Diva, please?

I'm going to be honest ... today had its ups and downs.

BUT we now have a show. It certainly needs work, I'm not going to say that it's incredible at this point, but I see so much potential for this piece. I think I'm getting ahead of myself, though. I will go through some of the highlights/low points of the day for you.

The first low point of the day was when we walked into camp and heard from Francesca, one of the girls who lives in La Cienaga, that Rosa Lourdes (one of our girls) had a boyfriend who died last night in the hospital after being involved in a motorcycle accident and getting the wrong blood transfusion. So we were missing 3 girls. Not only was the news vastly disturbing, but it also messed us up that we were missing so many of our actors/group members.

We came in today knowing that we would have a full day of theatre work ahead of us. We have all these little pieces of a show, but we had to string them together, put in transitions, just really get our act together. Since we have more of a "fun day" planned for them tomorrow, we wanted to not have a lot of work to do in the morning, to keep in the fun spirit. So we began by dividing the girls up into small groups and giving them creative assignments, contributions that each girl could make to the piece. We did something similar on the first day, to poor effect. But what an improvement we saw today.

Yes, the girls did want fairly specific directions/guidelines, but they were able to focus and work together creatively, generate legitimately good material, and then share it with the group. Valentina and Emmanuela were the only two that struggled. They got a choreography assignment, and they were a little lost. But we gave Ingrid and Julian, two of our quietest/least forthcoming girls, a piece of text and told them to do something creative with it, and the two of them came up with a cute little piece. Maria Angelica (who hardly ever gets into it) and Rosailin were given the task of performing a personal story, which they did admirably and enthusiastically. And Maria Ynez and Edileiza took the initiative to prepare a soap-opera song about a stormy domestic relationship, which they set off to practice with alacrity.

We moved on to stage a piece with the stories that Rosailin, Maria Angelica, and Valentina (who we added) would tell. While each girl told her story, the rest of the group echoed movement from earlier in the piece. The movement is simple, the text is simple, but it looks pretty good. Here is where they began to lose focus. However, we have to remember that these girls are typically NEVER asked to focus for more than 30 minutes at a time. Putting them in a situation in which they have to do intense work for about 1.5 hours at a time is new for them, and it certainly takes its toll on a group of hormonal, HIGHLY emotional creatures. For instance... these girls are divas. At least most of them are. They were aptly placed in the theatre group. The main issue today was that because we were missing so many girls, and especially some of the loudest ones, we had the opportunity to let the quieter girls take more of a leadership role. The louder ones who remained, namely Maria Ynez and Edileiza, were not thrilled with this arrangement, to say the least. They enjoy being leaders, but they also enjoy being in the center of attention. So they got VERY VERY sulky in the morning. It was actually amusing, since Kelly and I did not actually get mad at them. For the first hour of sulkiness, it was endearing. After the second hour... well ... we had a calm discussion with them, in which we explained to the two of them that if they were going to act like children, we would treat them like children and give them a time-out for the rest of the day. I think it worked, because after lunch, their behavior improved drastically. Then again, they were once again in the spotlight, so that might have helped, too. Oh, emotional creatures. How I love them, and how they drive me up the wall.

After lunch we put together an order for the show, writing it on the board. We had them run it twice, and although I wouldn't say it looks great, it certainly has promise. The thing about these girls is, once we can actually put them onstage, they can really nail it. Like when we had them all dance the Waka Waka today ... that's a nice moment. There's just so many nice moments, and if we can capture those, and run this show about 10 more times ... I think we might have just made something awesome with them. We'll see how it goes tomorrow, when we spend the morning putting finishing touches on the show and running it... before their special field trip.

So, all in all, a good day of work with the girls. We certainly do have our divas, but we are working with a bunch of blossoming actresses, after all. What can we expect? And as always, we embrace the hormonal... the emotional... our own dear emotional creatures, right here in the Dominican Republic.

Hoping that you all embrace your own inner diva in honor of our Mariposas ...

--Anna and Kelly

PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK!

Hi everyone!!

I tried to upload the photos directly to the blog, but the connection is not good enough to do that sooooooo I managed to get a few up on Facebook. Check out my newest album:

www.facebook.com/kelly.banker

Happy browsing!

- Kelly and Anna

Oye

Hi everyone,

So today was one of our progressively longer days with the girls. It was good, though. We had theater class with them from 9 to 12, and we pretty much were working for all three of those hours. They did good work today. We started off by reviewing the show that they performed for the other Mariposa group. They did infinitely better this time around. We had to work out a few kinks and problems, but all was well. The only downer was that Ingrid, the girl who did not know about any of the changes in the first place, was again not there today, so she will still be in the dark about this whole first section. Ah, what can you do?

We then moved on to staging "Color Esperanza". I would say that was a huge success. This time we had printed lyrics for them because many of them became very diva-like about trying to learn a song without lyrics yesterday. Sarah said (in Spanish, of course), "Bueno, where I live we never try to learn songs without lyrics. I simply can't." We laughed and told her that where we live, people learn songs without lyrics all the time. She is quite a character. But in any case, we got lyrics for them today, and it went much better. We had them at first just go around and sing their parts, then eventually we progressed to the girls who had solos standing when their time came to sing. Finally, we had them get up onstage and enter as appropriate and put them into a formation. They did a great job. They have such spirit when singing the song - it just makes you want to get up and join them. Best of all was when we directed them to form the same positions they had at the beginning of the show as they were singing, and instead of simply doing that, the girls had a creative spark. They arranged to go into position in pairs, but in a very cool way. It sounds simple, but it was super effective and we were very proud of them, not only for having a great idea and implementing it, but for feeling that creative spirit. Since they have been educated in this rather linear way, they don't really get the chance to express creativity, so although it seems small, it felt like a big step forward for them.

