- [Narrator] Here's the story.

- At rehearsal.

I'm going to make a video diary every day I'm at rehearsal, so this is day one of the video diary.

[group cheers] [gentle music] - [Narrator] As all the world was slowly inching out from COVID isolation, we spent some time with a theater group staging a youth only Shakespeare production, their first on stage since the pandemic started.

Still masked and cautious throughout the process, it was challenging, but encouraging to see hungry hearts performing the work of a playwright who wrote himself from the shadows of a deathly pandemic.

[gentle music] [gentle music continues] Because of limitations, we asked the actors to film themselves in the safety of their own spaces.

The result was a film about a program for young creatives filmed in part by the young creatives.

So when we heard that they were taking to the stage again, we decided to get to know a whole new company, now unmasked, and to give them even more control over the lens and direction.

This is "Love's Labor's Logged."

- [Group] "Love's Labor's Logged!"

[group cheering] [bright music] [bright music continues] - How now, brown cow?

- [Group] How now, brown cow?

[bright music] - Woo!

- Hey y'all.

- My name is Anthony Cea.

- My name is Layla Kuya.

- And my name's Sophia Rivera, and I'm a senior at Howell High School.

[bright music] - Hello, my name is Vivian Oliver, and I'm currently a junior at Milltown High School North.

- Hi, my name is Kalin Tomahatsch and I'm a senior at East Brunswick Magnet School of the Arts.

One word that I would use to describe myself would be passionate.

- Describe myself.

- I would probably use determined.

- To describe myself in one word?

- I would describe myself as very kind and helpful.

- Theatrical.

- Hi, my name is Easy Jack Portman.

- Hi, I'm Baku Rae Gurango.

- Hi, my name's Anyi Vasquez.

- I'm very outgoing and I'll like, always spark up a conversation.

Once I get comfortable with a group of people, I'm very out there.

We are wise girls to mock our lovers so.

That's very much how I describe myself.

- I started acting when I was in second grade and I was just in this tiny little production of "Aladdin" with my summer camp.

- Went into the gates of love.

- It meant so much to me, and I did it all the way up until now.

And it's just been so great being in, you know, acting basically my whole life.

I love it so much.

The beggar, I am the king!

Hi, my name is Blake Ellis and I'm a senior at East Bruswick Magnet School.

- I just moved from the suburbs of Chicago.

I've always found a community in theater and I hope that I can find that same connection here.

Maybe make a few good friends.

[bright music] - I love Shakespeare.

- I love the intricacy of the language.

- My first honest impression of the language, wow.

- My brain got kind of puzzled for a minute.

- It was north northeast by east from the west corner of the garden.

- What the frick frack am I reading here?

- "Love's Labors Lost" by William Shakespeare.

- "Love Labors Lost."

- "Love's Labors Lost."

- Whee!

- Okay, so it's about this king.

- Sometimes I get what I'm saying.

Sometimes I'm a bit confused.

- An embassy comes from France, and the king and his friends immediately fall for the princess and her friends.

- I'm not gonna lie to you guys, it's definitely not easy.

It's not the easiest, but it's definitely worth the whole process.

- They're all sending letters to each other that are being mixed up and being sent to the wrong person.

And while that's happening, there's these two other people who are in a love triangle with this other woman who's a serving maid, and it's a whole jumble of people who are in love with each other and won't acknowledge it.

- I'm really working for it.

You know, it's a hard process, but that's something I've gotta do.

- If you're an actor and you don't know who William Shakespeare is, then that's a problem.

- Shakespeare is so flipping funny.

- [Speaker] He's so funny.

- [Sophia] It's so funny.

- And I believe Shakespeare is so very important.

- Why, oh my gosh.

Well, I mean, it's kind of fun - And it's happening right now, currently right into the front of your eyes, PBS.

- It's only up from here, honestly.

There's so much less to do, so much to experience and so little time to do it.

- That was a lot of talking.

You can cut this, right?

I hope you can cut this.

[Sophia laughing] - Yeah, slay.

[gentle music] - First, I'm gonna have everybody who is in scene seven take a quick five and then we will come back and do scene seven.

So if you are in scene seven, if you are Zelda, Baku, Layla, Vivian, Paula, or Anyi, you guys will be back here in five minutes.

Sound good?

[group hollers] - Thank you, [indistinct] open you said?

- Being a student, there's a lot that you have to balance.

Just being in school is a lot, but I mean, I think we're all kind of used to this.

This is what we've chosen to do, what we're passionate about, and this is what I've been doing all of high school.

So it's kind of just second nature to me.

I find ways to balance everything.

- Outside of Two River, I also juggle with school, and school... And I also take acting classes outside of school as well.

