A Review from "Welcome to THE Show!"

"Welcome to the THE Show" was great!!

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In the videos from rehearsal, I saw the process of writing the show. First, they worked together to tell the story. Each person continued it. Then, they memorized the outline of the story and started improvising scenes. Michelle, the director, typed up the script based on what they said. Then, they rehearsed it. And last week was the performance!

            I think part of this was easy and parts were hard.  I think it’s hard to put on a play because some people get nervous. Coming up with the story and writing the whole play might have been hard, too. But, it looked like everyone was having fun! So maybe it was easy.

I think the show was funny because it talks about the put on a play with the producer getting mad. My favorite part of the play was the argument of the director and producer because it shows that the director is doing his job. My favorite character was the director because she did an awesome job putting the play together.

I think the producer learned he needs to stick with his job and just be a producer. At the beginning of the show, he was mad and didn’t want anybody to talk to him. He was mean. He didn’t get to perform in the final show. He was fired because he was so angry and he didn’t want to be involved—he took a phone call in the middle of rehearsal! But at the end, he apologizes and asks to have his job back. The group forgives him.

If you get the chance to see the show, you should. “Welcome to THE Show” tells a story about working together and sticking with the group. It’s funny, and I think people would like it. Here are some pictures from the show:

Meet the Cast!!

Michelle talking to the cast before the show

Emily D. and Bianca rehearsing

Jacob is ready for the show!

Michelle introducing the show

Jorge as the producer

Bianca and Christina in the show

Emily S. as the director

Jadzia and Jorge

The cast getting for opening night in the play

The producer comes back to apologize

The whole cast celebrating "Welcome to THE Show"

You should come to Daytime Moon’s next show! Because it’ll probably be good like this one was.

Jareth

Meet the Cast!

Last week, Jareth interviewed Michelle Kuchuk, the director of Daytime Moon's current program. This week, I went to yesterday's class armed with a video camera and Jareth's questions for the actors!!! 

I got to interview 4 actors in our current program, and today, Jareth and I went through all of the footage and he created this INCREDIBLE video mashup of all of their answers. It's amazing, and I hope it will get you pumped for the show!

In "Welcome to THE Show," a group of talented young artists get together a write an original show. Their thrilled about its potential and approach a producer to give them the money to make their dreams come true. The producer agrees...on one condition! They have to rewrite the show and make HIM the star!

Will the writers bend? How will they come up with the money? Will the diva of the cast have to be replaced? Will the producer ever learn that money can't buy everything? And WHAT is the secret of the theater owner?


Welcome to THE Show" will be performed at the Peoples Improv Theater (123 E 24th St) on December 13th at 4:45 PM. Tickets are free but reservations are recommended. Email information@daytimemooncreations.org to claim your tickets."

Hope you enjoyed this backstage glimpse! See you next week at the show!
Jenna

An Interview with Michelle Kuchuk

Hello!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Last week during our weekly meeting, Jareth came up with a series of questions for Michelle and for the actors at the CCA SKILLS Program, so that we can give you an inside look at the making of a Daytime Moon show. In this post, I'm thrilled to share Michelle's answers. At the next rehearsal, she'll pass them along to the actors and Jareth and I will share them as well.

So, without further ado... I give you, Michelle and Jareth!

Jareth: Hi Michelle! I thought it would be cool to do a blog post that would give readers more information about Daytime Moon and the show, so thanks so much for taking the time to answer these questions. Some are about the show, and some are about you. Let's start with the ones about the show. 

Who comes up with the story of the play?  How do you make the play? What’s the hardest part? What’s the easiest part?

Michelle: The actors actually come up with the story!  Through a bunch of different theatre games, different stories are told and a couple usually start to become popular with everyone.  After we narrow it down to two or three different ideas, we come up with scenes for each choice.  THEN ... one usually becomes the most detailed, and then as a group, we figure out all the details of the beginning, middle, and end!  Between classes, the teachers transcribe what all the actors said in class, and come in the next class with an actual script.  The easiest and most fun part for me is watching the actors come up with the stories and the dialogue themselves.  The hardest part is sometimes narrowing all the ideas down to fit into one script ... but usually we just combine ideas anyway so it ends up being okay!

J: Who casts the show?

 

M: Based on the story we create, the actors cast themselves.  I challenge the actors to come up with the characters we need, and after performing in scenes as exercises, they've already experienced different characters.  After coming up with all the details of the plot, we all discuss who would like to be who.  Everyone walks away happy because each character has lots to do!

