Things are flying fast and furious at St. Mel's. For all intents and purposes, I am done providing and more new instruction in writing, and by that I mean I have crammed these kids heads with so many new words and writing styles, I have got to pull back. I think I have entirely worn them out.

HOWEVER, not before teaching them how to write a SONNET. We even watched a short snippet of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen (that would be Professor X and Magneto, to you) reading samples of Shakespeare. Yes. I made them watch Shakespeare on video. And I'd do it again.

In addition to revisiting previously written work, I have begun working more closely with Tim, coaching scene work. The campers are developing a dynamite scene from A RAISIN IN THE SUN and I started staging the opening brawl from ROMEO & JULIET. In addition to our visit from OPERA CLEVELAND tomorrow, we will be teaching basic combat choreography ... though Tim got an excellent start just guiding the kids through staged face slaps. You should see some of the realistically painful reactions these students can make!

And then Jodi got started today on making the MASKS. Awesome!