It's a Bittersweet Biscuit to Swallow

I am writing this from my bed in America. Four days ago(has it been that long already?) on Saturday we woke up around 8 to get to the theatre by 9:30, practiced our piece in the actual theatre for the first time while the lighting cues were being figured out around us.  A quick lunch break and then it was time. The Aberdonian group went first, with a devised piece based on Hansel and Gretel, which was quite spooky actually. Then it was us. It went amazingly well. We were all practically off book from all of our rehearsal, and the entire play had been staged, so despite the lack of set it seemed put together. One tense moment when I couldn't find my script for the town hall scene and in a moment of panic grabbed Lily's from her hand, but in the end both she and I both knew all our lines and the audience was none the wiser. Having the audience always adds a new element to a show that you can't predict, and this time it gave me a huge jolt of energy. Everything I did was greater and at the end of the nightmare scene, where I'm supposed to scream a little monologue, when I'd finished I realized I'd screamed so loud that my abdominal muscles were cramping. It was a marvelous feeling when we'd finished. Most of all I'll treasure when Jodie(the actually playwright) told me I did a wonderful job. It was such an honor to work with her and I hope I will again. Judith hugged me and said it was amazing which was high praise coming from her. Dave told me it had been really good. it was so heartwarming to get praise from people whose opinion I value and who I dearly hope to work with again. We all did amazingly and I was so proud of everyone when the lights went down on the final scene and I realized we did the whole thing without a hitch.

The Aberdonians and all of us somehow managed to find a table for 18 and spent the time before our reservation getting Dave and Mallory's presents together. Amongst other things they got Britain's best Mum and Dad mugs, which I'm happy to say they found hilarious, if they hadn't I'm not sure how that conversation would have gone down. We ate and then headed back to the dorms. I finished packing and  took a shower, when I came downstairs to see what everyone was up to I found them all playing one of those strange games where you always end up saying strangly personal things(i.e. truth or dare), this one was called paranoia. Mallory, Dave and I sat in the corner and participated but after a while went up to bed. I hugged all the Aberdonians good bye, realizing that a year would be a very long time to have none of them in my life. Then, feeling sad about leaving them, I went to bed. That was about 11:30. At 3 am Dave knocked on my door to wake me up. When I'd dragged my self from bed and pulled on my airplane clothes, I went down the hall to Kemp's room when everyone else was, and had been from the past four hours. They were full to the gills with sugar and caffeine in an attempt to stay up all night and somehow beat the jet lag. They were giggly nostalgic bundles of tiredness. We all went out to the bus and, trying not to cry, I hugged Dave and Mallory good bye. I'll really miss them, their weird senses of humor and the lovely long conversations we'd had walking between the theatre and the dorms. Unlike the Aberdonians I don't have the certainty of knowing I'll see them next summer. But that's all the more reason to go back to Scotland soon. We climbed on the bus and waved goodbye until they were out of sight. I stared out the window as the bus rolled along, trying to take in every last sight of Aberdeen I could. It is a beautiful city, especially at night. Two hours later as I walked out to the the airplane that would take me to London Heathrow, I promised Scotland I would be back.

The next 15 hours were an unpleasant blur of airport and then airplane. When I stumbled out of the gate at SFO I was ready to sleep for a very long time. I came home and Mom and Dad got me sushi, proof that they're exemplary parents. I fell asleep in my own bed, and had the most relaxed sleep I'd had for two weeks.

Now a few days later I'm finally getting my feet back under me. Emotionally I'm having a ping pong match that seems firmly tied. As exciting and adventurous as travel is it serves the very important purpose of reminding you to be grateful for home. Home may or may not be where the heart is, but more importantly home is where your bed, your refrigerator, and your washing machine are. Home is also, for me at least, where you are comfortable. Where you know people will laugh at your jokes, and if they don't laugh at least understand what you were trying to say. The result of being very close with my parents is that we have a sort of language, well more a dialect all our own. When I'm out on my own for prolonged periods of time, I discover just how foreign that dialect can seem. It is a great relief to be home. On the other hand I'm missing Scotland a lot more than you'd think only two weeks there would produce. I miss all the granite stone houses and cobblestone streets. I miss hearing a scottish or english accent and not a californian upward inflection from the people behind cash registers and coffee counters. I miss the fog and the fickle tempered rain. I wish I could go to another ceilidh and dance with Scottish strangers and friends again. Most of all, I miss the people I spent those two weeks with, so much so that its like a stomach ache when I think of them. I'm glad that returning home felt good, otherwise I would be very miserable, but I don't want to let go of my longing for Scotland either.

