Girls, again

OK, I just have to brag one more time about the wonderful girls I get to spend every other Friday with. They are blossoming right in front of my eyes. Here are a few examples from today.

We are working on a play that has three big roles and five smaller roles, and one of the the girls with one of the big roles has never done a play before, but really wanted one of big roles. I worried that she didn't know what she was getting herself into. Maybe she didn't know what she was getting herself into, but she has totally come through. She has worked and worked on learning her lines. We went off script today and she pretty much had her lines.

And, there is another super sweet girl who kind of shrinks in a crowd--jabbers away in smaller groups and groups that she has a long history with, but has had hard time feeling totally comfortable with this bigger group of girls (who are mostly older than her). Today, however, first of all, the girls were reading tongue twisters one-at-a-time at one end of the driveway while the others stood at the other end and repeated back what they heard--an exercise designed to have the kids speak clearly and loudly. I thought this might be challenging for this girl and gave her kind of an easier one to start out, but she just sang it right out, loud and clear as could be, without any hesitation or nervousness. Then, later when the girls were figuring out what to play, she voiced what *she* wanted to do, perhaps for the first time ever with the whole group. It was amazingly cool.

And, we were doing some short improv scenarios, and one girl in particular was just blowing me away with her comedic acting. She has had plenty of great moments since we've been doing this, but I would have been cracking up if I had paid money to see her--by any objective standard, she was just hilarious.

Also, when we were talking about the roles today, one girl was clearly unhappy with her role--couldn't really see anything funny or interesting about her part, and every attempt to characterize the part in an interesting way seemed to clash with the lines. Everyone could see her unhappiness and wanted to help her figure out a way to make the part interesting. She didn't like any of the ideas she was hearing, but everyone stuck with her and tried to help her work it out. It would have been really easy for her to reject every idea and dig in with her position that this role was hopeless. But, in the end, she didn't. I don't know if she felt that the others were really listening and sympathizing with her, which freed her up to be open to changing her thinking, or if she herself made a conscious decision to be open to thinking about the role differently, of if someone's idea really did ignite some interest for her. But, it was a tough moment for the group and for her, but in the end I think we all felt some hope that she could find a way to make her character work.

And, when they were all standing around eating snacks, one of them made a disparaging comment about George Bush, which was greeted with hearty agreement by everyone but one girl, who didn't think George Bush was such a bad president, and wished McCain had won the election. There was a brief moment of surprise among the rest of the girls, whose households were all strongly in the Obama camp, but they went on with great tact and grace and didn't disparage George Bush or John McCain. Instead they eventually found common ground in their dislike of Sarah Palin :)

I just love the way they put their arms around each other and hold each others' hands and chase each other through the house like maniacs, and just generally feel free to laugh and unselfconsciously and confidently be themselves. On the other hand, they are also developing a really nice sense of awareness of others' feelings, and some real skills in reaching out to each other and finding common ground. A has been saying all week long that she couldn't wait until Friday to see the drama club gang, and I can see why!