We then worked on the freestyle dance section, which is proving tougher than we anticipated, solely because they all want to dance to different songs. Some like Shakira, while others want Justin Bieber (gahh) while others want Usher while others want Daddy Yankee. Dios mio! :) So we are going to make an executive decision tonight about what song to use, and that will be the end of it. They also were talking about all working together outside of camp to learn choreography to some reggaeton song, which made us smile. Each day the girls are showing more initiative and more excitement about the project. In our minds, it doesn't really matter what they are working on just so long as they feel ownership over it and they have used teamwork and creativity to come up with it. That is a beautiful thing. We closed off the morning with some yoga (in English - to give them some stress-free immersion!) and then circled up and discussed the plans for the rest of the week.

Anna and I are working hard to make Friday a special day for the girls - we are trying to arrange for them to have a yoga class, a self-defense class, maybe swimming, and maybe a little movie night with snacks on Friday. So we would hopefully bring them over to Extreme Friday afternoon for the classes and find a space to watch the movie later on. We will see. Still working on all of the details. :) But also exciting news is that Rosailin was in camp today and she stayed afterwards to work on her solo song, "Oye", which is a Spanish translation of the song "Listen" by Beyonce. Rosailin has such a nice voice and she is just such an awesome kid, so we had a great time working with her. She was having some trouble (understandably) with the higher notes of the song, partially because her voice is a little strained. She is going to rest up and keep practicing tonight. We shall see what she comes up with tomorrow. But regardless, she did great work today and we are super proud of her. Apparently Rosailin is a pretty shy girl, which surprised us. She has been totally outgoing and forthcoming in theater class, volunteering to audition for solos and has emerged as one of the group's leaders. Can't wait to see what she comes up with! And Maria Ynez and Edileiza are working on some sort of scene/movement thing - we shall see what happens with that. Sarah is working on a song and a monologue, Emmanuela hopefully will do some choreography, and maybe Valentina as well. The more these girls can take initiative and use their own creativity, the better. We want them to feel ownership over the project - it is theirs and they should be proud of it.

Tomorrow we are with the girls all day, so our goal is to finish the staging of the show. Should be fun!! :) We are also going to come up with a title for the show - we are going to brainstorm some options tonight and then discuss it with the girls - who knows? Maybe they will have some ideas as well. That would be awesome. Our thought right now is "oye", which means "listen". For all you heartskin-ers - no worries, we will probably choose to capitalize the first letter of the title. Maybe. :)

More soon. Hope you are all doing amazing! (Dad, we will see you in a week!!!!)

Amor y paz,

Kelly and Anna

Please Don't Stop the Music!!

Let me just begin this entry by saying that these girls have music in their blood.

For the first time, we played music in our theatre classroom and incorporated it into our show. We did the singing auditions yesterday, so we had already gauged who can/cannot sing. The soloists we determined are: Rosailin, Rosa Lourdes, Maria Ynez, Edileiza, and Sarah. We had a plan for who would sing which verse, all that. The song we have chosen to end the show is "Color Esperanza" by Diego Torres. I hope you can all guess what that means, but I will tell you anyways ... it means the Color of Hope. It's much prettier in Spanish, but essentially the song is about facing your fears and embracing the world with open arms, pushing yourself, filling your life with hope and love. It's really a beautiful song.

So we had them all listen to the Diego Torres song, and of course, Maria Ynez was the first to get up and begin to sing and dance. Edileiza soon followed. All of a sudden the girls had a dance -- they all seemed to know this fairly elaborate dance. Kelly and I were sitting there, bewildered, wondering who taught them this dance. We rehearsed the singing of the song for about an hour, watching it improve little by little each time. Some of the girls did not know the lyrics for their particular verse, so that proved a little difficult for them, but by the end, most of them knew it. The key now is to get them singing to the karaoke version, and give their dance/movement some sort of structure and make it perform-able for the final piece in the show.

After that encouraging, soulful bit, we moved on to our next experiment. As most of you know, dance is a huge part of the Latin-American culture, and that is certainly no exception in the Dominican Republic. These girls are literally born with the ability to shake it. By the age of 15 or 16, which is when we have them, they are experts. We want to have a piece of the show where they can show off their dance, because it certainly denotes a kind of sexual power that women have here. So we began to play "I Know You Want Me" by Pitbull, at their request, and immediately the dynamic of the room changed. The girls began to cheer and shout. They jumped out of their seats and began to get down and dirty. Immediately. It was the fastest turn-around I have ever seen. And let me say, as much as I had to avert my eyes for some of their moves, I was impressed by them. By their spirit, I would say. By the way the music literally pounds through their veins, and they just go for it. There is no holding back with these girls. You turn on music, and they will dance. They will dance like there's no tomorrow. And that is what we will have them do in the show.

Just to give you an idea of the extent to which these girls go all out for their dancing... Maria Ynez, who is our resident diva/class clown, was dancing. She was shaking her hips so hard, so vigorously, getting down so low, that the tiny little plaid shorts she was wearing ripped at the seam. For the rest of the day she hiked her backpack around the back of her shorts. It was hysterical. Another Maria Ynez story, for your amusement ... After lunch, we go to the pool on Tuesdays. Maria loves the pool. She raced out of lunch to the taxi, where our driver, Alvaro, was waiting. She asked him if our group could leave immediately. He replied that he had to take the younger girls to the field first, and that we would have to wait a few minutes. He continued that we would also have to leave the pool a few minutes earlier than normal because he had other girls to pick up. Maria looked amused, smiled, and then she leaned into the window, gave him the finger, and shouted "F**K YOU!" loudly. Kelly and I were super taken aback and we admonished her, laughing. She is quite the character, has a tremendous amount of the spirit I was talking about.

To conclude... Today was a great day. We saw what makes these girls passionate and fully engaged, and we plan to use that in our show. Music, music, music. Singing, dancing, they love it. It looks like we are heading towards more of a musical... a modern/experimental one, but a musical nonetheless.

So next time you hear a popular American song, just imagine these girls ... dancing so hard they rip their clothing. Just one of the ways they channel their tremendous passion, energy, and zest for life.

1, 2, 3, dale!

