7th Class Heaven...Sort of

We are nearing the end of this process and I have to say it has definitely been a learning experience for me and fun too!

This week was a bit chaotic, but as Adam said productive as well. Amanda and Mubeen's class was up first. Most of their roles had been cast, but there had been a few still left, so we took some time to figure that out. I also thought it would be a good idea to run through the music once. The students are still learning the songs and because they had had a busy last few weeks, I don't think that they had a chance to rehearse very often. They did very well with some refreshing of the material and I have every confidence that they will be able to pull it off well. I got right into blocking with this group and tried to keep it as simple as possible. We managed to get through about three quarters of the piece though and I hoped to get to the end, but we will finish it next week.

For Sona's class, things went similiarly. They had completed all the casting and it was done very well! I will echo Adam's sentiment that Kaya who is playing Anansi is very talented in singing and acting. I have no doubt she will shine. Sona's class is very enthusiastic about the project which resulted in a little too much talking. Because we had to get through the blocking, I had to make it clear that now was the time to concentrate and to keep quiet and not move unless told to. This worked fine and we managed to block the entire piece and run the blocking once with instructions from me. We also did manage to integrate the music on the second run of the blocking, but this needs to be refined further. Music wise, Kaya had created her own melody for the walking song and it was excellent! Adam and I were delighted. Sona's class also needed a refresher on the music as they too had had a busy week.

It was a tiring day for me as trying to get that amount of students to concentrate, go to their spots and retain some of the blocking was a challenge. I will stand by the fact that I don't know how teachers do their job and so well! After two hours, I needed a nap.

Anyway, for both classes it is super important that they take 30 minutes minimum to rehease the music and be familiar with it. Sona's class should also review the ending dance if they have the time. I have inserted the blocking into the scripts, so if by some miracle they have the time to rehearse the play with blocking, great. If not, I'd say that this is not top priority, reviewing the music is.

Next week is our last official week, but Adam and I will be returning on March 30th for a final performance for a larger group of students. I think for next week, we will spend 45 minutes with each class refining the piece before they present the operas for each other. They can definitely be on book, (i.e with scripts in hand) for next week and hopefully off book and memorized for the performance at the end of the month.

Looking forward to next week to see them do their thing.

I will post the scripts in a seperate post!

Sedina