DTC, the Next Generation

- just celebrated 4th year of DTC

- how fitting to have the first rehearsal of the next generation

- hour passed like nothing

- Nuts and Bolts rehearsal for "Ricochet"

- three rehearsals left

I recently received a reminder of the fourth anniversary of my work with DTC. I can't believe it's already been four years. Granted, we only meet once a week, but I'm proud of the work we've been able to accomplish up to now. I believe the website is a testament to that work and what we will continue doing!

It's also fitting that the first official rehearsal of the next generation of DTC was held today, a short month from the anniversary. Margarita told me about a group of young men she was hoping we could work with on a weekly basis and it could not come at a better time. I was already concerned about my original DTC students getting older and not having as many of them as when we first started out. This next group seems anxious and willing to learn the craft and my hope is the torch can get passed on seamlessly from one group to the other. Especially with the organizing help of la Señora Narcadalia, as her son Alfonso is one of the students we will be working with.

I was a little concerned when not everyone had showed up at the start of the meeting. But it seems half the group had a cell phone and we were able to reach out to the other three or four that were missing so we could meet them down the corner and let them know where we would be. This is our cast:

- Alexandro

- Chava

- Alfonso

- Olegario

- Giovanni

- Tony

- Roberto (BG)

I was able to give them an introduction to what we would be doing, and also let them know what I was expecting from them in return. Then we got to playing games for the last 40 minutes. We played the two version of "Zip-Zap-Zop," theirs first, then ours, then we did "Trading Places, "Wink," or what they called "Mafia," and then we were out of time. I found, as did they, that the time passed by extremely quickly. Hopefully now they know the actual location of the rehearal, and the fact they had a good experience, we can start on time next week!

Unfortunately, we had one of our principals not show up for rehearsal this afternoon and we were not able to get in a full run-through. Thankfully, the other three showed up and we were able to do some good "line-throughs," then discussed some "nuts and bolts" information regarding the performance. I will become the Stage Manager in the booth, giving the cues to the technicians, and María will have to be in the theatre in case any of the actors need anything last-minute when we are there. Now that I think of it, we'll need someone recording the performance, so she may need to be responsible for this part as well, unless we can sneak in another one of our crew to take on this role.

We have three rehearsals left and I'm somewhat nervous at this point, given I have not seen a full run-through off-script, but we may just need to add a few rehearsals during the last week to make up for this. I know it will all work out in the end; it always does!