"Into the Woods" | Up with People Week 7
Title Reference: Prologue from Into the Woods
Sorry for a late blog post this week! Things have been getting busier and busier, but I’ll give a quick recap of all that happened during Week 7!
Production
We had two shows at the beautiful Prochnow Auditorium at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. I’ve visited Flagstaff before while I was attended Arizona State, but it was interesting to be back and looking at the city through a new pair of eyes and for a different purpose this time. Our show director, Walter, was able to come and give us a workshop about our “clowns,” or ways that we might let our nerves or energy get the best of us while we’re on stage. Both shows went pretty well, and I’ve been very pleased that each show has gotten better and better (as it should!). It is also really cool as I’m getting closer to some of my castmates to see them all killing it on stage - it makes me so proud!
Community Action
I had the privilege of leading two different community action projects during our time in Flagstaff. The first one had a group of Up with People participants head to an after school recreation center that is at the edge of one of Flagstaff’s poorest neighborhoods. It’s always interesting to hear people’s perspectives on going into communities like this because we’ve all come from different backgrounds ourselves. For me personally, I attended Boys and Girls Clubs and after-school programs all the way through high school, so it was cool to be able to go into a community like that and give a little bit of that back to those kids now. We also met some really cool kids, one of which came to the show and interviewed to join the program! It’s always fun to see people from our volunteer projects at our show - it really brings everything full circle.
The second project we did was some general cleaning and socializing with patrons of the Joe C. Montoya Senior Center in Flagstaff. We also got to serve lunch to the people that were there! They were so excited that Up with People was in town and was willing to help them. They have all kinds of classes and meals at low prices for senior citizens in the community. I was excited to be able to do both of these projects because I feel I truly got to interact with a wide range of Flagstaff’s population. While at the senior center, we sat in on a beginning Spanish class that they hold once a week, and some ladies from the class also came to one of our shows. It was so interesting to learn about everyone, how they ended up in Flagstaff, and some of the important events that happened in their lives. I really do hope I get to do more volunteer projects like this in our future cities!
Flagstaff Adventures and Host Family
Every week we move to a new city, we get a new host family. I was so sad to leave my Lafayette host family because I enjoyed them so much, but my host mom in Flagstaff was so nice. I was roomed with Valerie from Belgium and our host mom lived in a nice community outside of the center of Flagstaff. She is an army veteran and has two cats named Phoebe and Indigo. In our free time, she took us Jerome and Sedona in northern Arizona, and one night she also took us to a bar where some of her friends who are in a band were performing. It was a super fun town to be in and I’m so grateful for the experience we had with her!
That’s all for week 7! Sorry it’s a bit short, but it covers everything you need to know. Be sure to come back next week for my blog about our time in VEGAS BABY!
Tata, xo
Aliyah
