Within the last week, the students have taken their exhibition and made it a reality. The rehearsal hall has been transformed...you walk in a see a photo of Lope de Vega (the playwright), a family tree, a model of the Es Artes building, period costumes and props, as well as testimonials from the students. All this in a few days. Incredible! The stage is getting its final touches of trim, and the well that is transformed into a throne (the transformation looks amazing!) has gotten a paint job...looks fantastic!
Saturday was a big day for everyone - we had a costume parade! The costumes look so great! The students were pretty excited about getting into costume for the first time as well. It was a good time for everyone to sit back and check out how everyone looked onstage. Several notes were taken and a lot of the alterations have been done already. We also had a birthday celebration for everyone's 2011 birthday on Saturday! It was a student's birthday, so we sang to him, however it was great to celebrate everyone! What a delight to see the students faces when the cake came out. It was quite moving for us volunteers, as we were told (after the fact - we had no idea before) that this was the first birthday cake the student whose birthday it was ever had. Memories for everyone to cherish for years to come.
Last night we had our lighting and sound cueing session. A few lighting states were decided and the sound cues sound fabulous...tomorrow's Q-Q will be exciting! Raquel and I are getting revved up for the next few days....this will be her first time calling cues and I have total belief she will be fine! Last night I explained there are "standbys" (when the Stage Manager tells the board operators which cues are coming up) and that each SM is different in the way they write standbys and when they tell the operator to press "go" in the book. The binder is hers and she has to write it in the way she wants to. She started last night and we will continue later on and in the next few days to make it easy for her.
We're in a bit of denial that we are leaving so soon...don't like to think about it one bit. There was a student that looked sad yesterday, so I asked what was wrong, and he told me nothing. I kept asking - something at home, at school, at Es Artes? Finally, he told me he was sad because we're leaving on Sunday. The students ask us when we're coming back and it is no lie when I say "as soon as possible"...it is just unfortunate that I don't know WHEN!
The past 6 weeks have been an incredible experience - one that I will never forget. I have learned a ton - about myself, about others and about the craft that I love. I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to work on this wonderful project...I can't wait to see it grow!
Thank you Stratford, thank you Suchitoto, thank you Es Artes.
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