junior program summer site : conversations : first session



	Katherine from Massachusetts (7/11) Katherine enjoys Explo for the variety of courses and the environment. She has already found a passion for photography and is writing a musical -- two things she didn't expect to be doing before Explo. So tell me about what you did yesterday? Yesterday during our activity period I made yarn dolls. It was fun. You just take yarn and you wrap it and make ties in it to make heads and arms and legs and stuff. And what classes are you taking? I do photography and I do theatrical art. What are those like? Photography is really fun. We took our pictures and then we actually got to put the film into the rolls and we got to develop it and everything. So I just finished my pictures -- finished printing them. What was that process like? So what you have to do is you have to take the film and you have to keep the film completely not exposed to light -- so it has to stay completely dark. And then you put it onto this spool, and then you put it in developer, a stop-bath, a fixer, and a photo flow. The developer develops it, the stopper stops the developing, the fixer just makes it so you can expose it to light and washes the chemicals off. The photo flow just makes it all shiny and glossy. Then you put it in an enlarger which just takes the little film picture and makes it big. That goes through pretty much the same steps of developer, stopper, fixer, and flow. Is photography something you've done outside of Explo, too? I sort of did it, but I really like it and I really want to pursue it, so I saw the course and thought it would be fun to get into it a little bit more. So what're you doing in theatrical art? In "Which Way to Broadway?" we are working on a play/musical and so we started by just writing down ideas for scenes and we got our cards and started planning out the whole show. So you're making a whole musical from start to finish? What's your musical about? It's a murder mystery, but celebrity style. It's kind of like Clue. You're trying to figure out who did it. Are Explo classes different from classes at school? I actually went to a camp that's kind of like [Explo], but what's different about Explo is that the teachers really know what they're doing. Like, at the camp I used to go to, the people didn't really know what they were doing, it was like they were just assigned to do things. But here the teachers really know what they're doing and it's really easy for them to give help and instruct. What do you think is the most memorable thing you've done so far? Probably what I did yesterday, which was printing my photo. Because it was fun to see how you got to take the picture and learn everything about it and do everything and I was really proud to see it come out. Is there one thing you're looking forward to more than anything else? Probably the final performance for the play we're writing. It's gonna be on Off-Broadway Night. It'll be fun to see how much we've worked on everything. What's it like being a first-year student? I think on the first day I was a little nervous because I didn't know if I was going to make friends or how it was going to be . . . but on the first day, everybody is just really nice and the teachers are really good and really nice. So once you get here for the second day, you feel like you've been coming here for a couple of years. It was really easy to make friends. It's not like there's any cliques. What do you think “Explo” means? I mean, Explo stands for exploration, and that really is what it is. It's trying stuff out and exploring new situations and finding that they're fun. If Explo was a dessert, what kind of dessert would it be and why? Probably like a chocolate molten cake, because it is all hard on the outside, so it's structured, but on the inside it's all loose, which is like being able to try whatever you want. more conversations > first session \| second session