J: Last year, I worked backstage on CCA's production of "Peter Pan". For “Peter Pan,” I had to stay backstage and be quiet. Some of my other responsibilities were to read the lines so I knew when things would happen. Then, when that line happened, I knew to open or close the curtain. What will the responsibilities of the crew be? Does the crew need to be quiet for this play, too?

M: The crews' responsibilities are mainly like yours in "Peter Pan," Jareth!  The actors and the crew have to read the lines so they all know when to enter and when a certain scene is ending.  Sometimes, actors backstage might have to say something from offstage, but usually everyone does need to be quiet backstage.  

J: During “Peter Pan,” the actors needed to rehearse their lines and practice. How many times do these actors practice? 

M: We have seven classes all together before the final performance.  Actors usually practice their lines at home once they get the script - but I'm never sure how many times they practice, exactly. They are always prepared, though, so they must be practicing a lot!

J: How long does it take to rehearse for the performance?

M: The actors will have the script for three classes before the show, and then there is a quick rehearsal in the theatre before the audience comes in!

J: Where does the show take place? What is it about?

M: The show takes place in a theatre, actually!  It's about a group who want to put on a Broadway show ... and the rest is a surprise.  

J: How many times will the show be performed? When will it be? How can people get tickets?

M: The show will only be performed once!  It will be held at the Peoples Improv Theater on December 13th at 4:45PM. Once tickets become open for reservations, people can email information@daytimemooncreations.org to reserve seats, which are free.

J: Awesome, and now I'd like to ask some questions about you.

Tell me about yourself. What do you do?

M: In addition to being one of Daytime Moon Creations' staff and teachers, I also am the Literary Director for a company called Nicu's Spoon Theater, and a freelance director.  I also sing, tap dance, and am a Special FX makeup artist around Halloween.  

J: What are your favorite plays? 

M: The hardest question!!  There are so many incredible plays out there ... I really love the plays of Edward Albee, Martin McDonagh, Tracy Letts ... to name only a few... 

J: What is your favorite play you’ve ever directed?

M: Another hard question!  I think the most meaningful directing experience for me was directing a show called Beautiful Thing with Nicu's Spoon Theatre.  

J: How did you become a director? What made you want to?

M: I discovered directing in college (having only performed growing up), and the classes I took completely changed my perspective about directing, the process involved, and what a director can accomplish by merely guiding the actors to her semi-imagined result.  I love how theater and directing and acting is one big collaboration: the more everyone works together and contributes their ideas, the richer the play will be.  

J: How long have you worked with Daytime Moon?

M: I've worked with Daytime Moon for two years!

Thanks so much to Jareth and Michelle for a great interview! Hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at Daytime Moon's latest production. Stay tuned for more videos and stories!

Cheers,
Jenna

Introducing Our Newest Blogger!

Hi everyone, I'm Jareth! I'm 16 years old and I go to school at the Cooke Center Academy. I'm a new intern at Daytime Moon and I'm really excited to be working on the blog. Every week, I'm going to be helping write the blog. I'm going to go through the videos from each class and pick the ones that are really good. Then, I'm going to write about them and share them! When I'm not with Daytime Moon, I like to hang out with friends, watch movies, and have free time on the computer. 

I watched the videos from yesterday's class. They were really funny, really nice! The first game was called "Yes, And." In this game, everyone says a sentence to tell the story. They made four stories. There were two that I really liked. Here they are!

In this story, there's a kidnapped prince who's locked up in a closet. He's so mad. Then, he broke out to find some friends. He finds a friend and they go to a baseball game together.
 

I liked this story. This story might be like a fairy tale, imaginary.

In this story, they're putting on a Broadway show. One of the actors got so sick that he missed rehearsals. When he feels better, he comes back but they cut him from the show because he missed everything.

This story might happen to a Broadway show, so it's more realistic. But if I were sick and got cut from a show, I'd feel mad. It's my part!

After they played "Yes, And" the group made scenes. Some of the scenes were based on stories from "Yes, And" but not all of them were. I chose my two favorites and here they are!

In this scene, the prince is locked up. He feels sad, mad, and scared. One of his friends comes to save him because they have tickets for the baseball game!

I liked this scene. It was based on the story of the Prince that the group wrote earlier. I think they did a good job.

In this scene, two people were having a dance party at the library. Someone who was trying to study comes in and says they can't do that. She gets the librarian, who kicks them out.

