Monday, April 14th
Today was our last day before our performance, so we used the day as a final rehearsal day. Both the American Government and Economics classes joined the BG students at 8:30 in Libbey's auditorium instead of our usual 9:00 meeting time. After some quick warmups, each group rehearsed their specific piece while Kate organized a bunch of little details (what music to use for transitions, where the posters would go, etc.). After each group finished its individual rehearsals, everyone reconvened to rehearse the opening of the performance. Our time ran out at that point, but we got a lot accomplished!
Wednesday, April 16th - Performance Day!!
Today was our big performance day! The BG students arrived at Libbey at 8:30 and met both the American Government and Economics classes in the Libbey Auditorium. We passed out the t-shirts as students came in - everyone looked really sharp! We divided into our specific groups for about 15 minute to check in with one another and then we rehearsed the opening and the closing pieces. After a quick warm-up, it was time for the first performance!
The morning performance was for the entire Humanities Academy at Libbey. Libbey is divided into three schools and both the American Government and Economics classes are from the Humanities Academy. The performance went really well! All of the students did an amazing job and approached the performance like true artists! Each piece went beautifully into the next and everyone remembered what they were supposed to do while pitching in when needed. After the performance, we had a talk-back session with the juniors and seniors from the Humanities School. Some visitors from the University of Toledo had joined us for the morning performance and they helped to begin and facilitate the dialogue. The students engaged in a really good dialogue about bullying, its effects, and their personal responsibility for handling it. We had only planned on a 30 minute post-show session but the dialogue was flowing so well that we went almost an hour before we had to stop to let students return to classes. One amazing result that came from the talk-back is that a couple of the students who are on student council are going to look into having a Challenge Day at Libbey next year. It was an awesome way to begin our performance day!
The evening performance was open to the public and admission was free. We had a group of about 40 - 50 people come and it was a mixture of adults and youth. The BG and Libbey students arrived at Libbey around 5:00 and everyone checked in with their specific groups. Around 5:30 we had a photo call and Bob Midden, from BGSU and director of the Chapman Communtiy at Kohl on campus, took pictures of all of the pieces. Unfortunately some of the Libbey students could not get out of their after school commitments and so after the photo call we figured out how to accomodate for that. The performance began at 6:30 with a special performance by a student dance group at Libbey called the Phantoms. They were really good and set a good mood for the rest of the evening. The evening performance was just as good as the morning performance and everyone worked just as hard if not harder! After the performance, there was another talk-back session with the audience. It was really rewarding to hear that the community members there supported what we had been doing! Following the talk-back we all had cake and juice to celebrate! We then cleaned up the auditorium and loaded our van up to take the materials back to BG. Everyone was exhausted, but highly fulfilled! It truly was an amazing day but we left in a bit of disbelief that it was all over.
