This crew keeps amazing me!
- began tackling the translation of our piece
- everyone still remembered their lines!
- most were able to translate theirs on the spot
- we'll be ready in no time
- some trepidation about performing in their community
"Teatro Thursday" was yesterday and I look forward to it every week for two reasons. One: I arrive to Dade City early enough to turn on the AC in the space we will be using so it won't be so hot, and it allows me the opportunity to grab some tacos with el Señor Guache. Two: I get to work with the boys and see what crazy adventures they'll take me on this week.
Today, we began the process of translating the script into Spanish. We started out with the chalk and chalkboard, but I was starting to lose their attention pretty quick. We were also missing a couple of actors. Eventually, I just had them run through the show and translate their lines on the spot and to my surprise, they remembered their blocking and lines, and were pretty much able to translate their lines over to Spanish, on the spot!
We had initially talked about needing to do this before presenting for the festival, in order to successfully perform the piece for the community. At the time, they had expressed some real doubt as to whether or not this could happen. I assured them I would help them with it and we just focused on preparing for the festival. But when I saw them switch over as easily as they were doing it, I could not believe it!
Even with DTC Senior, I knew we had at least two actors that did not speak much Spanish at all and this was a definite obstacle for our being able to present to the community. But I was very relieved to realize this was not going to be much of an obstacle for us this time around. Which means I will be able to incorporate more exercises and games into our sessions and hopefully work on some focus issues needed for our group to advance in the craft.
The pictures posted within this blog are of an invited dress rehearsal for our group's parents two nights before competing for the festival. I had written a letter asking for their support so DTC could have the experience of performing in front of at least one group before the competition and to my surprise, we had about three families come out! I'm not sure how much they were able to understand and we were not able to show them the ending because it was not ready, but we were able to communicate what we had been up to and they were able to give us some important feedback after the presentation. I believe this helped the boys begin to realize a better focus as to what the road ahead of us entailed.