I liked this scene. I thought it was funny because they were having a party in the library, maybe because they wanted to because they were bored. But that's not allowed in the library.

So that's this week's blog! I hope you enjoyed the movies. I had a lot of fun today.

See you next week!
Jareth

Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn

You know that age-old expression that goes something like, “I ended up learning more from them than they ever learned from me”?  Whoever said it first really nailed it – especially when it comes to working with Daytime Moon.  On the other hand, it’s not necessarily an outcome one intends or strives for as a teacher…

Let me explain.  I’ve been involved with DMC for two years, and every moment with our students and actors proves that old expression true and true again.  I firmly believe that our actors grow and learn so much in our short time together, but I always feel humbled by all the lessons they end up teaching us!  So as I geared up to start this year’s fall session at Cooke Academy (my first program as head teacher!), I thought to myself, “Well, hmm… I need to do Daytime Moon Creations and these actors proud and instill lots and lots of amazing things unto them” – since I would inevitably learn so much from them, I wanted to make sure to try extra hard!!

And so far, it’s been great: exploring new and old games, meeting new faces and catching up with our alumni, but it was all moving very fast.  As I walked home from our second class, my own nerves and huge desire to be the best teacher I could possibly be threatened to take over my thoughts, and as I started to think about the following week’s lesson plan, I started to get distracted by insecurities and those darn nerves.  So as is my wont to do, I caught up on a little neuroscience research, and made a couple of very important realizations about teaching.  We are intrinsically an exploring species.  And everything we do at Daytime Moon has always supported this: that we need to harness this wandering, this exploration, and create and play and make mistakes and learn from them.   We may sort of believe this to be the truth (that we should learn from our mistakes), but it’s usually easier said than done!  Most of us would rather just get it right the first time!  But we actually get way more out of everything if we do make mistakes – though we are only going to want to keep making mistakes if we are in an environment that makes it totally okay to do so. 

I realized this mistake-making needed to carry over to the teacher’s (my own) mentality as well.  If I was allowed to fail, I could really give it my all.  Though the chance for mistakes might be greater,  I wouldn’t watch myself, I wouldn’t be afraid, and I’d be demonstrating that the class needn’t be afraid either.  That it’s okay!  Teachers, of course, should be as prepared as best as he or she can be.  And I can be completely prepared and get the support I need from Jenna and from my assistant teacher Ella, but that after all the preparedness, I just needed to plunge in!  That it’s okay for me to learn and pick myself up and discover and learn and grow because I am enabling my students to do the same thing.  The way a teacher behaves has more impact on students than how much a teacher knows.  Daytime Moon’s mission seeks to create a joyful environment where we can play, where we can make mistakes – but here I was not affording that to myself!

Truly, the most important thing that we at Daytime Moon strive to keep in our classes is joy.  The brain rewards itself with joy after successes – which aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive with “The Destination.”  The process is sometimes more rewarding than the end goal itself!   And though many of us believe this to be true, it’s true neurologically as well.  We turn our energies to the things that are ours, the things we want to create, to learn, to move through the process of, to challenge, to overcome.   My students will begin to create and to write their own play next week.   And I am teaching those students.  We can own our own processes.

Maybe it’s not who learns the most.  Maybe it’s something we all experience together, helping each other in our discoveries.  It’s comforting to know that we are all in this process together, that we can grow together.   The following is something I hope to keep present in every class, but that I now know applies to my own teacher journey as well: “The joy of learning is indispensable in study as breathing is in running.”  How very true.

Michelle

Finding the Joy

Hello everyone!

From all of us here at Daytime Moon in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, I hope you and your family are safe and sound. I hope the impact was minimal and your personal recovery moves quickly. In times of great loss, I never cease to be amazed at the resilience and compassion shown in this city. I see kindness towards strangers, sharing of resources, and a determination to bounce back better, stronger, and a little more aware of those around us. In these times, when we can so easily feel overwhelmed with sadness, what I find most beautiful are the moments where people come together to create and share in joy. The Daytime Moon community is no different; we feel the pain that has been caused by Sandy, but we comfort ourselves knowing that our work is full of joy. So, despite a heart heavy with the images of my fellow New Yorkers in pain, I am choosing to look at the moments of bravery, of compassion, and of joy.  I hope you will join me as I share updates from Daytime Moon's fall program.

As many of you know, this fall finds Daytime Moon Creations back for our third program with the Cooke Center Academy SKILLS Program and Alumni Association, where we are working with a group of young adults to develop an original play! The program started 3 weeks ago and it's been amazing so far.

