Today’s Date: June 14th, 2025

Show Title: 1 Henry VI 

Director: Hailey Pearce

Staff Crew: Emerson Helmbrecht and Topher Zane (RDAs); Alexa Palena and Analise Toone (Interns)

What we did

We started off the morning with an exercise led by Alexa, where campers were asked to walk around the room as if they were under different circumstances. They adjusted tempo, posture, and spacing as they imagined walking through Jello or holding a tray of hot coffee. After this, we finished table work on the remaining scenes, including Joan of Arc’s trial and the death of Talbot. We then gathered all together to learn some basics of stage combat, led by team fight captain, Jake. The campers paired up to practice slapping, where they added their own touches (including an especially remarkable rendition of a scene from Glee by Anna Caroline and Jules). We finished with beginning to stage a fight between Charles the Dauphin and Joan, while the rest of the campers continued to work on scanning and paraphrasing their lines.

Quick and Quotable

• From the play: “I will rule both her, the king, and the realm” -Suffolk
• From the staff: “Not Joan slapping the king.” “She would.” -Jake and Analise

Production Insights 

As I prepare for dramaturgy presentations tomorrow, I am struck by how well and quickly the campers have picked up on the deep historical context of 1 Henry VI. In many ways, this play is the exposition to the rest of the plays we will be staging over the summer. It can seem daunting to understand and perform a hundred years of history in 3 weeks, but I can already see their willingness to rise to the challenge that is 1 Henry VI.