Save the Best for Last - Oedipus, The Wheel, and Edinburgh Castle

My last day in Edinburgh was by far the best day I had since I arrived. I saw my two final shows which were both amazing. First, I saw Oedipus by Stephen Berkoff (after Sophocles) at Pleasance Courtyard. This performance had some really great direction that changed the way that Greek Tragedies are performed. There were no acts to speak of and the play moved from scene to scene smoothly without large transitions. There were about 8 – 10 men who acted as a traditional Greek Chorus. However, rather than just reinforcing the plot with the text, they used movement to convey their emotion. There was a lot of moving in slow motion (similar to Suzuki) and posing in different positions during speeches. I thought it would get old after a while but it was done so well, it never did.

My next show, The Wheel was by far the weirdest and best show that I saw. The basis of the show is a woman whose home is invaded by soldiers in Spain during World War II. They find a man who they think was trading with the enemy and they banish him from the country. However, his little girl is found and in desperation, Beatriz (the main character) hopes to run after her father and deliver his little girl. However, Beatriz does not particularly like children and she finds herself in a difficult situation trying to comfort the girl. As the war quickly develops and she is left with another child who has been badly burned and has a fever. In attempts to save both of them, she goes finds a doctor who tricks them and the girl bites her in self-defense. The doctor beats her with a stick but she doesn’t flinch and is not visibly hurt. The doctor assumes that she is mystical and begs her to “take back the curse”. As the three characters travel, the girl performs more mystical acts and eventually gets the reputation for being able to conduct miracles. Spoiler alert: the girl begins to perform “evil” actions such as starting fires and killing people. The more violence that she sees during the war, the more evil she becomes. The play begins to focus on her eyes and she eventually scratches them until they bleed (the second show of the day where the main character gouges their eyes out). In the end, Beatriz sees a mirage of the first scene. She exclaims that she is in hell if she has to relieve the journey with the girl. Thus, the wheel.

It was a beautiful day (the best we had in Edinburgh) so I decided to spend the rest of my day at the Edinburgh Castle. Once you get into the castle, the view is AMAZING. (You can click on the pictures to make them bigger). I loved just walking around and taking in my surroundings. I did all the museums inside the Castle and saw the Scottish Crown Jewels! I also ran into David Hasselhoff walking around the castle, no big deal. He is here doing something with the BBC. 

On top of the castle!

View from the top!

More of Edinburgh.

Off to London!

Tattoo-ed

As I am writing this, I am sitting in the Edinburgh Central Youth Hostel relaxing before I leave to see my final two shows (Oedipus and The Wheel). The Hostel is quite lively and very accommodating. It’s a BEAUTIFUL day and I can’t wait to get out and take some pictures and such since it’s been rainy for a couple of days.

Street advertisement for Oedipus

Last night we went to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo as a closing night celebration! The Tattoo is on the grounds of the castle and basically, a performance showing off Scotland’s Military Band along with other performances. I’m also pretty sure that I found the perfect job… wait for it… being on the Lighting Crew for the Tattoo. This idea all started when I saw a girl walking around with a sweatshirt that said “Lighting Crew Edinburgh Military Tattoo”. Before seeing her, I hadn’t really thought about lighting in relationship to the Tattoo but now that I have seen the show, I can’t imagine it without the lighting and projections. I was amazed. The stadium where the Tattoo is held is quite large and holds about 7,000 people but the lights have to be hung BEHIND the audience, a good distance away from the performance space. I was first amazed how detailed the lighting was for a space so large, and then, the projections started. These were not traditional projections projected onto a screen; these projections were projected onto THE CASTLE. The projector(s) were across the stadium and yet, the projections were extremely clear and moved/changed flawlessly.

Lots, and lots, and lots of bagpipes.

The castle literally changed colors.

Drawbridge Projection.

This is the the projector that was located across from the castle and still produced a clear image. 

Every time a group came through the castle, it looked like the Wizard of Oz. 

Pretty gobs!

This projection moved during the "fishing dance". 

Clearly the projections were well aligned. 

Union Jack projection during the finale. 

After all of the performances, there is a big fireworks show and since we went on Saturday night, there were more than ever! It was a beautiful experience (especially from a lighting standpoint) and also gave me an insight into Scottish heritage and the sense of national pride they have. Here's a video from the grand finale with all the performers on stage!

Cheers!

On The Fringe.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while... things have been crazy since I arrived in Edinburgh. Unfortunately, right before I left, I found out that my grandmother died at the age of 96. I am so fortunate to have had her in my life for as long as I did and she was so proud of me. I know she would have wanted me to take advantage of the festival, so that’s exactly what I’ve been doing!

We arrived in Edinburgh around 5:00 PM on Monday and it was such a GORGEOUS drive, especially once we crossed the Scottish border. I didn’t see any shows that night as I was just getting my bearings and trying to figure out how the fringe really worked… it’s quite overwhelming!