As Daytime Moon grows and expands, I've personally felt very lucky to see the caliber of volunteers and artists who want to work with us. You all have, I'm sure, seen the incredible work of Michelle Kuchuk, who has worked with Daytime Moon for two years now: first as a one-on-one buddy and most recently as my assistant teacher. I am overjoyed now to introduce her now as a head teacher! Michelle is teaching this program at SKILLS, and I'm excited to welcome Ella Metuki, also a former one-on-one buddy, as her assistant teacher.

I had the great pleasure of observing their class last week and had a blast! They have a lot of familiar faces in their class, but also a lot of students experiencing Daytime Moon's programming for the first time. It was exciting to watch as the returning students took on leadership roles in the room and the new students were so willing to explore their imaginations.

Check out some of the videos from class!

This clip is from a game of "ImaginAIR," where the group was exploring space. Here, Jorge is pretending to be an astronaut and encounters Emily the space creature!

In this clip, taken during a game of "Group Photo," a group of students works with Michelle to create a snapshot. Can you guess where the photo was taken?

In the live action follow-up to "Group Photo", Charlie, Emily and Michelle share a short skit with the group. Can you guess where they are?

The final show is scheduled for December 13th at 5PM at the Peoples Improv Theater. I don't know about you, but I'm already counting down the days!

Wishing you continued strength, calm, and JOY during the ongoing recovery,
Jenna

From the Archives- Spring 2012 Updates

April 17, 2012 

Hello Everyone!

Happy Spring! It’s taken a little while longer than planned, but I finally have photos from last month’s production of “Martian Mayhem:The Musical” to share!!

The show was absolutely brilliant. Every student brought in costume pieces (some much more than just suggestions!) that helped with their characters. All of our Martians decked out in red, which created an amazing visual against the red of the stage accents. And everyone got a chance to shine as they told the story of a group of astronauts crash landed on an unknown part of Mars, in conflict with the royal family, but working together to put aside differences for what’s best for both planets. It was a hysterical and heart warming script, written entirely by the participants in our workshop with the Cooke Center Academy SKILLS Program and the CCA Alumni Association.

Check out the pictures:

Nagisa, Geraldine, Carrie and Emily as the Astronauts preparing for takeoff

Christina as Jasmine, Princess of Mars

Jake and Alexis as Koba and Soray, King and Queen of Mars

The whole cast with Michelle, Ken and I celebrating their amazing achievement!

In other exciting updates, our spring extracurricular program, Stars of the Stage, kicked off on March 17th with our biggest group yet! Every Saturday we have 9 participants ages 11-15, plus our volunteers, Meredith, Michelle and I. We also are thrilled to welcome back Meredith’s favorite partner in crime, CCA intern Nagisa Mikami, for her third time as assistant playwright. The group is hugely varied, with so many exciting and creative personality types. We spent the first few days playing theatre games and doing creative improv exercises, getting to know each other and getting comfortable in the group. Here, you can see Teddy take us on an interactive imaginative tour of his favorite place to go. Come join us!

Teddy took the group to Coney Island:

After the second class, it was clear that our group was passionate about exploring, and a lot of their games had to do with treasure hunting and exploring unknown islands. What an exciting premise for a play! When we began working with the group to craft characters, we found even more excitement–a man who lives in an underground gold castle and lives for finding treasure, a werewolf king who sends his wolf subjects out to canvas the town looking for his lost treasure, a crazy witch who concocts secret potions and spells to help people, and a cranky old sea captain were among the characters our group came up with without any prompts from us, just an old box of costume and prop pieces! Needless to say, Meredith and Nagisa have had tons of raw material to work with.

We don’t have our final script yet, but armed with this premise, we’ve begun doing more character exercises and improvised scenes. As we started developing characters, our actors came up with inventions that their character would need on the magic island. Here, Alex and Shachi share Alex’s magic pen that can bring to life anything it draws:

By class on the 21st, we should have a final script, and I can’t wait to share the story with you! Stay tuned, there are lots more exciting stories to come!

Cheers,
Jenna

From the Archives- Welcome to Camp: A Celebration and Reflection

December 28, 2011

Tomorrow, two weeks will have passed since members of the Cooke Center Academy Alumni Association and students in the Cooke Center SKILLS Program made their Daytime Moon Creations stage debut in “Welcome To Camp.” The cast performed on the mainstage at the Peoples Improv Theater to a huge and enthusiastic crowd. It was an overwhelming success!

