From Melanie P:

Anyone in the boston area next weekend should come and see Seussical the Musical Jr. at Sharon High School, directed by one manitou alumni (me!), staring two Acting Manitou-nians, Julia G and Matt G, and one future AM camper, Ben B!  For more information: http://hs.sharon.k12.ma.us/

From Jessie K:

This weekend Nailah and I are performing in Hair, playing Claude's Mom and Shiela. It's being performed at Strathmore on Friday and Saturday; anyone available in the DC area should come! :) For more information: http://www.strathmore.org/

Break a leg, everybody!

Monica, director of Acting Manitou's production of Goodnight Desdemona, is happy to have a new one-act play she wrote premiering at Brooklyn Lyceum.  The play was originally part of a workshop in which playwrights, actors and directors got together to devise short pieces about IKEA.  Two years later, two of the pieces have been expanded into one-acts and are embarking on a three-week run.  CONGRATS MONICA!!!  

Congrats Ami, Anna, Rebecca and Miles on the gorgeous and moving production of Mary Zimmerman's Odyssey, this weekend at Hunter College HS.  If you are in New York, there are still tickets for tonight's performance! 

This past weekend, many AMers performed in The Brearley School's spring comedy RUMORS, by Neil Simon.  Even more were in the audience to delight in the work of their community friends.  Congrats to all involved!

With one of our younger girl bunks already named after Anton Chekhov, we continue the homage to the great Russian playwright this summer with...a veggie garden!  That's right, as part of our local foods/healthy eating initiative we will have a large veggie garden (plot pictured above) near the dining hall AND our gardeners Crystal and Pete have "unearthed" an exciting gardening technique called The Three Sisters.  Read more about this technique below and thanks very much to both Crystal and Pete for all their hard work this spring! 

According to Iroquois legend, corn, beans, and squash are three inseparable sisters who only grow and thrive together. This tradition of interplanting corn, beans and squash in the same mounds, widespread among Native American farming societies, is a sophisticated, sustainable system that provided long- term soil fertility and a healthy diet to generations. Growing a Three Sisters garden is a wonderful way to feel more connected to the history of this land, regardless of our ancestry.

Corn, beans and squash were among the first important crops domesticated by ancient Mesoamerican societies. Corn was the primary crop, providing more calories or energy per acre than any other. According to Three Sisters legends corn must grow in community with other crops rather than on its own - it needs the beneficial company and aide of its companions.

Acting Manitou Director Ben Steinfeld will be directing a Ten-Actor version of Sondheim's Into The Woods with his Fiasco Theater Company for the 2013 McCarter Season! Read the playbill article here.

Acting Manitou veterans may remember that Ben directed Into the Woods at AM back in 2007. Several current AM campers starred in the production.  The McCarter also has a special place in Acting Manitou's history. The McCarter Theater is where Steve and Tim met and started teaching classes together and it is also where they met Ben Steinfeld. This project seems to complete the cirlce!

Break-a-leg Ben! For more information check out the Fiasco Theater Company and the McCarter Theater Center.