Tomorrow is show day! That means today was dedicated to rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing. While it can certainly be exhausting to do multiple runs of a show in one day, we were so proud of how much our shows improved throughout the day. Our kids and teens have learned their lines, songs, choreography, cues, and are now working on small details in preparation for tomorrow. Our show, entitled Chicken Palooza, is a one-of-a-kind, must-see event! It is sure to be full of farm jokes, puns, energetic music numbers, and all sorts of surprises! We are so excited to share this show with our KidsAct! and TeensAct! families: we know you will love them! Culminating session three with our show tomorrow will be bittersweet, but we will enjoy every minute of it!

How is it possible that our show is only two days from now?! We kicked off today by rehearsing our group numbers with Katy and Gaylan, perfecting the moves we have already learned, and we incorporated new choreography as well! Afterwards, KidsAct! and TeensAct! split up to work on their individual shows. The teens officially finished their play, which means both the kids and teens have completed scripts— all there is now to do is rehearse! Watching our plays develop from the inspiration we found in farm animals at Hancock Shaker Village has been an incredible journey. Both of the plays are unique and special, but very different. We won’t give anything away before show day, but it is amazing how the same source of inspiration can lead to so many wonderful outcomes.  Tomorrow will be our last day before show day… we know everyone will be focused and ready to work!

After a weekend of rest, KidsAct! and TeensAct! jumped right back into devising and rehearsing our plays. We spent all morning in our groups working and creating to solidify our plays and perfect our scenes. After lunch (and popsicles!) we had water play, which was a refreshing way to cool down after devising all morning. In the afternoon, we put on our dancing shoes and worked on Footloose choreography with Katy. Although it is certainly an advanced and fast-paced dance number, we are so impressed with how quickly our kids and teens picked it up! We are eager to share our plays with everyone and will be working hard all week to make sure we are ready for an audience. Only four more days until show day! We can hardly wait.

This week at camp flew right by, but time flies when you’re having fun! It is truly amazing how much progress KidsAct! And TeensAct! have made this week, especially considering it’s only the end of week one! Today, both groups came together to learn our Footloose opening number choreography and music with Katy and Gaylan. Afterwards, we split up and continued devising our plays. Our shows are very different, and we won’t give anything away, but they have one thing in common: chickens! Teens worked on developing the plot of the play and enhancing solo numbers, while kids worked diligently to finish up their play and incorporate newly-learned stage combat skills. Next week, we will be polishing and refining our plays, working out details, and preparing for our final show—which is officially a week from today!

Even though it’s only Wednesday of week one, KidsAct! And TeensAct! are already making so much progress on our plays! We can only imagine how thrilling they will be by the end of the next week. On this “Wacky Wednesday,” we learned more commedia with Sam, focusing on the lazzi: comic bits we can incorporate into our work. We continued to learn music with Gaylan, and teens began to learn their solos for our show. Teens also worked on monologues, creating strong foundations and objectives for their characters. Our kids worked hard devising all morning, and have already created most of their play! We are so excited to keep working, devising, and creating with this talented group!

Today marks day one of session three at TeensAct! and KidsAct! We are so thrilled to be working with such an enthusiastic and energetic group. To kick off the next two weeks, we played getting to know you games as a group before the teens and kids parted aways. Both groups worked with Gaylan on our group musical numbers, and we all came together again to learn commedia dell’arte with Sam. Additionally, everyone learned about improvisational acting and the magic of saying yes! We ended our days by devising stories from still images, using fairy tales and the world of Commedia as inspiration. Tomorrow, we head to Hancock Shaker Village to find some inspiring source material for our plays! We can’t wait to see what we will find!