bit of effort. I think one of the primary problems at this point is that the students don’t have the best idea of what the play is actually about. Next week we need to bring in some sort of summary so the kids have some context- I’m sure it will make reading the lines a lot more interesting. Also, on a positive note, Haley mentioned that transportation will be taken care of. On a negative, unsurprising note, she has not made any progress on permission slips. It is important that we stay on top of her to get these out to parents.

5 November: It was nice to finally be back with my group members and our students today. We finished reading through the script, which was somewhat difficult to get through. As Benjamin warned me, some of the students are very poor readers and do need help getting through their lines. It definitely does not help that we have the longest act. There were some new faces today, and some lost ones. We added a few new students that seem sufficiently intrigued in what we are doing, and I think that the group is starting to solidify. With that said, we were missing a couple of students which is a bit concerning- hopefully they will be back next week. As per usual, Haley was not the most helpful today. If anything she instigated problems and could not keep control of the group. Fortunately (or unfortunately.. we’ll see), Haley is not longer with the Villa. Things should get interesting.

12 November: While Haley is technically no longer an employee at St. Joseph’s, she does plan to work with the group until the project is over. I found this somewhat commendable after hearing that she had suddenly left. With that said, she was of very little help and seemed to have even less control of the students now that she is no longer an actual employee. We finally tried to act out the scene today. I’m not really sure if anyone expected anything different, but it went poorly. The kids were completely out of control and we were unable to get through much. I think that we need to sit down as a group before next week’s meeting and figure out how we are going to get this done. Something definitely needs to change.