SPAE Final-ayyy. Get it? Like finale, but it rhymes.

    Lights up on Emily and Karlie in their living room, twilight bouncing off the sleek, wooden floors. (Note that "twilight" is not capitalized, which means I'm setting the time of day and describing the quality of light. Sometimes I get nervous that anyone under fifteen doesn't know that "twilight" is more than a book title. Our living room is not full of vampires.) At stage left, Emily reclines in the puffy chair that wouldn't fit into Tricia's house, but slid with ease through the door of 79B Chase Street. She strums a guitar with Rise Up Singing perched in her lap. The rain puddling outside the open windows accompanies her as she floats from folk song to folk song. Up center sits Karlie, typing on her lap top. It's sizzling the top of her lap. Lap, of course, being only of temporary existence. She is overcome with guilt because SPAE ended a week ago and she didn't write a concluding blog post like she promised herself she would. And she felt so guilty that she stopped typing in third person and stopped pretending that the living room is actually a set on a stage.
  
     SO YEAH! SPAE ENDED.
And, as I anticipated, it ended with an enormous feeling of delight. And bliss.
I mentioned in a previous blog post about the growth from year one to year five of SPAE-this feeling of growth was one thousand times magnified by the second performance of "Robin Hood." As Claire, Johnny, Melissa and I stood on stage presenting our curtain speech, I couldn't help but think about what amazing events had taken place over the two weeks of the program.
Shall I make a list?
Let's shall.

The Amazing Events (however seemingly small or grand) of SPAE 2012

• Together we created a gallery behind the bleachers in the gym- oh I mean our theatre space. Lit by two sets of tree lights and constructed with about three zillions shreds of duct tape, our gallery was filled with costume designs, make up designs, poetry, and sculptures made from dominoes, buttons, fake grass, playing cards, and whatever else Claire gathered from around Southern Vermont. Games of "Writey-Drawey" hung in strips down the wall, and our ideas about what it means to be a Community covered the final stretch- a colored-marker mess of adjectives, nouns, verbs, and a surprisingly long list of celebrity names, (that was a first for this activity.)

• We put on a show! "Robin Hood" was brought to life by thirty 8 and 3/4 to 13 year olds. We battled with sticks, we marched through the marketplace belting "Phony King of England," we created three dimensional characters who made us laugh, made us angry, plucked at our heart strings, sang to us, and gave us hope. From Prince John and his Love whose list of pet names for each other topped off at about 15-to the Merry Men making a clumsy and belated entrance only to sing a rousing rendition of "Men in Tights." AND- Robin's team battled the royal court using STOMP.

• A community was built. Beautiful moments filled every day and showed me that our community was working. Whether it was a more experienced camper helping a less experienced one write down blocking for a scene, or actors covering for each other when lines were forgotten, or a CIT encouraging everyone to sit with someone new each day. It was working. Of course there were snags, there were moments when each of us was pushed to our limit- campers, CITs, and directors alike-but the support we offered each other was enough to carry us through until we found our grounding again.

• One day as folks meandered into the gym after lunch to begin rehearsing, two campers began to play "Imagine" and slowly the entire camp had gathered around the piano and was singing along. 

• Campers who felt certain that they were far more comfortable back stage than on it, bounded out under the lights and conquered their stage fright.

• We ate a lot of good food.

• All thirty-eight of us danced to a number of pop songs. And I mean danced. At one point there was a thirty-eight person conga line. Imagine that. It's funny. Laugh.

• We answered some goofy and thought-provoking questions in videos. Here they are.

                                                    THE SPAE 2012 ARTFESSIONAL

     There were as many moments as there were pieces of duct tape on the wall. I can't write about them all, I didn't see them all. I also have the attention span of an emu. Which is to say that I have a short attention span. I made an assumption about emus. And you know what they say about people who assume things. 

     In conclusion, (don't ever start the conclusion of an academic paper with "in conclusion," but this is a blog post so I get to make up the rules,) the fifth year of SPAE has taught me about being in the moment, explaining things clearly, taking time to look people in the eye, and encouraging the most wild and rambunctious creativity that we can muster.

Thanks y'all! (I say "y'all" which is a contraction of "you all" because it isn't socially acceptable to say "you guys" to a group of multi-gender campers. Or students. Or people. Y'all are welcome.)

PS: Read this. Emily Fuller's Blog. FToA. 

(Future Teacher of America.)