Today as we were settling in, one of the participants shared that she had been so taken by some lines in The Tempest that she had written them in a letter to her daughter. These lines rang true to her because she has felt this way in her own life.  

Miranda:

                                    Alack, what trouble

Was I then to you!

 Prospero:

                                    O, a cherubim

Thou wast that did preserve me! Thou didst smile,

Infuséd with a fortitude from heaven,

When I have decked the sea with drops full salt,

Under my burden groaned; which raised in me

An undergoing stomach, to bear up

Against what should ensue.

We circled up and took our time reading through the second act of the play. The women especially enjoyed the first scene with Stephano, Trinculo and Caliban. They are excited to start exploring it, but decided they want to wait until we’ve read the entire play together before putting anything on its feet.

Some of them are beginning to strongly identify with certain characters, and we talked about that a bit. We ended the day by playing an improv game meant to encourage quick thinking. It was a challenge, but they had a good time with it.