Very Busy

So, this blog post is actually about yesterday and today. Yesterday, I went to Hawken Upper to observe the School Residency Program there. It was in Mrs. Griffin's and Mrs. Hagen's intensive, in which they were learning Macbeth. It was incredibly entertaining and engaging to watch the students learn the basics of stage sword fighting and then stage the final battle scene of Macbeth. I got to participate in the battle a couple of times when people didn't have partners, and even though my sword skills are not quite perfected, I still beat my opponent. After lunch I went back to the GLT offices downtown at Playhouse Square and I basically filed forms for the rest of the day. However, I did get to meet two new senior interns from Magnificat, who are also doing their senior projects at GLT. Today was also fun, but busy. I did a lot more filing, which my sponsor was very relieved to get done. The exciting part was getting the opportunity to watch the interviews for the School Residency Program. If an applicant for the program auditions well, gets a call back, and then does well at the call back, they get an interview. I saw two interviews today, and I really, really thought the two applicants would do amazing in the program, especially with children. I also was better informed on how difficult the program is for the Actor-Teachers who run it: the hours are very long, they usually teach five classes a day, five days a week, their rehearsal process is 9 hours a day, six days a week for six weeks in the summer, and they are also responsible for basically memorizing ten Shakespeare plays and more contemporary plays. After learning this, I have a lot more appreciation for the incredible work that the Actor-Teachers do when they teach the plays at the schools as part of the program.