THE SHOW IS HERE!

The Youth Shakespeare Project presents...
Shakespeare's AS YOU LIKE IT

Thursday, July 31
7pm
Dartmouth Hall
FREE

Dartmouth Hall is the long white building on the east side of the Dartmouth Green.
The show will run about 55 minutes.

Please join us in honoring our campers' hard work and creativity at their show!

Week 5: The Show Starts to Come Together

Last week, our campers put in a lot of effort and dedication to "work" (tweak, change, and/or run) key scenes from the play. At any given time this past week, different sets of actors participated in this scene work while others recorded their characters' thoughts in our journals and others participated in movement workshops meant to further develop their movement awareness onstage. We also led our actors in a reaction workshop in which they imagined reacting to different events; this helped all of us realize how important it is for actors to react to events that happen onstage, even and especially when they are not speaking.

As we move into week 6 (our last week of YSP 2014!) we will focus on dress rehearsals, pinpointed scene work, costuming, and coming together as an ensemble to create a funny, coherent, textually aware and enjoyable show. We'll split our time between our rehearsal space in the Howe Library and our performance space in Dartmouth Hall.

This Thursday at 7pm in Dartmouth Hall, it all comes together. Please join us to celebrate our campers' hard work and have fun with our YSP 2014 ensemble!

Week 4: Directing, Recording, and Publicizing--Our Campers' Other Hats!

Our talented YSP actors are now only nine days from their debut production of Shakespeare's As You Like It (July 31st, 7pm, Dartmouth Hall, free admission)! But they aren't only actors--they are also directors, workshop-game champions, interviewers, publicists, and writers. In Week 4, our campers tried their hands at all sorts of creative work, with great results.

This year, our actor-directors have created the blocking (movements included in the production, including entrances and exits, gestures, crosses, and counters) in the show. This means that not only do they have creative control over their own acting choices; they also shape the stage pictures and movements of the show. We started Week 4 with a directing workshop that required campers to watch Jaymes directing a sample scene and track specific techniques that he used to direct effectively. One team answered questions about Jaymes' techniques for starting and stopping his actors, one team followed his tone and the mood he set for the scene work, one team listened closely to the content of Jaymes' artistic comments, and one team made notes on Jaymes' use of questioning to draw his actors into the scene work. After the workshop and our discussion of the components of positive and constructive directing, camper-directors applied their knowledge by leading other camper-actors through scene work. As we've cycled through blocking the majority of the play, many campers of different ages and experience levels have stepped up and led scene work. We've also had campers devise their own improvisations and direct each other in scenes of their own creation.

Our campers have also focused their artistic talent in our "Recorders' Journals." Jaymes and I have circulated three journals through the hands of our camper-writers. Our YSP 2014 "recorders" have interviewed other campers about various subjects--the program, their characters' histories, their own interests; they've reflected on their YSP experiences; and they have written in-depth "character confessions" laying out the innermost thoughts of their characters. This latter category has caused much hilarity and fun to be had amongst the YSP campers.

In addition, our campers have created publicity materials for the upcoming production of As You Like It, crafting handmade posters as well as digital flyers and posting them around the Upper Valley. These visually-talented campers have worked hard to draw a crowd to whom they can show off their acting and directing talents!

As we move into Week 5, our actor-director-improviser-recorder-publicists are combining their various specialties to move from blocking rehearsals into off-book (fully memorized!) scene rehearsals in which they will tweak blocking choices and bring the show together. Our first "stumble-through" today, in which we ran the rough draft of our show from top to bottom, promised a great production that will get even better in the next nine days!

Week 3: Spotlight on Casting

The show is beginning to take shape! Last week, Jaymes and I collaborated with our YSP 2014 campers to cast Shakespeare's As You Like It and begin character work. To cast the show, rather than having "cold-read" auditions--in which each actor reads a part in a scene without having seen it before--we welcomed input from the campers about their casting preferences. Each actor selected three roles that they would like to try, and Jaymes and I spent Monday evening figuring out how to give each of our campers a role from their list, taking into account campers' self-reported comfort level with stage time and memorization. It's a complex process, but by Tuesday morning we had a full cast!

After casting and after our first full read-through of the script, Jaymes and I led the campers through text work with a Shakespearean vocab workshop, milling and seething as their characters, and scene staging. It's exciting to see the actors learn and act the text they'll be speaking onstage on July 31, and the active nature of theater activities and scene staging helps our campers jump right in and get comfortable with parts of the text.

As we move forward into Week 4, we head into scene rehearsal. We'll "block" (set movements, entrances, and exits for) the majority of the play. Blocking will help each actor create and learn how their character walks, how they act in relation to other characters, and how their scenes form "stage pictures." Our campers will not only act; they will also direct each other's scenes, working as an ensemble to create their production of As You Like It!

Stay tuned to hear more soon about our performance, which will occur July 31st at 7pm. All parents, guardians, friends, and interested community members are invited to attend.

Week 2: The Relationship Between "3 Things" and Creativity

Scene: The YSP crowd is jumping up and down. All is excitement. All is encouragement.

Jaymes: Laura!

Laura: Yeah!

Jaymes: 3 things you would wear to a fancy ball!

Laura: A squid!

ALL: [clapping once] One!

Laura: A poncho!

ALL: [clapping once] Two!

Laura: A tangerine!

ALL: [clapping once] Three!

…

The activity dramatized above is called “3 Things” (although, depending on how much time and how many people you have, you could do as many things as you please). One person picks another person in the group and asks them to list three things that pertain to some silly category that the first person makes up. The person that was chosen then has to list the first three things that pops into his or her head. After each thing, the whole group claps and counts. After the current lister lists three things, he or she picks a new person and a new category. Throughout the duration of the activity Laura and I prompt our actors to move around and “get excited” to encourage their cast mates’ contributions.

