Today was the second day of school girl rehearsals. I’ve been having the actors really invest in recalling what they were like at age 15, and also recalling pivotal events/times in their adolescence when they were taken out of context.

Today we had a more physical exploration of how they related to others and themselves at that age, which is where these photos are from:

Later we added “adult” characters to the mix — Dawn as the teacher and Jorge as the principal of the school. There was a moment during one of the physical sessions that I found really moving — I don’t really even know what the event was at that moment, but somehow I really started to see the actors as they might have been at 15, and that age of extreme vulnerability, excitement, self-consciousness, energy. It’s silly but amazing nonetheless to think about every person and the sequence of events that brought them into being in this world at this time, and all the things that happen to a person that shape who they are. It reminds me to take more care — something you do to someone else might be a forgettable event to you, but might affect the other person deeply. And vice versa of course.