Theatre Observation

I experienced excitement and nervousness simultaneously as I approached the building where I would spend the majority of the next three weeks at a camp run by the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. The campus at CU Boulder was incredibly beautiful that summer day, with lush green grass and tall, stately buildings. There were many tall trees providing shade from the summer heat, and there were people laughing or resting or reading on the campus. At the steps of the building where all the theatre rooms were, I was introduced to my camp directors and given a t-shirt. I was fourteen at the time, and it was my first time attending a camp like this. We went inside to the Movement Room: the room where our camp group would be practicing our shortened

While the process is rigorous, it is very enjoyable and worthwhile. First we would discuss the play, and then we would read through the camp’s abridged version of it that we would be performing. Throughout the first week we would practice scenes and monologues from the play, discussing the characters and the plot. The directors would observe us act out scenes with each other and perform monologues. At the end of the week we would write down the three characters we most wanted to play, and the directors would take all of those choices into consideration and try to cast us based on our own desires and what they would think was best for each of us to play. I was given the part of Pistol, the clownish friend of the central character, John Falstaff. We had received our roles, and next week we were to start rehearsing the play as those characters. Over the next two weeks we memorized and practiced our lines, blocked the scenes, and ran through the play many times. It is so exhilarating to work with such a wonderful and talented group of people and combine our skills to put together a performance like machine work, each person doing his or her own part in a way that keeps the entire thing thing running smoothly. With everyone cooperating properly, you can create something beautiful. Finally, at the end of the third week, after long days of pulling all the pieces together, we were ready to display our finished product to a live