It’s Twosday! On (full) Day Two of camp, campers had TWO afternoon classes, taught by TWO awesome teachers; the CoE cast had TWO rehearsals of their play about sets of TWO, while the T&C cast had TWO hours of downtime (after text-working TWO acts of their play with TWO names in the title…you get it.)

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After yoga, breakfast, and morning rehearsal, campers had meal number TWO at the Hunt – lunch, where, incredibly, there were fried plantains available – and then the whole camp moved up to Deming. At TWO fifteen, they met Natasia Lucia Reinhardt, wearing her second of TWO hats.

Natasia is of course one of this year’s directors, helming Comedy of Errors. She also functions as a camp instructor, using her expertise in the field of intimacy choreography to teach a workshop on bodily autonomy and safe, consenting stage intimacy. Unfortunately for my bit, there are three components of consent: it is contextual, conditional, and revokable.

After checking in with “green” (ready to go) “yellow” (feeling a little “meh”) or “red” (need a lot of support) and learning about Natasia’s experiences as an actor and intimacy coordinator, campers got to practice these three components in sets of TWO (we’re back!)

First they asked each other for high fives, and were asked to rotate among “yes”, “no”, and “button” (or, I need more information) as responses to the requested high fives. Then the exercise sped up, and they asked a lot of other campers for high fives in rapid succession, with the same three possible answers.

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Instructor number TWO, Summer England, spent her hour teaching vocal health and stage presence – the great sin of voice class being “shlumping”, campers made sure to keep their back straight and their tummy loose. For hands-on exercises, campers learned about plosives (p-p-pah, b-b-bah, t-t-tah, d-d-dah, k-k-kah, g-g-gah…), about loosening the jaw with a gentle massage, and about freeing the voice through physicality.

Quote from voice class: “If you think you look silly, you probably do! So do it!”

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Then dinner – chicken pitas with kalamata olives; roast turkey; rice dishes; brownies; and of course salad bar all available! (No plantains for dinner, alas.)

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After dinner, campers on the third floor formed TWO factions: a puppy pile/ “snuggy-wuggy time” (term courtesy Natasia’s intimacy workshop), and a multi-hyphenate jam session/impromptu talent show featuring voice, a guitar, a ukulele, a clarinet, a bass clarinet, a trombone, a kazoo, and a flute – John pictured here participating in both unofficial events.

Some T&C campers then took the jam party to the exceptionally echoey stairwell, where they harmonised on everything from hymns to twentieth century union songs. We finished up this very musical evening with a lullaby from “Whistle Down the Wind”, performed by Chiara.

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It has been a day of twos and, in anticipation of tomorrow, some threes. Now it’s lights out – and we’re ready for another day of nerd camp tomorrow!