Anna and Kelly

The First Performance ... Surprise! :)

Hi everyone,

Today has been a crazy day. It started off with some scary news about a NOLS teen group in Alaska that got attacked by bears - and Drew is in Alaska, with NOLS, with a teen group. After panicking and calling everyone we could think of, we got a hold of NOLS and they informed us that Drew is on the other NOLS trip, the one that did not get attacked. So that was very, very scary. But in terms of the work...

Jessica told us at the beginning of the day that we would have a special group of visitors - a new Mariposa group that started in a neighboring town, La Mina (where Blue Moon is, for those of you who went on Winterim!). So the group of 7 or so girls in that new group came down to the school we are working at to see what the camp is like. Jessica had them come into our class, which was cool. They came to class around 10 in the morning, so we had about an hour with the girls beforehand. During that hour, we listened to some of them sing - those who want to sing solos in the show sang for the group. We heard from Edileisa, Sarah, Maria Ynes, Rosailin and Rosa Lourdes. They are all quite talented. We were especially impressed with Rosailin's talent. We definitely will incorporate all of their voices in the show, and hopefully get a chance to spotlight Rosailin.

The Blue Moon Mariposas came into our group and watched the girls perform what we have of the show. And I must say that it was a disappointment. The girls had done such great work at Villa Taina the previous Thursday (Friday was a field trip to the river all day) and we were really hoping they would bring at least some of that to their performance. But their focus was poor and they went through the performance with lots of laughter, carelessness and basically a lack of effort. It wasn't that they forgot the blocking (although in some cases, they did), it was more that they just demonstrated such a lack of effort and pride in the work. It was such a turn around from Thursday and Wednesday's work that we were shocked and very disappointed. However, getting the chance to meet the new Mariposa group and see the video project they are working on was quite cool. Definitely worthwhile and I hope the La Mina Mariposas enjoyed their visit. :) :)

After that the girls had their health class. During that class (and slightly before it) I began to feel super sick, so right before lunch Anna and I went home. The girls had academics all afternoon, so we weren't really needed anyway. But wow did I feel sick. But back at the hotel, the awesome cook at the restaurant there, Esther, made Anna and I this awesome mangu (which is mashed plaintains) and grilled chicken, which she insisted would settle the stomach. And it totally did. Mangu is miraculous :) :). So I am all good now - and our plan for tomorrow is to just focus on the singing of "Color Esperanza" - the song they will sing as a group with some featured soloists - and maybe a section of reggaeton style dance that they will freestyle. We want to try something different with them and go back to reviewing the main section of the play on Wednesday. They need something new, we think. But we are not too disheartened. The girls have a lot of talent - we just need to figure out a way to get them performing with heart. They need to take pride in their work - and I think they do, it just isn't translating into performance. We will see how we can make the two align. Any suggestion would be super helpful! Thanks everyone!! :)

Love to everyone! We are heading off to eat a delicious tropical fruit plate and then to watch a movie ... but as we do so we are feeling extremely humbled by the enormity of the world and how crazy events like bear attacks in Alaska and shootings in Norway (my roommate for next year lives in Oslo) can touch our lives - even indirectly. Drew, wherever you are in Alaska, we love you so very much and are very worried about you. Come home safe. And we are praying for those who were injured in the bear attack.

Lots of love and prayers,

Kelly and Anna

No me muevo.

Something magical happened today.

We split the girls into pairs (mainly Haitian/Dominican), and had them do the blindfold exercise where one partner leads the other (blindfolded) around the school, giving them directions. The exercise is meant to create trust between the two and a mutual dependence. It worked. All over the schoolyard, we heard them leading each other, holding each other, laughing, smiling, and successfully completing the task.

Our next exercise was story-telling. We wrote a long list of topics up on the board (drugs, alcohol, domestic/sexual violence, prostitution, sex, pregnancy, abortion ... fun stuff!) and asked them to think of a personal story/memory and then to share it with their partner. Then we came back as a full group into a circle and asked the girls to share with us some of the stories. It started off slow, with a few silly stories about getting drunk or high. Then Valentina raised her hand and told a 5-minute story about her cousin's home abortion attempt, describing her cousin's skirt that was dripping blood and the agony her cousin suffered. That story really hit home with the other girls, because it became a forum. Almost every girl then raised her hand and the stories kept flowing from that point, ranging from more horror abortion stories (note that abortion is illegal in the DR, so girls do it on their own), rape, prostitution, drugs gone bad, just terrible stuff.

While I was so horribly sad and my heart completely went out to the girls, I was also tremendously proud of them for having the courage to stand up in this circle, raise their voice, and talk about some of the most gruesome moments of their lives. The degree of respect from the girls who were listening was also astonishing. The tension in the room was palpable, for an hour and a half it was dead quiet except for the girls, one at a time, telling their stories. It was one of the most poignant and heartbreaking experiences I have ever had.

The rest of the day was also successful. We went to Villa Taina, a local hotel that supports the Mariposa DR Foundation, and we rehearsed in an airy, beautiful loft overlooking the beach. The girls were extremely focused and we did some great work fixing the material we have. We can now be proud of the 5 minute show we have. It's not finished yet, we still have one more section and transitions to add, but we are beginning to see a performance and, most importantly, performers, take shape. We are so proud of them, especially the new leaders emerging from the group each day, some who have completely changed their attitude since the beginning of camp, girls who are now passionate about these issues, about the work. Wow.

So, all in all, today was a great day of work and discovery for the girls, but also for us. I will certainly never forget the story-telling environment we created in the morning. What a moving experience ... I was literally almost in tears by the end of it. I hope that Kelly and I can now find a way to incorporate this style of theatre into the show. For after all, theatre is, in its very essence, story-telling at its finest. And what stories these strong young women have to tell.

Any ideas about ways to incorporate such stories?

Love, Anna and Kelly

Simple Joys

Hi everyone,

Or should I say HOLA??!! Today we had quite a successful session. We had a new strategy, which basically entails talking to them/having some kind of discussion for fifteen minutes each morning and then going right into the work. We eliminated the theater game today to great success. While the goal of a theater game would be to bring energy and focus to the space, what tends to happen with this group is that they just get silly and unfocused and we can never really recover that energy. We find that theater games are a better "filler" activity - we can do them in between work periods. (Sorry Joel! Theater games are good, just tough with this group, when their thinking is not in that mindset at all yet!)