I couldn’t have been prouder of our actors, who worked together to write the entire play themselves. This huge feat of collaboration was only eclipsed by the passion with which they tackled the performance. The group never once let nerves get the best of them and approached each moment onstage with emotion, honesty and confidence. It was incredible to watch, and I’m so thrilled to finally be able to share some pictures with you!

The cast going over last minute preparations before the show

Alexis as Rapone, the Camp Director

Sam as Kelly, a new camper

Christina as Taylor, one of the bullies at Camp Ojai Lake

Carrie and Geraldine onstage as Molly and Alex

Jake as telling a ghost story as Hal, the oldest camper

Patrick and Nagisa celebrating after curtain call

The cast of "Welcome To Camp" with Michelle and I

Cheers!
Jenna

From the Archives- Coming Soon to Daytime Moon...

December 14, 2011

With our final performances of Welcome to Camp and Out of the Box coming up on Thursday and Saturday, respectively, I can hardly believe that the time has flown by like it has.  It seems like we were recently only talking about what different emotions look like, and now we’ve written plays!

And at the risk of sounding corny, it feels like I met Jake just yesterday!

During our last meeting, I asked Jake to reflect on Daytime Moon and his internship, and he brought tears to my eyes as he told me about how and why it is so special, both in and out of the classroom:

I have a feeling that when Daytime Moon’s young actors put themselves into their characters’ shoes, they’re channeling their everyday lives and interests into their acting.  In my mind, these special actors are like chameleons, metaphorically changing color into each character.  With skilled acting and bravery, an actor or actress may be using his or her strength and courage to step up into the spotlight.  It helps them grow because when they do acting, it helps them get together with other people and channel their acting into their everyday lives as well as their everyday lives into their acting!  It’s important to express their feelings the right way and to mature in the good direction.

Acting helps people to learn things and experience new things in their lives the fun and exciting way. It guides them on their way to accomplish certain goals: what they dream of becoming in the far future.  Putting on a play is working on a goal.

Daytime Moon has given me a big opportunity and it’s a stepping stone to my future because it’s working with film, and acting, and helping people at the same time.  With the writing of the blogs it allowed me to express my feelings.  Daytime Moon helps you to… it can channel your feelings about what you are, your person, bringing it out on the stage to express your feelings.  And it’s fun because it’s putting feelings in balance, putting on a play, and I helped write a play. 

Because that’s my kind of dream!

-Jake

And just for fun, Jake improvised (that’s right, improvised) mock movie trailers for both Welcome to Camp and Out of the Box, coming to the Peoples Improv Theater near you on Thursday and Saturday!  Enjoy!!

Welcome to Camp Trailer:

Out of the Box Trailer:

See you this week for our final shows!

-Michelle and Jake

From the Archives- "Out of the Box": The Final Show!

December 8, 2011

We’ve had an incredibly exciting couple of weeks writing and polishing a script for our Saturday program at the PIT, and Jake and I have been keeping tabs on all the latest footage!  In our last blog entry, we looked at a couple of original commercials.  The next step in our actors’ process was to help them create characters based on the commercials they made up.  After the characters had been decided, our volunteers interviewed each character to further aid in our playwrights’ development of the script.  And then… we finally got the script!!  After looking at the commercials, the interviews, and finally, the recent rehearsals, I sat down with Jake to talk a little bit about what it all means.

MK:  Jake, the final performance for the Saturday program is coming up.  Have you gotten a chance to look at the script?

Jake:  Yes, last week I got a glimpse of the script for the upcoming show called Out of the Box to get a sense of what the characters’ performances are going to be like.  The play is about museum exhibits who are determined to save their museum director from losing her job.  A sort of ‘Night at the Museum’ type thing because the exhibits come to life.  The stakes are high since they are trying to save the museum director’s job, and they may lose their chance if they don’t help her think of a new exhibit.

MK:  Who are the characters in the show?

Jake:  Talia plays Princess Anastasia Romanov, who was, by the way, the last grand duchess of Russia.  Teddy plays Benjamin Franklin, Nicky is Tyrone the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Jake plays The Famous Country Singer, and Jeffrieal is The Famous Baseball Star.

MK:  From the original commercials and the subsequent interviews, the actors have helped us develop their characters as the people (and animals!) they are most interested in.  Can you talk a little bit about that process?

Jake:  For example, in the case of Teddy, we originally saw a commercial for the iPod.

