Walk the Moon's "Shut Up and Dance" was the soundtrack to start our class on Friday. A much needed dance party was a great way to kick off the end of the week. We finished our dance party swinging to Elvis' "Burning Love" as chosen by Sam Petri and then it was right into warm-ups. Our tongue twister this week was a new one from Lindsay: "My kitten was eating chicken in the kitchen." Lots of cat ears and chicken wings made it even more fun to try and do quickly.
Kendra then continued our check-in exercise from last week, but instead of asking about our own past, present, and futures, we talked about Scrooge's. We really want to convey the change of heart that Scrooge undergoes through the show and so it became the theme of class. We used actual examples from the play about his past and present, but then asked the teens to infer from the end of the play what Scrooge's changed future might look like. Lucas thought that he would pay for everyone to get their braces off and Jack was certain that he would save Tiny Tim. This thinking about characters in a different way is a great way to prepare for the scene work next week.
For singing this week, we practiced more of Carol of the Bells and then started on singing a version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas, but alternated verses as beginning of the play Scrooge and end of the play Scrooge. We even tried singing "We wish you a Bah Humbug!"
Finally, we ended the class with Auditions. The teens had all prepared 3 characters that they wanted to Audition for. We ran them like you would do a professional audition. They came to the front, introduced themselves, said who they would be reading for, and then gave their three lines (with a facilitator dropping in like they will during the show). We had lots of great characters and it is going to be hard to cast the show. Natalia's Bob Cratchit was really impressive, as was Alena's Scrooge.
Finally we spent some time with our journals, thinking about the 2 Scrooges and their differences. We had some great comments with people talking about how much the liked the new Scrooge better than the Scrooge at the start of the play.
Next week, we do our first run-through!
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