Today we focused on sexual and domestic violence - that is the second section of the show. Last night I did some choreography and Anna did some writing and we came up with what we would like to be a group piece - combining the choreography and the writing. And today we did just that. We split the group in two - the girls that had demonstrated the most promise with the dancing, and the girls that had maybe seemed more apt to doing well with text. I had 5 girls in my group; Anna had six. It worked out quite nicely, actually. Anna took her group outside and had a good time working on her poem, and I worked with my group in our classroom and all was well. Actually, not entirely perfect - there was a little episode with Rosa Lourdes and Valentina - I didn't even realize that there was a problem, and I don't think Valentina did either - Rosa sort of just was offended by Valentina's presence, I think. I tried to keep the peace, but because Rosa refused to participate while Valentina was present, I sent her out and she came back a little bit later with a little bit less attitude. It wasn't too big a deal - it was honestly just surprising for me because there really was no problem.

In any case, my group did excellent with the dance - in particular, Valentina was passionate about the choreography and I am thinking about working with her to create a solo piece - with her own choreography, perhaps to be performed either alone or with text in the background. She fascinates Anna and I just because she comes from such a difficult background, and yet works harder than anyone I have ever met. For instance, we went to the pool in the afternoon with the girls yesterday and they all were having fun, playing games and just chatting with us and with each other. Valentina, however, who doesn't know how to swim, spent the entire hour and twenty minutes practicing her kicking and strokes. Anna and I would come over, give her suggestions, and then she would work doggedly at it and show us ten or so minutes later. She is an impressive young woman.

So we put the dance and text together, and it looks legitimately cool. I am super psyched about it. So is Anna. We feel that this is the first piece of the show that is perform-able - and truly touching. Everything else is coming along - and quite well, I might add. Tomorrow Jessica has arranged for us to spent the entire afternoon at a different space, so that will be awesome in terms of even more focus and excitement from the girls.

This post is getting long, and for that I apologize. I just wanted to write about the art project we did with the girls as well. We organized a simple collage project using random magazines. They were told to pick some magazines, go through them, and cut out pictures and words that reminded them of what it means to be a mariposa. They did a great job - totally engaged and happy. It was intriguing for Anna and I to watch them as they looked through the magazines - first of all, it was as though they had never seen a magazine. They were absolutely enthralled. They were running back and forth, exclaiming over pictures of beautiful white women or spotless, gorgeous kitchens, or food or people laughing with perfect white teeth. Yulian's collage consisted of pictures of a mansion-like house. She spent the entire hour with her head buried in a home improvement magazine, exclaiming over the beauty of the houses. Rosa's collage had a picture of two young laughing women and below it a picture of food. Under the pictures she wrote that in the future she hopes that she will have that kind of food and those kinds of friends - and that she hopes she will be happy enough to not have to have food like that to make her smile. Or something along those lines. In any case, it was a very emotional experience for Anna and I. The fascination and idealization of American culture is huge here, but even more so is just how much we take things for granted. The simple joy of these girls looking at those magazines and imagining what the lives of these beautiful models must be like was both heartwarming and heartbreaking. It's all so bittersweet.

That's all for now. :)

Maybe these girls will inspire each of you to pick up a magazine and look at it through their eyes. It is magical and humbling. These girls continue to amaze and inspire us.

Wishing each and every one of you a moment of simple joy,

Kelly and Anna

Continual Growth

Hello, everyone!

There is not a whole lot to say today, although I will disclose that the work continues to go well. We only had about an hour with the girls this morning, because they had academics for most of the time, and then in the afternoon we went swimming, but of course, for that one hour, we did accomplish a fair bit.

One of our most passionate girls, Sarah, was missing today, out sick, so the dynamic was slightly different. The girls had much more trouble focusing, and at times we were really frustrated with them. But it is precisely at those moments that we have to step back and remember that this is not "heartskin" -- we don't have to be perfectionists. So we can relax a little bit, enjoy some laughs with the girls, have a good time. It's highly tempting to jump in after every line and give them small notes, tiny criticisms, what we would normally do, but they don't have any experience with performance and we want to ease them into this, make sure it's fun for them. So we're working on restraining ourselves in that regard.

But I will say that the show looks better every day. The girls absorb what we teach them so quickly, it's actually amazing. They are thirsty for knowledge. They soak it all in. It's remarkable to see how much they improve, day by day, hour by hour. And it's not just the theatre piece that improves... it's the way they interact with each other, with us. We're becoming good friends with most of them. They're becoming friends with each other, a tight little group that now eats lunch together ... voluntarily.

We continue to be inspired by these strong young women and the work they are daring to do. We hope to keep pushing them and learning more and more about ourselves, these young women, and theatre itself.

Tomorrow our plan is to finish a section about violence : domestic and sexual. It should be more intense and slightly more abstract than the previous piece (corrupting influences), so check back in tomorrow to see how it all goes!

Peace, love, and butterflies,

Anna and Kelly

Ahhhh ... success.

Hey everyone.

We are writing to you in zen, relaxed mode. We just took a leisurely swim in the hotel pool and are feeling pretty happy. The beautiful ocean is the most vibrant blue, and the wind is blowing and it is just gorgeous. But I won't torture you with all of that. Especially since we have such good news about today's work!

Today was one of the days we work with the girls the least - we get them from 9 to 11, and then they have an hour long health class, followed by lunch, and then they have academics all afternoon. But actually, we got quite a bit done in that short amount of time. We started off by playing "zip zap zop" - those of you who have done theater with Joel know what that is! -and the girls love it. They are getting better and better at it - and the pronunciation is also improving. We had lots and lots of laughs and smiles as we played, which, of course, is awesome. So we got off to a good start.