MK:  And then Teddy became two characters who were major inventors in history, is that right?

Jake:  Yes.  I watched a pretend interview with Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin on their inventions.  Edison turned on the light, while Franklin created electricity.  Teddy played both characters (talk about a double role!), acting like each guy, and it was a bit challenging because he had to change his character.  Teddy really likes inventions so in the show, he’ll be playing Ben Franklin who is an amazing inventor.

MK:  What do you think it’s like playing a character that is based upon something they are passionate about?

Jake:  It makes them feel happy and excited and it’s like they are following their dreams.  They are being modest about it.  They aren’t showing off.  They are acting in a more honest way.  They’re sincere in their acting, they are using their soul for the acting when putting themselves in their characters’ shoes.

MK:  How did the rehearsals look [from the Flip Cam footage]?

Jake: They are doing very well at getting themselves into the character, few mistakes, few flaws.  They are getting into the process through thinking what their character is like.  They are changing their voices to bring the characters out.  These actors are chameleons.

MK:  Can you speak a little bit more about some of the actors interests, as made clear by their interviews and final characters?

Jake:  Jake [in Saturday’s program] really loves country music so he really put himself into the character of his interest.  Jake explained about his ‘life’ as a country singer.  He mentioned that once he sang with a singer named Kristofferson, and I could tell he was excited about being that character in the upcoming play.

MK:  And what about Talia, whose commercial we also saw last time?

Jake:  In the case of Talia, we originally saw her commercial for an American Girl doll.  And then for her interview, Talia went from an American Girl to a famous and feisty princess. I’ve come to understand that being a princess doesn’t always mean being born into royalty, wearing pretty dresses, and getting their prince.  It means being modest and sincere in what they say and do for others.

MK:  What is her life as a princess like?

Jake:  She talked about how she loved dancing with her prince, Nicky, and how she loved her “palace life”.  During her interview, she pretended she had an argument with Teddy [as Benjamin Franklin], who was upset that she had candles in her palace because he was worried for her safety.  It was a bit challenging to pretend to get to know another character, but when Talia stepped up to the plate it was really daring, just as the princesses of the films I’ve seen are.  Back to the show!  Jeffrieal plays The Famous Baseball Player.  He loves baseball, he’s really fond of it.

MK:  How do you think that helps him?

Jake:  I think he’s going to be amazing putting himself into this role because the baseball player is part of the museum and hopes kids can see him and be inspired to play baseball.  It’s his passion.  And it’s easy for him to imagine himself in that character’s shoes, he is able to talk like they talk and move like they move.

MK:  Is it important for characters to have a back story, like we saw in Nicky’s interview?

Jake:  Yes, Nicky had a pretend interview on life as a dinosaur.  He mentioned that he roared whenever he was furious, but had a nice family, and that he wanted to be a doctor who looked after the sick ones.  Hey, even a dinosaur has feelings about his life, doesn’t he?  And I think that Nicky will be amazing putting himself into this character’s shoes (or in this case, claws).  Plus he had an amazing theme song.  We see his passions, what he wants most, and his feelings about things.  This helps with the character development.

MK:  How does this all compare with your Thursday workshop at the Cooke Center?

Jake:  In our theater workshop, we have been studying and rehearsing our camp play called Welcome to Camp.  Like the young actors on Saturday, we also work on a lot of character development.

MK:  Have you faced any challenges in Thursday’s program?

Jake:  Usually, I play Hal the most enthusiastic and helpful of the campers, but when the actress who plays Rapone, the lead counselor, was absent, I put myself into her shoes [and filled in].  This was a challenge because I had to break away from the character I was used to playing, and then had to create a balance between these two personas and feelings within myself.

MK:  Wow!  And how did you do that, exactly?

Jake:  For Hal, I was a helping hand and led people to do good things.  With Rapone I played more of the leader.  I also changed the accent for Rapone – I used a Southern accent.

MK:  And what’s your favorite part about rehearsing?

Jake:  That you get to learn how to put yourself into another character’s shoes to bring your feelings to life!

MK:  As we approach the final show of Out of the Box, and also your own performance of Welcome to Camp, do you have any last words?

Jake:  We will be able to see a magnificent performance!  I am certain that the performance of Out of the Box is going to dance its way to the stage!  And so will Welcome to Camp!

MK:  Thanks, Jake!

PLUS: Check out some exclusive footage from last week’s rehearsal!

Until next time…

-Michelle and Jake