Good morning everyone, I know some of you have already started and some of you are gearing up to start, remember to BBBBBD! (Be Brave, Be Bold, Be Daring!) And it's almost impossible to frown while saying BBBBBD (you should end up sounding a little like Porky Pig). I'm sure that we're all feeling all sorts of feelings - from being overwhelmed to being underwhelmed, from feeling alone and isolated to feeling like maybe everyone is a little too close for comfort (and where is their mask?!) - all of these feelings are valid and you have the right to feel them all.
There is no RIGHT way to do ANY of this and we'll all be discovering and developing our own new sets of Best Practices. Now is the time to lean on your local theatre teacher community and build and create and plan together - theatre has always been an ensemble art form and now, more than ever, that's going to be a challenge given our restrictions and limitations but we are creative and flexible, we got this!
I want to schedule a ZOOM meeting for us all to see each other but I'm attempting to coordinate with Kristen Neander so she can be with us to help answer any questions about Regionals that I may not know the answer to. I originally wanted to schedule our meeting for September 5th but that date doesn't work for Kristen (and it's our first school holiday weekend so let's just embrace that). I am currently working with her to secure another date - I can promise you that we will have it happen before the end of September.
Please don't wait until this meeting to get started on your IEs and begin working with your kiddos and possible one acts - this is really just an additional meeting to answer any questions and check in with everyone. I would still like to have it on a weekend but we may need to do it during the week as an evening meeting. Once I get some possible dates from her I will put together a little Survey Monkey and we'll go with the most popular vote. And, as always, feel free to send me an email with any questions that you might have - if I don't have the answer, I will locate it for you. Thank you for your patience and remember to be kind to yourself and know that you're not alone and you're surrounded by folks who can and will help, just reach out. -JB