We ran what we had, which is the first scene. We even added a bit to it. Miraculously, as we were doing this work, Anna and I noticed that there was a lot of talking going on, but none of it was irrelevant. All of the girls were passionately engaged in the work - whether that meant being an active listener, or even taking a leadership role. Many girls stepped up today that had not previously - Edeleisa, Maria Ynez and Sarah to name a few. Although the constant arguments (and not really arguments - more like confusion) were frustrating for us at times, it was beautiful to see the girls getting so intense about the material. Something changed, and we couldn't identify what it was. But we now have an ensemble.

These girls, despite their differences, have managed to put everything aside to put their whole selves into this piece of theater. Sure, they still separate themselves by race a little bit. But the improvement is huge. All of the girls were laughing, working and making decisions together today. It was an enormous leap forward. We managed to get the entire first section (about corrupting influences - prostitution and drugs) done. That section consists of a group movement piece, an opinions section, and a group text piece that hits on the main points they wanted to make about drugs and prostitution. We ran the whole thing from the beginning a couple of times, and each time when the girls finished the section, they would all clap wildly with huge smiles on their faces. They would then run around the room and give Anna and I hugs, handshakes and smiles. It was pretty great.

Anna and I now plan to have the rest of the show roughly staged by the end of the week. We are psyched about it and actually although it may sound ambitious, it should be pretty easy now that they have this newfound commitment, energy and focus. Should be a pretty cool piece of theater. And already we can tell that it means a lot to them. We couldn't be prouder of each and every one of them.

Wishing you all relaxation and a nice ocean breeze,

Kelly and Anna

"Esa"

First of all, thank you SO much everyone for weighing in and taking the time to help us out with this project. We appreciate all the feedback we are getting and it makes us so excited. It also reassures us so much to feel connected to all of you even though we are many worlds away.

Today we made tremendous progress. We spent the entire day doing team-building exercises with our Mariposas, with only a few hitches. We began with an uplifting yet serious conversation about what it means to be a Mariposa and how we intend to integrate this group. We really cemented the idea that we don't expect all of them to be best friends by the end of camp, but we do expect them to work together and show each other respect.

Our first activity was a partner exercise in which we mixed them up strategically (trying to pair the girls with girls they have not talked to, so for the most part, Haitian / Dominican pairs). We instructed them to talk for ten minutes to their partner and find out 5 interesting things about their partner. After 10 minutes we were going to come back into the group and have them present what they learned about their partner. It was all going great. We heard laughter and animated conversation coming from all except one group. This group literally sat there in silence. They would not look at each other. They would not speak to each other. Each of them REFUSED to initiate the conversation, so we had to send them to the office to speak to the staff psychologist. Honestly, we were really frustrated at that point, but once again we were heartened when the rest of the girls presented their findings, complete with friendly giggles and nudges, and the interesting facts we solicited.

Just as Kelly and I were flushed with success and beaming at one another, one of the girls who was involved in the conflict yesterday raised a finger, indicating that she wanted to speak. We eagerly called on her, anticipating a positive commentary on the activity. I turned to grin at Kelly, and as I did so, I heard the girl (Valentina)'s tone. She was speaking angrily, forcefully. She was angry because the girl sitting across the circle from her, Rosa Lourdes, (SHE FELT) had a smug, sort of condescending expression on her face during Valentina's presentation. However, she did not refer to Rosa Lourdes using her name, or even the word "she." Valentina indicated Rosa Lourdes by saying "esa" (for those of you non-Spanish speakers, "esa" means, roughly, that thing). Clearly this comment sparked some heated discussion. Every girl had an opinion, and, keeping the tone respectful, we managed to work through it.

We did some more activities with them that were successful ... a game keeping the beach ball in the air, following the ball with their eyes and movements. We then did yoga with the girls, which was a MAJOR hit. They all suddenly became silent and focused. They loved it, particularly the meditation at the end. I led this section, and I kept repeating "paz y amor" (peace and love, peace and love)... being one with the Earth, being connected to everyone and everything, all sisters... etc. They responded well to this activity and kept asking for more. While they were calm and focused, we read to them for about a half hour from "In the Time of the Butterflies," which was another really successful activity.

Lunchtime came and passed uneventfully, except that we all decided that the group would sit together. Some of the girls played music on their phones, there was a lot of conversation and laughter, and the girls really seemed to be getting along and having a good time. After lunch we did a little rehearsing for the piece... working on that opening moment and continuing the dance section. Once we can get them to focus on the rehearsal, they just get better and better. These girls have so much power and so much potential. Doing these rehearsals, even in small doses, gets us psyched.

We did some more relaxing activities for the rest of the day, including some yoga and time for reflection. At the end of yoga they all became so united that we sat in a circle holding hands and getting excited about future group activities and going on a field trip tomorrow. I have to say, not tooting my own horn at all, that what we did today worked. There will always be ups and downs, and I think that's what is going to make this experience so special.

But I think the best part of all is that we are getting to know these girls and build relationships with them. What's interesting about this whole experience is that, yes, we did come down here to create a piece of theatre -- but that's not the focus anymore, and we are totally okay with that. There's so much more to do here. A piece will come from this experience, but now we know that it does not need to be our primary goal. And we love that.

Thanks everyone, and please keep responding and commenting. If it won't let you comment on Blogger, then write us on Facebook, email us, whatever works. We want to hear from you, and we love it so much. Let's keep it interactive.

This weekend we will try to upload some of the video we have of the girl's interviews.

Lots of love,

Anna and Kelly

A slight problem ...

Hi everyone.

So I was going to write more about yesterday today, assuming that we would have not much to tell about today. How sadly wrong I was. We had major issues today.

We had the girls (now 11, because Rosailin was there today - and she is awesome!) for the morning, from 9 to 12. The morning went very well - we put together the first piece of the show, which is very brief but basically entails the girls each taking on the voice of someone in their lives who is pressuring them - that pressure could be familial, drugs, prostitution, from men, whatever. That went well - it took longer than anticipated, but it was fine. Then we did some "mining for material" and videotaped the girls talking about their responses to prostitution and drugs. That was quite interesting and we found that the girls love talking on the videocamera. They get very serious and love to watch themselves on the tiny little screen. So that is fun. Then we did a little dance combo, which went pretty well today, and then the girls decorated their journals and we talked with each of them - did a little interview and got to know some of the quiet ones a little bit better. All was well. The girls were pretty into each activity, and no real problems arose.