We play this game for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, it is fun. Because the first three things that occur to someone in such a fast-paced game are rarely relevant or sensible, this game usually provides a lot of laughter. This laughter makes the game fun and makes our actors able to genuinely get excited for the cast mates’ contributions. Because they are able to get excited, this game can provide a high-energy change of pace on days when we need to work with text for large chunks of time.

I love this game because it is more pedagogically sneaky than its super-fun exterior might suggest. I love this game because it allows our young actors to hone their creative instincts without even knowing they are doing so. I love this game because it reinforces all of our lofty ideas about creativity, and collaboration, and trial and error without us even having to mention them.

The process and outcome of 3 Things mirrors the creative process itself. Very often in the creative process, one comes up with a whole bunch of semi-coherent ideas that, with enough diligence and luck, work themselves into a major breakthrough. However, It is very difficult to maintain the clarity of mind and the strength of confidence that one needs when one’s semi-coherent ideas are being skewered by scrutiny, both internal and external. One needs support and thought to turn the initial ideas into the big breakthrough.

When we play 3 things we teach our young actors how to support the creative process. The person listing three things learns to follow their creative instinct, throw those half-formed ideas out into the open. They learn that they need not fear scrutiny and judgment for doing so. The counters learn to support and encourage even the silliest of answers. In the end, we show each other that even though the things we come up with in this game are silly and incongruous, they still have valuable creative significance.

Knowing that even their silliest and most spontaneous creative contributions will be accepted and encouraged conditions our young actors to actively participate in our rehearsal process. They become less afraid of offering even the most far-fetched interpretations of characters and scenes. In the Youth Shakespeare Project, we tell our young actors that they never have to get anything right the first time (or the tenth time, for that matter). By integrating activities like 3 things into our repertoire, we work towards normalizing error. That is what ensemble is made of.

Week 1: Spotlight on "Milling and Seething"

Our first week of YSP is complete! This past week, Jaymes and I introduced activities in all four of our main areas of study--Communication/Voice, Movement, Improv, and Text--as well as introducing our campers to the plot and characters of As You Like It.

To give you a snapshot of one of our camp activities, I'll tell you a bit more about "milling and seething," which includes voice work, movement work, improv work, and a bit of text work. In "milling and seething," campers walk around the room as a group, trying to "balance the space,"or create an environment where everyone is evenly spaced around the room, while moving. We ask campers to pay attention to their walking, changing their speed, changing how they walk, and then imagining that they become different characters as they walk. Yesterday, we introduced phrases from the text of As You Like It and asked campers to imagine themselves as characters from the play, walking as those characters and saying those lines, while balancing the space. This way, campers use bits of text to inspire improvised movement imitations of characters, speaking Shakespeare's lines "in character" in accordance with their movement.

In preparation for this activity, Jaymes and I brought in two guest actors from Dartmouth College to put on an abridged (super-short) version of As You Like It for our campers. We are grateful to Diane and Sarah for their time and talent--putting on a Shakespearean comedy with four people in twenty minutes isn't as easy as it looks! We were glad to see in the post-performance Q+A that our campers were able to name the characters and their relationships and offer specific, crucial questions about the play's plot and its structure.

In short, Jaymes and I had a great first week! We look forward to moving into preparations for casting during the second week, as well as strengthening campers' voices, movement awareness, and ability to apply their imaginations immediately through text interpretation and improv. I'll write again next week with a snapshot of another activity to keep you up-to-date on our campers' accomplishments.

Best,
Laura

YSP 2014 Begins Today

Today's the big day--YSP 2014 begins at 2pm! Jaymes and I are excited to meet our 2014 campers and jump right into activities in our four main areas of study: Voice/Communication, Text, Movement, and Improv. Today's workshop will give our campers a sampling of several of the games we'll play over the course of the project to build theatrical skills as we build our theatrical community. We can't wait to get started!

If you haven't signed up for YSP and are thinking of walking in, please register ahead of time. We will close registration at midnight tonight. We are very close to our enrollment limit and cannot accept many more campers, so it's very important for us to have a list of prospective campers in sign-up order. Our first-come, first-served policy follows the order in which we receive online enrollments.

Campers who are enrolled--congratulations, and we're glad to have you with us. You are the stars of our 2014 season, and Jaymes and I look forward to meeting you today!

Best,
Laura

Laura Neill and Jaymes Sanchez
Co-directors, Youth Shakespeare Project
youthshakespeareproject@gmail.com

YSP 2014

Dear parents, students, and friends,

Hello, and welcome! The Youth Shakespeare Project is a free summer theater program based in Hanover, NH. The program accepts campers ages 11 to 17 and is open to students from families of all income levels. Our curriculum includes text study, theater games, vocal exercises, movement activities, and scene rehearsal, which will lead up to the kids' production of Shakespeare's As You Like It.

YSP will meet from June 26, 2014 to July 31, 2014, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 2-5pm (with some exceptions; to see the calendar, click here). We will meet at the Howe Library in Hanover. Many thanks to the Howe for allowing us to use the space!

To REGISTER for YSP 2014, click here. The first twenty students to register will be accepted. Students who can commit to attending 18 out of our 21 meetings (including the full last week of camp) will receive priority. Please be aware that we are approaching our enrollment cap; after you fill out the registration form, you will receive an email within a day letting you know if you were one of the first twenty registrations or not.

Thank you for your interest and support, and we hope to see you this summer!

Best,
Laura and Jaymes

Laura Neill and Jaymes Sanchez
Co-directors, Youth Shakespeare Project
Brown University M.A.T. Class of 2014
Dartmouth College Class of 2013
youthshakespeareproject@gmail.com
(210) 744-6641