So I juggle between the three.

- I would love to say that I'm a great balancer at things, but I am not.

- Usually I just take it day by day.

I like to live in the present and, well, I'm not gonna lie, the days that I have rehearsal, I do look more forward to.

I enjoy working with the cast and the crews are amazing people and such a positive environment, which I love.

- Life updates.

I am finishing up my college interviews and I'm so excited because now college things are almost over and I can't wait.

It has been such a long school year so far trying to apply and interview for all these colleges and everything.

But I have three more to go and that's it.

And then it's done.

And then before I know it, decision day comes around and I'm really excited for that.

But, yeah.

[gentle music] - You know, like every day I'm here and it's hard because I go straight from school.

And I live far away from my school, so it's straight here, then drive, then go here, then this.

And like, there's so many things going on and it's like, I wanna put in so much work.

And I try and I do, but it's how do you balance life.

And you know, but what's good is that when I'm here, I have the people to rely on because like, I love, even though it's scary at first, I love meeting new people and creating my own family with them.

And that's what we've done.

And it's just like, there's certain people that I just see every day and you're hugging them, and you just talk about your life with them and you can easily just open up and it's so, they're like, I feel you.

I know what you're going through.

I relate to it.

We can connect about college and everything.

And it has become such a family and that's what makes me come to rehearsal every day.

Because if they weren't there, I don't know what I would do.

I think it's like when we have like a crappy run or like a bad run, you know, you're so disappointed with yourself and you know what you're doing wrong and you know what you need to go over, but you're still like, you still feel the disappointment.

But I look over and my friends are like, "It's okay."

Tomorrow's another day.

Like, we know what we need to do.

We all feel the same way about everything.

What's next?

[gentle music] [footsteps tapping] - [Tai] So what happens when you walk inside of an establishment or anywhere?

- Take a look around.

- Yeah, but what else would you do?

- Green people.

Well, you say hello.

- [Tai] Okay, but what about...

Remember, you're ostentatious.

- Yeah.

- So if you come into the gate, the opening, this is an entrance.

Yes.

Oh my gosh.

Aware that people know who you are.

- I feel like there's a lot of times that Tai will tell me to go huge big and I just, sometimes I feel like I can't.

I don't know why, but I just, I feel like I can't.

But I do go big.

I get big and I have to be bigger, you know, be more.

- [Tai] You know what I mean?

Like indulge.

Yeah, and you're there and Moth is like, move.

[gentle music] - It is middle of February.

There's only a few more weeks until the show opens.

So learning and memorizing the lines, it's not hard.

It's just that my character Armando, he has just so many mono.

I think I might have the most monologues in the show.

It's so bad, but I'm getting through it.

I'm getting through it.

I'm trying, I'm trying.

- I'm always afraid to just do it because it's scary because you don't know how people are going to react by it.

And again, you know, if we do something... Yeah, if I do something and it's good, like Tai and they'll just be like, okay, that's good.

Keep that in.

Or they can just be like, no, that's bad.

Don't ever do that again.

Like, you know, you never know how they're gonna react by, you know, my choice with a liner or liner.

Something like that, you know?

And it's scary to think about.

- Oh my god, [indistinct].

- Allow me to take a hand with your task.

- That would be too much for me to ask.

- You need to be able to play it.

You can't just expect to look at your lines and then get up from your chair and be able to perform it in a way that is different from how you read it in the script.

You have to look at the script.

You have to think about the character.

You have to be able to justify each of your movements.

And it is so much work and it is so much fun.

- On film!

On film, too!

[indistinct chattering] - Think a lot of it is just in our head.

While we're performing and acting, I'm asking myself questions about like, is this okay to do?

Or what's the next thing I'm going to be doing?

And just constantly questioning myself instead of just doing it and just not giving it a thought at all while I'm trying to act.

Because that's what is going to make the scene more natural and flow better.

It all obviously like depends on what you're doing.

If something you're doing in a scene is quote unquote like more embarrassing, you are going to be thinking about that more and you're going to be questioning yourself and all that.

But I think that when you're playing a character, it's not you.

And you can use that as an excuse in a sense and just tell your mind that this is not you.

You're not doing all of this.

Your character is, and if you put all that into your character, you don't need to worry about what people are gonna think of you because that doesn't matter.

They're thinking of that character, essentially because that's who you're playing.

- I think it's challenging sometimes to let yourself go due to embarrassment and I think forgetting your lines is a really big one.

- As an actor, you might feel like you're getting fingers pointed at you if you don't, and that's not the case at all.

Like if you forget a line, it's nothing really.

As actors, we're trained to work with whatever happens and you just have to live in the present.

