Today we tackled our first issue – HIV/AIDS. We started our day with an activity that asked us to agree or disagree with statements about HIV/AIDS. After learning some background information about the history of the HIV pandemic and some statistics about infection rates today, we watched a moving and inspiring film, Philadelphia. The film showed discrimination based on HIV status and sexual orientation. It also brought up issues of racism and sexism. After lunch, we warmed up with some more games and learned a new way to start creating a play – creating images and “sculpting” each other into scenes. We also created “machines” out of emotions and themes to demonstrate new ways of approaching difficult material. It was a fantastic day filled with invigorating performances, despite the lack of trips to Starbucks. We continued to bond as a group and worked on expressing our opinions as a group and as individuals. Tomorrow we will work on our second issue.