All in all I'm very glad I went on this trip, and I'm very grateful I got to see Scotland. I don't know how I will accomplish it, but I will be going back someday in the not to distant future. I will most definitely be going back to Aberdeen, but I also want to explore Glasgow and Edinburgh.

This post marks the end of one journey, but I hope soon I will be writing one to mark the beginning of another.

Sincerely,

Drama Queen

P.S. The play will go up in February. I'll let you know how its going.

Finish line in sight, turn back!

Hello readers,

This trip has gone so fast and the end is now in sight, hence the title. Today is Friday that leaves tomorrow before our flight home . The play workshopping is coming along at an astounding rate. In fact we have just finished our third full run through. Tomorrow we get to practice at the theatre, and then we perform. I wish we had another week or two here, not just because I like it so much, but because I want to get this wonderful play I have the honor of being in into a finished and polished state, worthy if the price of a ticket. We saw an amazing piece of theatre night before last in the theatre we'll be doing our staged reading in. It was devised, but on a level way above what we did. It was a life on WWI, about six young soldiers from Bristol who all were in a boys choir when they were young. It was very moving and the impact of the violence and futility of war hit us full in the face without the actors ever enacting a single battle scene. I'm now harboring dreams of coming back to Britain to do theatre after I get some film work under my belt.

Last we attended the youth festival dance gala. It was a mixed basket when it came to talent but full steam ahead on the enthusiasm. A dance troupe of Azerbaijanis where on their game. They danced around the stage in perfect sync, their legs tapping and kicking at high speed, and conviction and pride radiating from them like the sun. A group from Israel did 6, I repeat 6, seperate numbers. They unfortunately weren't great. Not terrible, but their choreography was pedestrian and the dancers weren't trained or rehearsed as much as they could have been. A ballet group from the Czech  republic were elegant beyond belief, and though their dance was long, we were hooked the entire time. All in all it was a fun time.

It's our second to last night, and I'm about to go join everyone down stairs for group hangout and dinner. I'm missing my parents and my creature comforts, but I also don't want to leave. I've worked with people here I wish I could keep working with to an even higher level of theatre. There are people who I would like to think are friends, who I don't know when I will see again. I have to have faith that the universe will cross our paths again. I have loved the buzz of being in a city with a heart and mind completely different from any city I've ever lived in. I will miss the beauitful countryside, and accents. Going home feels like the end of the adventure, when the adventure feels like it's only just begun. But I have to remember that life is an adventure if you make it that way, and I will continue doing what I love, whether in California or Scotland. I return home with renewed purpose in my chosen profession.

I've got to go. I'll let you know how the show goes.

Sincerely,

Drama Queen

Monday morning I wake up tired

Hello lovely readers,

Sorry I've been absent. I haven't had wifi for the past two days so I couldn't reach you.

The performance Saturday went swimmingly. We worked hard and were very proud of what we achieved, but none the less we breathed a sigh of relief when it was all over. Yesterday, Sunday, we had a quite rigorous day considering it was our free day. We did all thouroughly Scottish things. In he morning we took a train to the small fishing town of Stonehaven. We hiked to the ruins of castle Dunnotar on a cliff overlooking the sea. It was a beauitful hike and an awe inspiring castle. Then we had some wonderful ice cream in the village and got back on the train home so we could get ready to go to a ceilidh[kay-lee]. A ceilidh is a Scottish dance, an event not a singular dance. Since the dance hall they usually had was under construction and most of the the youth theatre/dance/music groups showed up, we were packed quite snugly into a large domed tent. The crowding did make it a bit of a Scottish jig mosh pit, but nothing could detract from the pure joy of the dancing. I've never had so much fun at a dance in my life. I shared two of the single partner dances with my chaperones, which was good because they could teach me the steps. I danced with strangers and my group, and at the final dance, strip the willow, I danced with half the people in the tent as one by one partners moved down the rows, alternating linking arms with their partners and then who ever was next in line and swing them around. The band was wonderful and the violin seemed to get right down in to my blood. I twirled, waltzed, spun, jumped, and swung round till I was out of breath and still eager for more. The dances flew by and before I knew it it was almost midnight and we we stumbling out of the tent and back to our bus. At this point in the evening is was loudly lamenting not being Scottish, because I can tell you that any country that has a ceilidh as part of its traditions is a place I want to be.

