Stop 3 – Lafayette College, Pennsylvania
Knock knock!
Who’s there?
A new blog update from AFTLS?!?!
WHOOP WHOOP!!
That’s right folks, I’m back and with the news that crossing of fingers was not good enough for our flights to Pennsylvania…
Shortly after the last upload, all flights were cancelled after a very unfortunate construction worker snipped a cable. The airport stood still. We ended up being at the airport for nearly TEN hours!!! Pamela, our brilliant travel lead, took charge of the metaphorical ship and after a 4 hour drive through multiple states, gas station emergency snack stock ups and many a sleepy eye, we arrived in Easton, Pennsylvania at 1am. What. A. Day.
I’ll tell you what though, it was worth it! Easton has been my favorite stop so far, extremely beautiful landscapes, a stunning river and brilliant people. For my Attenborough peeps, this week we spotting jumping fish (perhaps not biologically correct but unsure how else to describe!), a heron hunting, groundhogs and some grey and red beetle/moth things that love to fly straight into you. A strong variety some might say.
Lafayette College was the shining herald that brought us to Easton, it also brought us to compulsively sing Hamilton lyrics unannounced (if you know, you know), both things are of equal importance of course. The grounds of Lafayette are stunning with mostly 19th century architecture, I particularly enjoyed the rope swings found under many a tree and also the communal gaming areas. There was definitely a strong community feel to the area and college which lent itself beautifully to the workshops. We had 11 workshops this week, with a wide mix of students – I had a “Speaking Power” workshop which had a mix of athletes and stem students. A standout of this for me, was to see the variety in pieces that they had chosen, from Hamlet to political speeches to narrative monologues, it was varied both in choice and delivery, a joy to watch and work on!
We also had the pleasure of going to Easton Arts Academy Elementary school which was a JOY! Pamela, Hayden and I loved working on character development, stagecraft and soundscapes with them, the young people had so much energy to give and were so fearlessly willing to give everything a go! It is truly so inspiring to see the future generation of performers have such passion and to be supported by such wonderful teachers – special shoutout to Miss Snyder!
The social highlight for this week was our evening trip up to “Wanderlust Bar” where we watched the incredible band – “A Girl & A Guy”. We danced, we sang, we had margaritas by the tap, a time was had!
THE ChenEATS FOOD HALL OF FAME AWARD:
I am a huge lover of Greek cuisine and more specifically tzatziki, admittedly I can be quite a harsh critic of the aforementioned, but this week’s award, without a DOUBT goes to… Gyro Concept Easton – Chicken Gyros Bowl!!!! If you are ever in Easton, please go! Extremely lovely service, freshly made food with some dessert freebies on the side, the tzatziki was creamy, fresh and garlicky to the heavens and the chicken was seasoned to perfection! Extremely filling and yet not heavy on la stomach. 5 stars all around!
Stop 4 – UT San Antonio, Texas
Being smacked in the face by a wall of blistering heat in Texas was NOT something I expected to experience this year, but I feel so lucky that I did! That first step off the plane was the step into our stop at UT San Antonio and an unpredictable climate. We started with scorching 35 degrees by the pool which rapidly plunged into flood warnings. Multiple seasons within a week! Notably I saw my first deer on the huge and beautiful campus, much to my delight! Embarrassingly, I discovered that what I thought was a roadrunner was in fact a Grackle, equally cool of course, no disrespect to all Grackles out there!
You may recall that in the Stop 2 post, I mentioned exploring the Beatrice gulling scene to find a version that didn’t have to rival the Benedick one in terms of humour. Update, we seem to be striking a balance between the two, we have more of the depth of the Beatrice and Hero relationship which gives us the freedom to find the truth within the text. On the other side, Pamela has been gloriously exploring forms of camouflage within the border which brings us some of the lightness back in, the scene is different every time and actually, I love that it takes me by surprise. We’ve also added the guitar and humming harmonies back into the tomb scene which adds a more haunting effect which I think we were missing slightly. Still, the exploration continues! The more we do the show and settle into it, the more we breathe and the text with us, it’s a delight to see the world that we’ve created come into tangible colour.
Workshops have been a joy as always. Particularly, Hayden and I had a workshop with Professor Zhang (pictured below) and her brilliant “Later Plays” class of 70 students! We had an absolute blast seeing them commit wholly to Shakespearean insults and their interpretations of monologues from Macbeth. We had them in groups creating movement and making textual choices to tell the stories, they gave us a western theme, dagger attacks for centre stage, choral movement and brilliant performance energy. It was a treat to work with such open and exciting people! Professor Zhang and her husband took us out for lunch at La Panaderia after which was a glorious time – thank you for making us feel so welcome!
A highlight of our entire week has been a surprise trip to Six Flags! A wonderful student, Ryan, got us free tickets to the park and we had a BLAST! Pamela in particular is our certified adrenaline junkie, sprinting through the park, twitching for more. To top it off, my childhood self received the gift of a dirt cake and my life changed, delightful. All of this on a job?! Pinch me.
THE ChenEATS HALL OF FAME AWARD:
Food isn’t just food or an assortment of grains, veg, and protein bundled into a bowl. No. It’s also an experience, an expression and development of self. All of this to say, the recipient of this week’s award is the Funnel Cake Graveyard from Six Flags. It’s rare that nostalgia can be experienced without the initial experience itself but alas, I lived a lifetime in one meal, saw the sun set and heard the children laughing. The freedom of being a child encapsulated into a meal. A funnel cake base, layered with crushed oreos, gummy worms, icing sugar and cream. A universe, a lifetime, a delight.
And thus, our blog entry draws to a close. It’s now time to head to Kansas, I’ll click my heels and see you there folks!