- Improvisation.

- Yeah.

- I think for me, it's also just like really nerve wracking because I have a really big fear of failure.

So I think that also also plays into it being like, oh, you can't mess up.

You gotta be like on everything, and that sucks.

- Yeah, yeah.

[Paula laughing] - Hi, my name is Juson Williams and I'm everything.

[group laughing] All right, all right, take a breath in.

Let it go.

Now as you take this breath in, I want you to hear me clearly.

Take it in.

There is no talking during any of this unless you are talking, scene.

Let it go.

Okay, here we go.

- It was useful, but at times, like I'm kind of awkward, but at the end of the day I remembered it was my job to do this and go out and do this vecause it's a part of the story and we have to get through it.

But I remember specifically thinking to myself, am I making a fool out of myself in front of these people?

Like this is getting weird, like constantly doing it over and over again.

And I barely knew Anthony at the time, like we were just jumping right into it.

So for me, it was kind of awkward.

- [Interviewer] What was the answer that you came up with when you said, I was asking myself, am I making a fool of myself?

Did you answer that for yourself?

- I did.

- Yeah.

- These people are here to do this.

Like, not make a fool of themselves, but they're here to do the same thing as I am, and that's to tell a story.

- Okay, is that the end of this?

Okay, brother and sister.

You have got to find love, peace, and sexual tension here.

We need to find that.

I know that you're only 9 and 10, but we got find, not being funny.

- Well, I mean I will say about like, who was it?

It was Paula and Anthony.

Yeah, that day was funny, like we all laughed about it in the end.

I think what made it so awkward was like the age difference because obviously it was like all high schoolers, but e was the only freshman and like the majority of us were seniors.

So it was like pairing them together and with just Anthony's personality, he's such a funny guy.

And it was hard 'cause like I always wanted to say to him, just like, who cares?

Just go for it, who cares?

She knows it's a joke, like who cares?

But it was like, I felt the struggle.

I was like, I feel him.

I feel that struggle - That was cool.

You stopped, you gave it.

And then you say it.

Jacqueline, oh.

Give it, keep cooking it.

Keep giving!

It is awkward.

The awkwardness is going to be okay.

It doesn't have to be so supermodel.

The awkwardness is gonna be okay.

It is meant to be.

It's like both of you are so awkward here, and that's what's funny.

It's like you try to go overboard.

That's why if you go overboard, it's gonna be even funnier, so that's fine.

And keep doing this until you gotta say the name and she turn around.

Hi.

You know what I mean?

Whatever it is, I'm not giving a line [indistinct].

- For me, it wasn't too terrible just because Paula goes to my school and she's in the theater program with me.

You know, so we've known each other for the past four years.

So I'm glad that it was the way that it was cast because I feel like I saw a little bit of the difficulty that Anthony had with Paula and Paula had with Anthony.

They just didn't really know each other, so it was weird walking through that.

The easy thing for me, you know, at the end one of the things that I do is that I go to kiss the princess's hand, but that wasn't anything for me.

It was just Lydia for me, you know?

And I kissed my thumb anyway so it wasn't that much of a big deal.

But you know, most of the stuff for the flirting, it was all, it was just me and Paula just for at least those scenes.

And you know, the part where I'm kissing her hand for like way too long, we didn't really have any problems with it.

The first day that I did it, she was just kind of like, "Oh, this is really long."

And then the next time I did it, she was just like, "Okay," she didn't care.

But that's just the connection that we already had.

I think it was interesting watching, you know, how it got less and less...

It got more comfortable for them to do it.

But like I said, it was just easy.

And even if it wasn't Paula, you know, if that's what the script has, then I don't really have a big problem with it.

- How would that make you feel?

That's all I'm looking for.

- Yeah.

- So why you not giving me that natural reaction?

All acting is, all it is is a natural reaction.

I mean, we think of acting and we think we have to go somewhere else outside of ourselves.

That's not always the case.

You have to use what you have first.

That's why you're cast.

Because we need what you have to build upon what these things are.

- [Paula] Okay.

- Yes?

- Yes.

- So give me the natural reaction.

And the way y'all hug, I mean been like, I wanna write this down as a note.

Why?

I dunno what you're doing.

It's like, [Juson groaning].

I'm like, why?

- [Paula] Yeah.

- I'd rather you make it feel like you're gonna really do something.

You're really gonna kiss.

What's your line?

- Well, it's a good thing you've been found.

- Well, it's a good thing you've been found.

[Paula laughing] [gentle music] - We had a great, what, three, four [indistinct].

- January?

[indistinct chattering] - But yeah, like we've had a great time together.

