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Just a Little 'Jumping Into'

by Ana Braga-Henebry in Family on Monday, August 24, 2009 6:00 AM

My mother often used to say that in life we need a good dose of courage. If we were to wait and be ready for everything, we would accomplish very little. Whether you are starting a new business venture, or getting married, or having a baby, these steps in life take a healthy measure of “jumping-into.”

I hosted Shakespeare Camp in our acreage in the beginning of this past summer. Had I waited to make sure that it was planned out and well prepared, we would have never had what my teens will remember as the best week of their summer.

My good friend Caitilin and I both teach at homeschool co-ops and a tutoring center, and often our “faculty meetings” happen late at night via googlechat. During one of these meetings, the idea of a Shakespeare camp occurred to me and I asked her if she would direct the play if I hosted the camp. She impulsively said “Yes!” – a spontaneous affirmative that sprang from her love for the teens and for Shakespeare.

A Ready Plan

The next morning I sketched out just enough of the details to compose and broadcast an email announcement. Thus, the die was cast: Shakespeare Camp had a week blocked out in our summer calendar.

Although I had never hosted a drama camp and Caitilin had never directed anything before, somehow in our hearts we trusted God. Her love of Shakespeare and confidence in the teens’ abilities, and my history of hosting events as well as my past theater experience left us confident that we could pull it off—we just didn’t know yet exactly how! 

We ordered Dover Thrift editions for scripts; one mom had a costume ready that served as a pattern for others, and I got my teens to help me clean out the outbuilding that would serve as rehearsal and performance space.

When our group first met and worked on their first reading of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I started an email list with all of the participants’ addresses and worked up a volunteer schedule and key details such as snacks lists. 

Actors arrived daily at 2 PM, leaving lunch boxes and their belongings in our mud room, and proceeded to our outbuilding which that week served as the Shakespeare workshop. Things progressed smoothly, as the kids’ excitement and hard work crowned the atmosphere.

Parents were delighted to lend a hand in any way they could, happy with their kids’ busyness and cultured week. From my sewing station near my large dining room window, I could see the teens coming and going, gesturing, laughing, and lying on blankets on the grass between scenes.

Pause for Prayer

Every day before dinner we paused the frenzied rehearsing for prayer and dinner, usually by the picnic table outside our kitchen porch. After the Grace Before Meals we called on saints — kids’ patron saints, the patron saint of actors or the saint of the day. They then had a good amount of time to play Frisbee, go for a walk, gather mulberries, or whatever activity they preferred to undertake during their well deserved respite, before returning to the hard labor of thespians.

Performance Day was one of those rare high points of life. The kids were well prepared, the weather was perfectly cool and bugless. The simple stage props—logs, curtains, and old rugs—were mounted amidst good humor.

The evening sun light shed golden tones on a production that was nothing short of perfect:  A Midsummer Night’s Dream done on a summer evening, amidst bushes and trees that served as an extension of the stage, a summer breeze and the fairy-like golden tones of the sunlight as it dropped on our woods on the west side of our acreage.

The Fruits of Our Labor

Caitilin and I gave each other a heartfelt, congratulatory, we-are-so-happy-we-actually-did-this hug at the end of the play, and I confess my eyes were not quite dry.

When Caitilin and I jumped into this Shakespeare Camp idea, we were by no means ready. We trusted in our abilities and in our hearts, we kept it simple and the kids responded in unbelievable ways. We learned alongside the kids: about drama, about Shakespeare and about hosting events.

But in a larger way we learned the lesson that my mother taught long ago: that sometimes in life, even if we are not ready, we need to use courage and a healthy measure of “jumping-into.”

—Ana Braga-Henebry has a Masters Degree in Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas. She has written myriad articles for Catholic homeschool periodicals, has been writing book reviews for over ten years, and blogs from the family acreage in South Dakota.

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