A Midsummer Night's Dream

I love the DDW Challenge of using a prop this month. I have selected items meaningful to me (as allowed) and my first prop is my Kindle which goes everywhere with me. I had a basic Kindle called Daisy at first. I loved Daisy. then I dropped her and her screen did not function after that. I cried. I still have Dora (Daisy's replacement) but I mostly use Kitty (the Kindle Fire). This image is of Kitty posing just prior to the Matinee performance of 'The Dream' at my school. the other prop is one of the scrolls that Quince has ready for the Mechanicals - the play within the play.

This has become a bit of a nightmare over the past couple of weeks rather than a dream, as I have had to drag 20 13 yr olds to get this to a standard of acceptability in two weeks. They have had the scripts since the end of March but, as expected had not learned their lines. It has been a battle and, at times, I have known that the moments of glory will not be worth the time and stress.

This afternoon was the dress rehearsal which we do to the school. Our children watching ranged form 7 through to 12 and all were entranced. My actors were superb although Oberon was berating himself for not getting a couple of speeches right.

Tomorrow evening we perform to an audience of parents, grandparents, godparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sister, cousins, friends etc etc in the prestigious venue of Waddesdon Manor amphitheatre. The weather forecast is good and it promises to be a magical evening; there should be some very proud parents!

Stress levels still very high with the added complication of the 'passport' fiasco and, despite spending an hour(!!!) on hold with a boring loop of numbers and messages going round and round and round and round and... (you get the idea!) I still didn't get through on the direct dial number I had been given. Frustrating to say the least.

One great positive - I have written my VERY LAST EVER report. I may well do bits of teaching in my retirement but I will NOT write any more reports!