We woke up this morning, tired and sore from hiking and dancing, and went to our first day of working on the script. We finally got to meet the play write and did several read throughs with her, discussing the changes and additions needed. It's a very interesting topic and what we have so far is very good, so I'm eager to see the new pages she's promised us. However, sitting down at a table reading for several hours after a week of days filled with movement meant we were sluggish and tired, especially after last night. Tomorrow will be more active as we start staging the scenes.

We came back and I spent the evening trying to get clean clothes from the finicky dormitory washer and dryer.

I'll include some photos from Sunday.

Until tomorrow hopefully.

Sincerely,

Drama Queen

The point of the photo is the castle in the distance not the couple

Dunnotar

Chelsea freaking out over how beauitful it is.

It rained intermittently while we were wandering around

Sleep, theatre, eat, repeat

Hey there hi there ho there,

Sorry for the absence. We've been devising a piece for the past three days that goes up tomorrow. I've just finished writing a monologue today that I have to do tomorrow to close the show, so I've been a bit pressed. I'm loving it though. The theatre company we've been working with has really impressed me. I have so much respect for the woman whose been directing us and were doing such interesting work. I'm really pleased with the piece and that I will have some of my own work in it. It's about identity, conformity, and individualism. Fairly trodden ground I know but I think we do some interesting things with it. We've got some dance, some scenes with symbolic balloons, a great scene reminiscent of Orwell's 1984, and a few monologues. I'm excited.

Wednesday was just another day of working in this piece, but in the evening we went to a BBQ at one of the Scottish girls(Sophie) house. Everyone had a good time and the food was good. I'm not much of a party animal but good food is good food.

Thursday was more devising followed by some shopping and then a deliciousness company meal at a pizza restaurant that did gluten free crust on any pizza! I'm finding more gluten free options in Scotland than America. Along with the accent, people, multitude of theatre, and beauitful scenery I'm tempted to break up with America and move in with Scotland.

Today we had to get up an hour early to meet with Domenique and discuss the script and it's rewrites. I'm too tired to go into script details now but it's the story of a small island that has no government representation and is attempting to rebel. I couldn't belive it when Domenique asked me to play Cromarty, one of the mains characters and the island representative. I was beaming inside all morning. Then we set to work, pulling tight on the ropes of our piece and finally pulling the pieces together. This evening we saw a fantastic show by a youth theatre company called Our Scotland. A somewhat musical comedy dedicated to their love of their homeland. We were in stitches for most of it.

Well I was up late last night writing my monologue and tonight memorizing it so I must go. Included are some photos of the park right next to the theatre where we had a picnic.

Sincerely,

Drama Queen

Schappenin(spelling unknown)

Gotta keep this short and sweet as I need to sleep.

Today we lost Oliver briefly but found him. Today our class was a modern dance class which made me enormously happy. Most of my American group have all done musicals together and like to burst into song. I can sing but I mostly only sing at home and I haven't been in their shows. I was glad to have something I felt truly comfortable and good at. Modern dance is my jam. We had three hours of that followed by two hours of devising, which is creating a theatre piece. After we got out of class we and the scots went for fish and chips. To my amazement they had gluten free fish n chips. After sorting out a 16 person bill we walked to the beach. From the beach back to our dorms. There in the games room we met a group of young Scottish actors playing ping pong. They were from all over Scotland but two of them were from Glasgow and after listening to our accent they set about teaching us Glaswegian slang. The title of this post is something they taught us. It means what's happening. They were fantastic but we we're exhausted from walking back and forth across Aberdeen and had to go to bed. 

I'm including some photos. 

Sincerely,

Drama Queen