I've had a great time with you all and I think that we've all learned a lot.

I know that I've definitely learned a lot.

I hope that I've been able to teach you all something, you know, and also just still kind of like hope you have some more fun with theater.

You know what I mean?

This is a really, really great day.

You all should be very proud of the work that you all have done throughout these weeks.

So I say to you all, have fun tonight.

The last couple of months that we've done, you guys have been doing some amazing work.

Continue to do that amazing work.

Stick to the stuff we have been doing, you know what I mean?

But continue to explore and have fun because theater is something that you do differently, you can do differently every day.

You learn and you discover new things every single time we get up on that stage, right?

So continue to discover, continue to learn, continue to have fun, continue to play.

You know what I mean?

I just wanna say I love y'all.

- [Group] Love's Labor's Lost!

[group cheering] [indistinct chattering] [group cheering] [indistinct chattering] - [Tai] Nothing I need but for y'all to get into costume.

- Opening night.

Oh my goodness, I'm not ready.

- Here he is, help me!

- Opening night!

It's opening night.

- It's opening night.

- It's opening night.

- It's opening night.

[gentle music] - [Interviewer] What is it like to be young in 2024?

- It's a lot.

And especially thinking that I'm only 17 right now.

I turn 18 in three, four months.

You know, it's scary.

It's scary to know that I'm going from someone who really doesn't have much say in how the world around me goes right into like being an adult.

Like I feel like nervous, but I'll take it as it comes.

♪ Here we come to save the day ♪ ♪ Here he comes to save the day ♪ - Get a load of this guy.

- That is like, that's a loaded question because it's so hard.

There's so much going on in the world that it's like... Like a lot of times my dad will say like, "Oh no, I don't know what's gonna happen when you get older.

I remember when..." And I'm a person who loves like Etta James, like Frank Sinatra.

And I always like think back to like, oh, I would love to be alive during that time where they had the big dresses and the classic dances and you know, like stuff.

But I mean, I don't know.

Everything's just so...

It feels more relaxed.

It feels fun.

But it's also hard 'cause there's a lot of social and mental things going on and like, especially for teenagers, it's hard.

And for teenage girls, oh my gosh, there's so much like clashing and hatred going on.

And so for me as someone who wants to be an actor, I had to like push everything away and be like, I want this because this is what's right for me.

- I feel like now that I am 18, I feel like there's a lot of times where I look back and I'm just like, wow, like 2017 is seven years ago.

And I think that's insane.

I don't wanna be one of the type of people like, oh, I missed who I was back then.

I think I just missed how I felt 'cause I didn't have as much responsibility as I have now and I didn't have all this stress of what I have now.

I feel like these generations of kids and my generation of kids, it's sort of that we're forced to grow up.

We sort of have to acknowledge what's going on in the world, you know, especially in a time of infinite knowledge at our fingertips.

If you don't hear about some big thing that happened in the world, you just seem like you're under a rock or something.

- Being young is hard, but it's so much better trying to listen to yourself.

And I think young people need to stop hating on everyone and just realize that we are the future.

So if we can work together, it will go so much smoother.

You know?

- [Group] Love's Labor's Lost!

[group cheering] [indistinct chattering] [bright music] [bright music continues] [bright music continues] [audience applauding] [bright music] [bright music continues] - I love the feeling of opening night.

Your very first entrance on opening night is the best feeling in the world.

In that moment, I hear every step that I take and it's so surreal to be able to be in front of that many people and for all of them to be interested in something that I have to say, whether it be something that I have to say or something that my character has to say is an amazing, incredible feeling that does not get replicated by anything that I have done in my life.

[actor screams] - Oh my god.

- It should have made me find why I love acting again.

This is my first real performance, just me being me.

[gentle music] - The first moment we saw Blake come out with the horse costume on, I lost it.

[Lydia laughing] And then I like whip open the curtain.

I'm like, there and all hail is foul as I conceive.

And the first time, like I swear one of the times he got so scared, he like screamed.

- Oh, I get to be involved in making something that I love.

That's why it's worth it for me.

I contributed and helped make this happen and I think it's really cool and I really like the people who are participating as well.

So beyond the fact that I'm like nostalgic for the stories and I've enjoyed the productions, I saw there's always more to work on and more to talk about.

[bright music] [bright music continues] - And I think if I look back on it 10 years from now, it's always gonna be a memory that I'll remember, like it's definitely not gonna be something I forget.

I'll definitely always have it in my favorites on Google and always like click on it every so often and be like, don't remember the time when... And just creating all those moments was so like heartwarming and it just brought out so much happiness in me.

[audience applauding] [bright music] [bright music continues] [bright music continues] [indistinct chattering]