However, Anna and I had been noticing ever since yesterday that some racial tension was occurring. For instance, we will often all sit in a circle for discussions or scene work, and the girls always segregate based on skin color. The lighter skinned girls (the Dominicans) sit to one side, and the darker skinned girls (the Haitians) always sit on the other. The two groups barely associate with one another unless it is absolutely necessary. I guess we initially thought it was just a question of friend groups, but it has become apparent that the tensions are racial. Ironically enough, we went to talk to the camp psychologist, Alexandra, in the afternoon while the girls were in their academic classes, about our concerns with the racial tension in our group. Little did we know how ironic that was ...

As we were meeting with Alexandra about the racial tension in our group, the girls were in academics upstairs. And a fight broke out, which soon erupted into a fairly serious verbal abuse session with both groups yelling at each other. We only found out about this incident after our meeting with Paulina ended and we were sitting in our classroom, happily planning how we were going to try and mix the groups up tomorrow. Oblivious ... :)

Anyways, after a whole set of meetings with the girls and then with the whole staff, it was concluded that one of our girls, Sarah, who was at the heart of the fight, would not be allowed to come to camp tomorrow and Friday. Sarah is an awesome girl, but she has some attitude and respect issues, which luckily Anna and I have been spared from, but the staff that know her better are more familiar with her behavioral issues, so they decided how to handle the situation. In any case, Sarah won't be with us tomorrow or Friday, but she will be back on Monday. Basically, our group has some serious issues - serious serious serious - and we need to get our group to unite.

So we are now forgetting the creation of the theater right now, and we are going back to square negative 20 and working on some basic respect and cooperation skills. We are pretty much going to spend the entire day tomorrow doing team-building exercises, as well as some yoga, which we hope will teach them some peace, love and respect. We will do trust falls, lots of theater games, modern dance, partner interviews, discussions about racism, Zentangling (Hi Mom!), collages and other fun things. It actually should be interesting.

Sorry to make this so long, but there is another point I want to make here. As Anna and I were discussing the issue and how ridiculous the racism is when you put it in perspective, I remembered something. Bear with me here. We are working with the Mariposa Foundation, which is an organization created in memory of the Mirabal sisters, three women who started an underground movement to end dictator Trujillo's regime. They were called the "mariposas". They were killed by Trujillo, and their death brought about the end of his regime due to the international horror at the execution of three beautiful, inspirational young women. So what I realized today is that Trujillo, during his regime, was trying to "whiten" the island. He was conducting massacres of Haitians and darker-skinned Dominicans. Thousands and thousands of Haitians were executed under Trujillo's regime - Trujillo, in fact, took inspiration from Hitler. So the girls, by exhibiting and promoting such racism against each other, are in fact going against the Mariposa legacy and almost undermining it by sort of promoting (on a very small scale) what Trujillo did. We are going to tell them that - especially because they all so value the legacy of the Mirabal sisters and that whole thing is pretty disturbing. :(

So there you go. Sorry I was so long winded. Not good, I know, but I had to let you guys know what is happening. Please PLEASE PLEASE respond with suggestions or ideas for activities we could use to help fight this racism. Thank you!!

Love and lots and lots and lots of peace,

Kelly and Anna

Our First Day of Camp (briefly)

Hi everyone,

So we just had our first day of camp and it was great. I am just going to briefly write some notes here - nothing too intense - because it is late and I am tired. :) Anna is upstairs, and I am here writing. :)

Ok so our expectations were definitely wrong. Not in a bad way, but in a way that forces us to go back and really think about our process and all of that. So the girls are awesome - it turns out we have 11 girls and not 10 - but only 10 girls were at camp today. The last girl, Rosaili, will be in camp tomorrow. The girls' names are: Ingrid, Sarah, Maria Luisa, Maria Iynes, Maria Angelica, Rosa Lourdes, Emmanuela, Julian, Rosaili, Valentina and one more that I just can't remember and am feeling awful about it. We will post pictures tomorrow - but the girls are awesome. They definitely have a lot of attitude, but in a good way. These girls are vivacious, happy and opinionated. They have a lot to say.

We asked them what they want the show to be about, and gave them no suggestions, and immediately the following themes came up: abortion, prostitution, domestic violence, sexual violence, drugs, sexuality and the idea of mariposas. We were shocked, needless to say, and totally disturbed just because clearly these awful issues are their reality. But yet they are hopeful, happy and totally unperturbed by everything. Ahhh. The other thing that shattered our expectations is that in Dominican culture, the school system totally discourages creative thinking. The kids are used to copying from the board and following the rules. So when we asked the girls to create a scene, or a piece of movement, however basic the assignment, they kind of stared at us, puzzled and at a loss. We quickly learned that they need much more structure than that. So now we are in the process of reworking our plan for the show so that it involves much more of us directing them after discussing their opinions, ideas and stories about each theme. We discovered that the girls love writing and discussing, however. They got super into their journaling - getting really into the calligraphy/handwriting element of it especially - and were ridiculously forthright and honest in discussions. They have passionate opinions about all of these topics, and it is just so inspiring to see.

Tomorrow we will write more (just to give you an idea of how tired I am, just there I typed "we will right more" and barely noticed that it was wrong ... ) about the activities that the girls did - some very interesting/disturbing material came out of the domestic violence scenes ... more on that tomorrow. Stay updated! And please give us any ideas you have for more structured theater activities ... they loved "zip zap zop"! (But "Killer" was not structured enough !!)

Love and peace,

Kelly and Anna

Experiment -- Theatre with the Adult Volunteers!

Today's post will be short, as we subjected you to a rather long one yesterday.

