Five rehearsals left!

- DTC Jr. this morning; have worked with half of them before and excited for new others

- Still weren't memorized today; pushed through anyway

- Went into the "big break-down"

- Felt bad for everyone else that wasn't working

DTC Jr.:

This morning, Angel and I had the pleasure of working with about 7 Dade City young men between the ages of 8 and 13,

that have been meeting with Mr. George Wilkins throughout the summer in a mentorship setting. Up until now, they've been playing soccer but last week, we asked if we could come by and organize a theatrical workshop with them and they agreed. I was somewhat let down when I saw there was only about half the group from last week, but soon the rest began to show up and we had enough to facilitate some great games.

Angel and I had stopped to pick up some "prizes" (candy) before arriving, just because I wasn't sure what type of setting we were going to be walking in to. I'm glad I did, it ended up working out but I just hope they don't expect it every time we work. (Although, truth be told, I only spent $4 and I was happy to run into packs of "Now and Laters" that still only cost $0.25 per pack. Or perhaps they were less than that back during my middle school days?)

We had a small discussion about what theatre meant and what it was going to take in order to succeed learning the craft and with that, we were off. Before I knew it, they were telling me about a movie they had already been planning on making, only it took too much time and it sounded like they were not successful in their endeavors. My hope is to be able to get them to complete this project!

I felt we were able to get everyone pretty involved with the games and were able to keep it pretty competitive throughout. About half way through the games, we were offered some tacos for lunch and took a short break. It was then I was being asked about going to school for theatre and how it was I was able to continue to do it as a living. I didn't expect the question but hope my answer will help them in the pursuit of their paths.

We played a couple of more games and promised to create an agenda for the next time where we speak a little about creating a story for the movie they had been talking about shooting.

DTC:

I was somewhat concerned we would not have enough for today's rehearsal, given only one person communicated they

would be there today. Thankfully, everyone (except one of our actors) walked in at the same time.

But we weren't memorized even though I had already asked them to be off book two weeks ago. This ate up at least the first part of rehearsal. We took "a five" and that gave me a chance to reflect and figure out a way to describe what the different levels were that we needed to hit in order for this production to be successful.

When we were finally able to work the last part of the script and include the blocking from last rehearsal, we got pretty darn close to the marks we need to be at, and then we had to call it a day.

We worked hard, but it didn't have to be this difficult had our actors come in to the rehearsal a little more prepared. Eddie, Marques, and María were in the wings as all of this occurred and I felt bad they were waiting, but hope what we did served as a lesson to them to be prepared before arriving to rehearsal for the next project.