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| The castle was bathed in sunlight this morning |
The first order of business was to replace the frame pipe that had not made it to Scotland. This involved some logistics since our living quarters are close to a downtown area. But Mr. Schneider, Sarah and I got out early and took the bus about 20 minutes out of town to a large shopping area that featured a home store called B & Q - a cousin to Home Depot (who knows, maybe they are owned by the same company - there were a lot of similarities, down to the orange signage!). Sarah's manager skills were put into play right away to keep Mr. Schneider from spending all day in there - talk about a kid in a candy store! Luckily we found what we needed fairly quickly and were on our way back to the dorm, arriving by 9:30. Sarah and Jeff did their magic and the parts were soon ready to go.
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| Ready for a mission! |
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| Fixing the play |
Before we could do our own show, we were scheduled to be the audience for another school's show. A group from California did a shortened version of HAMLET that featured a super-high energy performance by the whole cast - especially the young man who played the title role. It was one of the clearest, most concise performances of the play I've ever seen, and the actors should be congratulated for their fantastic energy and commitment.
The group performed at Pilrig Studio, a small space in the social hall of the Pilrig Church, in the Leith section of the city. We had 15 minutes or so to marvel at the awesome beauty of the sanctuary, which was used as holding area before the performance!
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| The beautiful Pilrig Church |
Each play has a two-hour slot to arrive, set up, perform and take down. HAMLET occupied the 12-2 slot, and afterwards we were whisked away to Pollack Halls, where we had a little over an hour to get ready for our own show!
Ms.s Berman arranged use of one of the meeting rooms to help with some makeup and the actors prepared their costumes in their own rooms. Aman circulated amongst all to make sure all costume pieces were ready.
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| Aman checks out costume lists |
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| Waiting for showtime |
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| An AHSTF Staffer stops in |
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| Sophia takes her eye lining seriously
Finally at 3:30 we boarded the bus for the short trip to Church Hill Theatre. We arrived at 3:45 and had about 15 minuttes to wait while the group before us finished and vacated.
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| The cast is ready |
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| Getting on the bus |
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| We'll call this the turtle stretch |
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| A phrog photobomb |
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| The chaperones are also ushers and fire marshalls |
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| What? I'm a frog! |
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| You make up a caption for this one |
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| Moles at the ready |
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| It's a lizard! |
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| The brain trust |
At the stroke of 4, the doors opened and our group was admitted. They went right to work with crackerjack efficiency. Festival rules dictate a strict time limit - 20 minutes to set up and then the house opens and 5 minutes later the curtain goes up - ready or not.. Our team was amazing in its preshow work especially since Sarah and Julia had to reconstruct the stage left frame right then and there. This was made more complicated because some of the pieces were not fitting well and the frame was not holding upright. The problem wasn't fixed by showtime so Sarah calmly switched to plan B - a crew member or actor would stand behind the platform and steady the frame throughout the duration of the play. Even when there was nothing on the frame, a crew member calmly and silently stood or sat behind the unit and held the frame - the actors ignored the intrusion and soon the crew member virtually disappeared from the audience's conscious view! It was brilliant cooperation from all involved.
The show itself was terrific, considering how many sound, light and prop issues we were not able to deal with during the tech rehearsal. We had two schools present (unfortunately no neighborhood sales) and they really seemed to enjoy it! The actors showed full committment to every aspect of the story and the crew kept things running smoothly despite operating one member short due to the frame holding requirement!
Lisa Smeallie was able to take a few shots from her seat during the show. Love the bright background colors!
I had a few sound boo-boos and we discovered a couple of mismarked cues, but everyone stayed totally focused and together, resulting in a really energetic and fun performance!
The show fit exactly into its expected time slot of 1 hour 15 minutes. After the show the work lights went on and the company worked with startling speed to erase all traces of our presence. At exactly 6:00 we were walking out the door and the next cast was walking in. There was military precision to all maneuvers today!
We brought the frame home after the show for more work and shoring up - hopefully tomorrow it will be good to go as we have the early show on Tuesday - 10am!
Back at Pollack Halls we enjoyed a well deserved dinner break, and then it seems that folks split into 3 camps. Some headed to their rooms to just relax and retool, and some took in the traditional Scottish Celidh (pronounced "kaylee" - Scottish dancing lessons!). Here is one photo courtesy of Andrea Kibbe - hopefully there will be more!
Others took Logan up on his offer to guide a sunset hike up to Arthur's Seat. I chose this path, along with Mr. Kibbe - and I know I will regret it in the morning - but boy was it worth it! The team chose one of the more challenging ways to get up - in fact it wasn't one of the paths included on the map. Once the hike reached the rock climbing stage I realized it was more than I could handle and I retreated, to try another way But the rest were able to scramble to the top of the rocky crags and go on their way toward the summit.
I chose the ring road around the mountain, a walk that had its own special joys without as much struggle. I finally found the straight path up and it wasn't long before I heard loud giggles hearty laughter and cries of "Jordan!" I knew I'd found the climbing party again!
The views from the top are stunning - ancient city to one side, Firth of Forth to the other - rolling pastures and far mountains to another.
{Perhaps one of the funniest sights at the top was of Simon, chatting energetically via Skype with his family, at the summit while hopping from one rock formation to another. Now there's a sharing of the trip!
Our climb down was less difficult, as we found the better marked paths. On the way down, again and again I heard comments about this being one of the great experiences of their lives - they LOVED being at the summit and seeing the world stretching out before them!
Back at Pollack, we met Mrs. Gallagher, who was volunteering to take students a short way up for stargazing - it is a crystal clear night - and a few took her up on the offer - including a couple of folks who had just climbed down! Here are some of Andrea's photos:
Our trip to Arthur's Seat tonight is indicative of the life-changing experience that this trip is providing for this company of travelers. They will probably remember this day - and night - much longer than most things that happened during high school.
Time to get to bed - early day tomorrow! But before I close, I'll share the video that was made by a local gentleman who watched our Royal Mile performance - he engaged the kids in quite a conversation about our trip, and offered to take some promo video for his youtube channel - he's a fan of the fringe and enjoys helping folks out this way - so enjoy this little snippet of life on the mile!
Einstein STAGE on the Royal Mile!
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