Tuesday, July 14, 2009

You Can Go Home Again, and they Won't Make You Eat Pasta


Kevin asked me to come up to the 2009 NITS and work with some scenes, and since they're looking at Romeo and Juliet, who could resist?

And so it was that I went back to Smith College and I got to say hello to Bob again, as well as to Sandy Mack. I didn't expect Sandy to remember me at all, and he didn't, leading to an awesomely awkward moment of him saying "it's lovely to meet you" right as Kevin was saying "Meg was in this institute in 2006." Then there was lots of stammering. And yes, Sandy was wearing his "Vote for Pedro" t-shirt. I also got to talk to Trish for a little while (she's working at the Institute in the "Mimi" position). She has dyed her hair "vivacious violet" and it looks fantastic! Jenna was later telling stories about how with about three sentences, Trish was able to totally open up a scene exploration for some of the participants. The point of the story was that Trish=awesome, which we can all agree with.

The NITS folks were in a particularly happy frame of mind today, having learned "belli momba" and having done Air Broadswords. I had a wonderful time working with them on their scenes and was so excited and surprised by the things they came up with.

Later when Kevin was talking about this year's group and how happy they are, he cited two major changes this summer: #1--the weather has been cool and pleasant, and #2--the food has been wonderful. "we worked really hard to make sure that the food would be especially good." So I guess the days of pasta at every meal are a distant memory.

So there it all was: Ainsworth and the rock wall, 151 and the smelly rug, the be-mirrored dance studios, and all the rest. When sitting in the reinforcement circle, I was struck by how much they looked like us, and because Trish was there, I caught myself more than once scanning the circle for Jennifer or Mel or Amanda or any of the other 2006 NITSers.

I'm supposed to go back again next week, and I'll try to take a picture of the campus (I hope this shot of the Rose is a decent enough evocation of our summer). In the meantime, know that I'm sending fond thoughts to all of you, and for the new batch of teachers who are in that lovely period of discovering the Green World.

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3 Comments:

At 7:51 AM, Blogger educat said...

I read this and my first thought was "Oh! Tell them..." but I can't imagine what I'd have to say. Tell them to take it in and don't waste anything.

And hug all our old friends and attach my name to said hug.

 
At 12:03 AM, Blogger Walker said...

Ditto to everything that she said! :)

 
At 1:13 PM, Blogger Shakespeare Teacher said...

Sigh....The Green World. Could use some now. Thank you for the moment!

Rachael

 

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