Intensity in Edinburgh

It's taken a while to post. Since we have arrived in Edinburgh, things have been in a whirlwind. The student immediately began a walking tour in the drizzle ( after being on the road in a bus for 6 hours), followed by a bus tour of the city. We then arrived at the University of Edinburgh campus to settle into Pollack halls, where we'll be staying for the remainder of the time here. the next day we had rather warm weather for Edinburgh, so the students took a hike up Arthur's Seat, the mountain behind our dorms. The adults took a hike of our own, walking up the 287 steps of the Walter Scott monument. In the afternoon we had our advertising opportunity by performing on the lower stage of the Royal Mile.

Sunday we had our 2 hour tech in the performance space at Church Hill. It was very stressful. Students had to adjust to the different space and write light cues in a short amount of time. We had a refresher rehearsal in the common room, and it really helped the students regroup. In the evening the students went to see a performance of The Last Five Years (they said it was mediocre,) while the adults went to see a very cool show at the Bedlam Theatre called a Strange Wild Song. It was influenced by photos of children during WWII and how they were affected by the violence around them. Hilarious in moments as well as heart breaking.

Today we had our first show. We had a larger audience than we expected, and our students were great. We have a few glitches to work out since this was our first run thru in the space with all the technical elements, but they were fantastic. Students ended the night with ceilidh, a Scottish dance. They had a blast and were completely worn out. They will sleep well before we get up to visit Stirling Castle in the morning.

I'll find a way to add more pictures soon.

Mrs. Schnider