Camp did not start today, as there was a major "huelga", or strike, in the Dominican Republic having to do with lower salaries / the increased cost of living. Anyway, no public transport was available, so the Mariposas were worried about the girls coming to camp. Obviously safety is the priority and we didn't want to take any chances.

So instead, we had sort of a "professional development" day with the other volunteers here at Extreme. Kelly and I led a team building exercise in which we actually had the six other women pair up and create a piece of theatre.

We divided them up into random pairings. Their assignment was to create a 2 minute piece of theatre in 10 minutes. They were to find a space that 'inspired' them and develop their performance from the following three words: love, power, and secrets. We told them to incorporate those three ideas in any way they wanted. We also instructed them to base their performance, in some way, on personal experience, what they know. At first, to be honest, all of them seemed a little dumbfounded... looked at us like we were slightly crazy. But then they went with it, split off, and began wandering around trying to find a space.

We watched them work for ten minutes. We saw different energies -- more of an intense dialogue between the partners, another group was all laughter and giddy movement, another group seemed to be lounging by the pool. After their time was up, we first went to the poolside (where the "loungers" were) and we watched Tehka and Nelly's performance.

In their piece, both women were on beach chairs by the pool, seemingly relaxed, a direct contrast to the tension they explored in their conversation. Tehka asked Nelly about a bruise on her back, which led into a halting, poignant conversation about the abuse Nelly was suffering from her significant other. The audience was a little startled, I have to say, because it was the first piece we saw, and it was so direct, emotional, and intense. Tehka and Nelly, two fully grown women, in their thirties, committed on their first try to an emotional scene that moved us. We were extremely proud of them.

The next piece we saw was Joy and Aurora. They used the skateboarding arena as their venue. Joy was standing by the stairs leading up to the exit, and Aurora was positioned on the stairs. Their piece was entirely choreographic, with Aurora trying to lead Joy up the stairs, up out of her 'rut', her darkness, and into the light, so to speak. Both women committed to the dance movement they were doing. They did not use any text. Towards the end, they did a silly little spin, which was funny, but had we been directing, we would have eliminated. However, everyone was impressed with the creativity and willingness to completely go out on a limb by doing an extremely abstract form of communication. We were also thrilled with this piece.

The final piece came from Ria and Colleen. They sat us all down at a picnic table and stood in front of us, surrounded by palm trees and backed by the beautiful white sand and beating waves on the shore. Ria began to explain a technique of theatre called "Theatre of the Oppressed," a term coined by Augusto Boal (I believe?? JOEL?)... a pretty interesting, sophisticated theatrical technique that we were shocked that they had heard of, let alone were using. Theatre of the Oppressed involves the actors striking a position onstage, and the audience members move them in any way they like, to give them a new position. The audience then analyzes what this position means, and it's a great way to generate discussion and build teamwork among the audience. Ria and Colleen instructed us to mold them into images of love, power, and/or secrets. The entire group participated, providing interesting new positions for Ria and Colleen, and also contributing insightful and meaningful comments on each position. We were stunned and delighted that Ria and Colleen had so skillfully incorporated such a wonderful theatrical technique.

We did some discussion afterwards, and all of them (Ria, Nelly, Aurora, Tehka, Colleen, and Joy) had all had a great time. Not only did this activity allow the volunteers to work together in unexpected and kind of 'scary' ways, but it also allowed them to see the kind of work that we do and how it isn't about "acting" -- it's about creating and discovering. We've been trying to explain our work to them, and I think now they finally understand and enjoy it. Ria suggested that we find a way to allow all of the campers to experience this type of work in the beginning of the camp day, and some of the others were talking about incorporating that type of exercise into their own groups.

Naturally, Kelly and I are already plotting to create some work with the volunteers, the Mariposas, as they have a great deal of potential. We'll see how it goes, but it seems like a fun group, willing to put themselves out there, and certainly excited about this kind of modern theatre. We'll see what happens, but we feel so hopeful that if a group of full-grown women with many preconceptions about theatre, and certainly who were all confident that they would not be able to do this sort of thing -- if THEY can create such cool work and surprise us so much, then we are psyched to see what the campers can do.

What inspiration! Can't wait for camp tomorrow!

Orientation ... and all that jazz

Hello!

It has been a few days, but we want to make sure that we only post when it would be worth your time to read said posting. Camp doesn't start until Monday, so we've been getting oriented here, meeting the other volunteers, and doing some set-up work. All of that has been awesome, but we won't detail all of it. Instead, we'll just give a brief summary.

There are 5 other women down here volunteering for Mariposa. Joy is a Spanish teacher from Nashville TN who is in her mid 20's. Colleen is an ESL teacher from Boston who is the closest to our age... she graduated from college a year ago. Nelly and Aurora are both Latina. They live in California and both work with special needs teenagers and adults. Tehka is also a teacher in the Boston Public School System, and she's a little older than the rest of us, but she seems really sweet. She just came in today, so we don't know her too well yet.

There are also 5 staff members of Mariposa who are down here on a more permanent basis. To keep this entry to a somewhat reasonable length, I'll just list their names and positions in the Mariposa DR Foundation:

Tricia: Executive Director

Jessica: Associate Director (running the whole summer camp)

Julia: Office and Logistics Manager

Ria: Program Coordinator

Alexandra: Psychologist (she's actually Dominican)

Lee: Development

So as you can see, we have an amazing group of American women here -- an incredibly strong staff, all with different backgrounds and areas of expertise -- but certainly a common goal to work as closely with these girls as possible and build strong relationships with each one of them.

We learned more about the daily schedule today as well. To give you an idea, the campers (about 52 girls) have been divided into four groups -- sports, eco-education, dance/art, and theatre. Tehka, Joy, and two Dominican teachers (Paulina and Greicy) will be working with each group three times a week on the academic portion of the program. We are of course running the theatre group. Colleen (who does not speak Spanish), Julia, and Lee will be working with the sports group, all the younger girls. Ria and Alexandra will be doing the eco-education group with the girls aged maybe 12 - 14ish? And then Nelly and Aurora are running the dance program with the help of Coco, a local art teacher. The dance and theatre groups are both much smaller than the other two groups, and we also have the older girls.

