Today, Friday, March 6, we woke up a little later then the past couple of days. We were out of the house by 8:15am and on our way to go work with the children at Lusher Charter School. I didn’t know what to expect here because it's my first trip. We were greeted with warm, open arms from the drama teacher, who I later found out has the best control over children that I’ve ever seen. We got there an hour early to rehearse our version of Peter Pan. It was a little frustrating because people were tired and had little patience. But we found out that this was the best performance that we have done all week, by far. Seeing Jasminn control the audiences of six to ten year olds and coordinate the performance was inspiring to all of us. She knew how to keep all of us going forward; without her and Victoria guiding us, I don’t know were we would be. As soon as we saw the bright smiles of the kids all of us knew the significant impact we were giving them. They were laughing and smiling, and for a moment I never wanted to move on from that specific moment. Getting to our final song and seeing the little kids dance like they didn’t have a care in their lives was inspiring to me because as actors, that's why we train - to achieve a sense of impulsive freedom. The freedom in their bodies and the wonder in their eyes are what all humans try to hold on to. The kids taught me more than I could even begin to teach myself. The team could not stop grinning from ear to ear and a lot of the kids wanted to pursue an art form. Victoria said that “we just received another 200 applicants [to Juilliard].” I want to thank this team for not holding back their love and passion for the arts. I learned how real it is to say that art builds a community. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this trip.
Daniel Davila
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