On Tuesday, we had our first tech for the show and it was quite painless compared to other techs I’ve participated in. There are so many performances in one space that everything moves very quickly. We focused several “lanterns”, “cued the show”, had a short dress rehearsal, and then we were out of there! Tuesday night I saw two shows, The Curse of Macbeth and Orpheus and Eurydice. The Curse of Macbeth was put on by students from Cambridge University and used about 6 mirrors that could be illuminated and moved around for different scenes. While the mirrors added “spectacle”, I found that they were a little overused, as there were at least 100 internal cues in a 65-minute show. Orpheus and Eurydice was horrible, no point in talking about it. However, I will say when you see shows at The Fringe, they are either hit or miss. It also takes a while to hear about what is popular. One good thing did come out of the seeing the show as I met some students from New York working on a show called From the Fire, that I saw on Wednesday morning.

DISCLAIMER: If you were not in the Luminous Stage (or didn’t teach it), you can skip this next section.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Fringe is how they can turn ANY space into a performance space. Many times when I walk into a venue, the first thing is notice is how they have set it up and look up at how they have hung the lights. In venues that are  not normally performances spaces, they just bring in trusses to hang lights. I’ve also found that LED “lanterns” are EXTREMELY popular here. I can see how they would be useful for the Fringe because there are no gels to change and they are much more energy efficient. When you only have five minutes to do a changeover, anything that saves just a little bit of times is useful. When I was talking to the Production Manager of Gryphon Venues, he was telling me that many venues that were not designed to be theatres use LED lights because the building can handle the electrical current better compared to just using traditional lanterns.
                                                              

Wednesday was opening night and everything went smoothly! What a relief! On Wednesday night, I saw the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama’s production of Sunday in the Park with George. For a student production, it was quite impressive and all of the actors had so much energy. Later that night, I saw The Last Five Years. I wanted to see the production because I worked on it this past spring and thought it would be interesting to see another take on the show. It wasn’t anything to write home about but it brought back a lot of memories.

Thursday I woke up super early and schlepped over to New Town (in the POURING rain) to see VCU’s production of Uncle Tom: de-constructed.  I really wanted to see it because of my American Studies background and I thought I’d support Richmond. I thought that the show was well done and forced the audience to think about race and performance. Then, I saw FRESHER: The Musical that didn’t make you think at all but was just a lot of fun! It also got me really excited for “Freshers Week” at UEA this Fall! Then, I ran over to Assembly Hall (right across from the Castle) to see Rasta Thomas’ Rock the Ballet. I had heard that the projections were fantastic and thought it was worth checking out. As I was standing in line, I met a mother and daughter who were from Norwich and were in Edinburgh performing with the Norfolk Youth Theatre, what a small world!

Just trying to get people to come to his show.

 The great thing about The Fringe is that there is ALWAYS something to see. If you don’t want to spend money and go to a venue, you can just walk down the Royal Mile and see street performers who are always entertaining. As much fun as The Fringe can be, it can also be overwhelming. The only way I can describe the Royal Mile during the Fringe is that it is like Times Square during the Holidays.

Street Performer!

First Steps...

To those following, sorry I haven’t posted something since I’ve arrived! Everything has been crazy, both getting here and being here!

On Monday, my parents and I drove up to Washington, D.C. for my 6:40 PM flight out of Dulles. Once we arrived it started to rain but didn’t seem like much. However, there were much worse storms north of Dulles that prohibited us to take off. We ended up sitting at the gate for FOUR HOURS. Finally around 10:45 PM we took off and pretty much everyone on the plane passed out for the rest of the flight. When I landed in London, I had missed my National Express bus to Norwich and had to run to the Central Bus Station to catch the next bus. The journey didn’t end there though. The bus was supposed to drop me off at the UEA bus stop (closest to the program house) but when we got to the main Norwich train station, the bus driver decided that he was running too late to make the stop! I officially got to the house around 5:30 PM on Tuesday and had just enough time to put my suitcase(s) down!

On Tuesday night, Karen and her friend invited me to see a group of “Morris Dancers” at the Adam and Eve Pub in Norwich (the oldest pub in the city)! One of their good friends is a dancer in the group and we were able to see her perform and talk to her more about the group. To those who know about my obsession with the play Jerusalem, the dancing is exactly like that. No lie.  

This is the group, the "Gold Stars".

They were dancing in the street right outside the pub.

Jerusalem with the original London Cast

On Wednesday, we had our first rehearsal at UEA Drama Studio with Tony frost, our director. The walk from the house to campus is about 20 minutes but quite charming! You walk through Eaton Park, home of the “Norwich Model Boat Club” that has this wonderful reflection pool where people sail their model boats. Much of the morning was spent bringing me up to speed on what they have been working on and getting acquainted with UEA’s campus. Tony was great and gave me a mini-tour of the campus, student union, and theatre! It’s much different than Dickinson but I’m excited for school to get started… in two months.

The "lake" that I walk by every morning to rehearsal.

All for now, Cheers!