Thanks Jerald --
It was a wonderful surprise to see you there, and I really appreciate your taking the time to be an audience for the students. I hope you had a chair or at least a perch on a picnic table outside. We definitely now know our maximum capacity for this event. But it was interesting -- many of the folks arrayed around the sides of the Barn sat in their camp chairs or on top of the picnic tables (the spring class moved them in an array on each side as numbers grew) in a hushed, respectful stillness as the kids performed, and when a kid who could really project came on, you could hear their words clearly from outside. Everyone hung in there for almost three hours of performances and then stayed for another hour of maypole and games.
One of my favorite moments of the day was before the performances, when one of the kids -- a taciturn 5th grader named Brandon from Govalle Elementary who'd not said three words to me that I could remember in any of my visits -- was dashing towards the Barn with a classmate for his crew's 10 minutes of preparation time on the stage (yep, about 10 minutes -- talk about tossing 'em in the deep end…). "This is FUN," he announced. "It's just fun doing something you've never done before."
Yep! He was a great surly Tybalt in the Romeo and Juliet party scene, and he indeed did something he'd never done before by stepping on that stage, as did dozens of other 4th and 5th graders.
I'm including a few photos here of some of the kids. Including one fearless big kid who was tapped right as the scene began to play Peter in the Juliet-Nurse scene...
The same students (plus classmates unable to make the trip) will be performing at the B. Iden Payne Theater at UT on Thursday and Friday, May 9 and 10, 11 a.m., and we'd love to have any of you come out for the on-campus festival. I can promise an actual seat for that one! And you can come and go as you need to on your lunch hour, since it's a big hall and there are seats in the back. Just give a holler if you want to drop by.
Best,
cs
[cid:D374EA65-EC4F-4003-8B84-91B7F77CB030] [cid:CD94C0BD-7C95-4154-8171-BA97A9AAE36A]
[cid:DCE82D69-75C4-4192-88EE-BC6F35817FD2] [cid:11314229-5323-489D-80DF-BD7D6FC23AC5]
[cid:CD5D9CDD-D501-4858-AE57-E379F9ACF869] [cid:AC3CC1CD-B8B7-480B-8499-795AEF450B66]
On Apr 29, 2013, at 2:35 PM, Jerald Head wrote:
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Head M.D.,Jerald Lynn" <JHEAD@sw.orgmailto:JHEAD@sw.org> Date: April 29, 2013, 1:42:47 PM CDT To: "jlhead1952@gmail.commailto:jlhead1952@gmail.com" <jlhead1952@gmail.commailto:jlhead1952@gmail.com> Subject: Winedale Outreach
I stopped by Winedale this past Saturday for the Festival of Play, with performances by Clayton’s students from the Shakespeare at Winedale Outreach program. Besides being another glorious spring day in the country, (the wildflowers were really special,) it was a great chance to see what Clayton has done with these youngsters. It was a real treat and the program is really a worthy one. I must admit I have never seen so many people crowded into the barn in 30+ years. There were no seats left when I arrived and many people setting up chairs outside the windows. Completely SRO. I had to leave after intermission, but it was good seeing the kids doing scenes from Romeo, The Tempest, and Merchant. Heavy fare for ones so young. I became just a bit nostalgic seeing the maypole going up under Doc’s watchful eye. Strong work, Clayton and his able students.
Jerald
_______________________________________________ Winedale-l mailing list Winedale-l@lists.wikimedia.orgmailto:Winedale-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/winedale-l