As it turns out, in our individual group, Kelly and I will be responsible for teaching not only theatre, but also English, arts and crafts, reading time, and swimming lessons. Let me just harp on that for one second -- we are running swimming lessons, with girls who don't know how to swim. Sound alarming? Yes, we were RATHER alarmed.

Everything except the swimming lessons we hope to incorporate into our theatre curriculum, because of course there are many facets to the work we're doing. I'll list them here and try to show the connections.

- Theatre Games (to be conducted in English -- many involve repetition of certain phrases, which we believe will be great for the girls to pick up some English words and gain confidence in their speaking)

- Movement

- More traditional director/ actor scenarios

- An art project involving collages that the girls will make using cutouts from magazines, detailing what it means to each of them to be a "Mariposa" (a butterfly), a key theme of our show

- Readings each Friday that directly correspond to the themes of our show ... For instance, an article in Spanish about a particular issue that we are exploring.

- Creation (of course, an opportunity for the girls to break off and generate material... sometimes based off of specific parameters from us, other times more open-ended)

- Reflection in journals at the end of each day for each of the girls to record their experience... Perhaps write more on a topic, question, or idea that we worked on during the day. A good memory, we hope.

- Discussion (an opportunity to speak in English and Spanish, analyze the work, and keep the project focused on the needs of each girl.)

So those are our general aims for our theatre program, in no particular order, of course. We plan to schedule a meeting with Jessica, the program director, tomorrow, because we have some ideas that we want to go over with her. Some of these ideas include providing opportunities for the many girls who, for various reasons, could not participate in the typical camp day, to be creating some work with us at 2:00 pm once the camp ends. This camp is extremely popular with the girls here, and there is actually a waiting list. Some girls could also not participate due to pregnancy, caring for a child, excessive work during the day, and many other reasons. We want to work with as many girls as possible while we're here, so ideally we can work something out with that. We also want to arrange a performance for the community here. We'd love for as much of the Cabarete population as possible to see this show.

This is a long post, but hopefully it makes up for our lack of blogging over the past few days. We will be back tomorrow for you with our planning for the first week, and hopefully a profile of the girls we will be working with.

Best,

Anna and Kelly

Our First Day

Hi Everyone!

We arrived at 3 AM yesterday morning - and although we were exhausted, it was so exciting because the moment our plane to the DR touched the ground, everyone started cheering and clapping. It was beautiful. We then got to our hotel room and tried to get some sleep. It is definitely hot here! :) But our room is airy and spacious, so all is well. We got the chance to meet some of the people who work at Extreme (the hotel) as well as some of our fellow volunteers, which was excellent. Everyone is friendly and motivated - totally inspiring. We took a walk along the beach, hoping to get into the main area of Cabarete and discovered that the walk is not, in fact, 10 minutes. It is probably more like 40 minutes, but it is a pleasant walk and we met some very kind people along the way.

We learned all about the Mariposa Foundation from Tricia, the executive director, last night, and it was all fascinating and inspiring. This is such an amazing organization with amazing staff. So exciting!!

We are currently at the Mariposa office, prepping for camp (which will start on Monday) and getting organized. Actually, it just started raining! But it is still sunny ... ?!

Anyways, we are having a great time - we are tired, definitely, but full of eagerness and anticipation for the upcoming month. As we continue to do more extensive prep today, we will update the blog with some more detailed plans.

<3 Kelly and Anna

Kelly's Thoughts - Pre-Trip

Hi everyone!

So I don't know if I can be quite as eloquent as Anna, but I will say that I am also extremely excited and nervous about this trip. This chance is just so incredible - it truly combines everything that I love into one amazing project: Spanish, new cultures, theater, dance, directing, empowerment and meeting new people. So what am I excited about, specifically?

Well, I am most excited about meeting the girls we will be working with. I am sure they are amazing, powerful young women and I can't wait to learn from them. I am excited because I know that this project will truly be a collaborative one, and we will not only have to draw on our experiences in theater, but also on their life experience. This piece will be whatever they want it to be, and whatever they need it to be. I can't wait to see what that is. The thought of not knowing is scary and awesome simultaneously.

I am excited but also nervous about meeting these girls - will they be enthusiastic about this project? Will they be willing to put their whole selves into this piece? Will they trust Anna and I to guide them through this process?

As a whole, I am excited to arrive in the Dominican at 3 AM on Wednesday morning (!) and see what is in store for us. What an amazing opportunity this is.

<3 Kelly

Anna's Pre-Trip Thoughts

So it's Monday evening and I am struggling to find the right words to describe the anticipation I feel about my upcoming experience in the Dominican. I am both thrilled to the tips of my toes with excitement, but I can also feel the nerves setting in. I have never before created a piece of theatre from nothing -- not even a script, not even a concept. This experience will be completely new to me, and that idea frightens me. I am wishing, hoping, that the lessons I've learned from previous productions, especially heartskin, will help prepare me for this challenge. I want to show these girls (who are all about my age) that art has a place in their lives, that theatre and dance can serve as a venue for them to express themselves and escape from the pressures they feel. I also want them to see art, and consequently, theatre, as an agent of social commentary, and ultimately, change.

I hope that the work we do down there will not only inspire the community and the group of girls, but us too. I want to be inspired again. I eagerly await this inspiration. Maybe it will come from a story one of the girls will tell, a song, a dance, a brief moment -- whatever it is, I'll write about it.

Unfortunately, with heartskin, we did not document our process, nor did we make it interactive. That's all going to change. Our moments of inspiration, frustration, desperation, and exhilaration will all be recorded here, and we want as much feedback as possible. For all you reading this entry, please visit as much as you can and let us know what your thoughts are on our process.

To conclude (because you may be extremely bored) ... this trip/project should be an eye-opening, exhilarating experience. It's a journey on which I cannot wait to embark.

!!!!!!!!!!! (there are no appropriate words here) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Anna