Author Archives: aftls

Fall 2026 “Much Ado About Nothing” Entry #3

Posted on by
Reply

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 spotted 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!

Fall 2026 “Much Ado About Nothing” Entry #2

Posted on by

Hello esteemed readers! I am currently sat, nestled into a metal case of a chair at Logan International Airport, heading for Philadelphia! We are about to enter stop 3 of our US tour, so let me give you a recap!

Stop 1 – Notre Dame, Indiana, 29th August – 11th September

13-hour travel day, 6 regrettable naps, 2 chicken and waffles, and one bad back later and we arrive at Notre Dame, the home of AFTLS!

We of course had a much needed freshen up and then stumbled into the lobby where we were warmly welcomed and rejuvenated by the legend that is Cate (General Manager of Shakespeare at Notre Dame). Essential information passed on, we donned our newly acquired merch and strutted (or crawled, depends on who you ask) over to O’Rourkes, which would become our regular stop point over the next two weeks. Thus, it began.

We had our final week of rehearsals, working with the wonderful Scott to fine tune our piece and add in our character line up, the opening of the piece and within what felt like minutes, we were ready to do our preview at Westville Correctional Facility. This experience is one that I’m sure we all will carry for the rest of our lives. Personally, as a woman, there was something incredibly terrifying and beautiful about playing Leonato and speaking about grief, men, and loss to an audience of male inmates. Regardless of what preconceived ideas I had in my head, I was so moved and honoured to see that they were so incredibly generous within the space, their curiosity, their emotional investment, openness, and just the excitement to watch some Shakespeare. The Moreau College Initiative that they are running in the prison is so incredibly important and a brilliant step towards rehabilitation through the arts, everybody deserves access to spaces that they can express, create, and learn safely, regardless of the past.

After our preview, we found ourselves at the AC/DC concert in the esteemed ND stadium and never in my life have I seen that many people in one place, my mouth was agape throughout!! What a day, we travelled between worlds in a matter of hours. I truly feel so blessed to have come from my tiny seaside town in Margate, to share something that I love with wonderful people in a country so far away. What is this life!

The second half of this stop saw us delivering workshops across campus and having the opportunity to work with the incredible Not So Royal Shakespeare Company – a collective of students that are so brilliantly talented and passionate about Shakespeare. I’m sure we learned as much from them as they did from us, what a wonderful group of humans.

We rounded up our time in ND by heading to the Windy City (am I local now? Maybe) of Chicago! Hayden fell in love with the city and wants to move there one day. We ate a whole load of deep dish pizza, did a river tour, went to Second City, saw a bunch of weddings, went to the Green Mill and sat in Al Capone’s seat, saw some art, got a hair cut from a local, and wrote our name on the wall! In short, a joyous, touristic whirlwind.

THE CheEATS FOOD HALL OF FAME AWARD:

The wonderful Deb is our recipient this week! She hosted us in her home and ensured we had the best Taco Night of our lives. The birria beef was unlike anything I’ve encountered before, especially once combined with the fresh salsa, lettuce, and generous amounts of coriander. Sublime. Special shoutout to the corn. I have consumed many a corn on the cob in my time but none quite like that. Buttery, salty, and the perfect crunch, it traveled well in my takeaway bag (how could I not?!) and sustained me beautifully throughout the week. Fab food, company, and televised sport. 5 stars all round.

Deb standing in front of her taco bar

Stop 2 – Wellesley College, Massachusetts, 14-20th September

Wellesley College, what a welcome we had!! We were met at the airport by the lovely Sarah who greeted us with a big smile and a fab outfit (a recurring theme with Sarah throughout the week, excellent work). We were then taken to ‘The Cottage’ for dinner, where we got to meet Marta, David, the Faculty, and some society members. Joyous, joyous, joyous.

The week was full of workshops with a range of students, a favourite of mine was ‘Critical Interpretation’ in which we read some poetry and explored our voices, something that can be quite scary to do but everyone came with a gentle curiosity which made this session so wholesome and fun. Grace has said; “I enjoyed my ‘Women, Literature, and Music in the Age of Shakespeare’ Workshop because they were working towards performance but it was also rooted traditionally in its methods and Elizabethan performance style. It was great to see that there was still an enthusiasm and interest in that style, the passion in the room was palpable.”

We also got to meet the Wellesley Shakespeare Society and have a tour around their beautiful Tudor-style house, play some games, and just talk about life and acting over an array of snacks. What more could you want from an evening?

After having 4 shows under our belt, we had been able to start gauging what is working with the audience and how we might shift some things to make moments land better. Alex offered that we could explore ways that the Tomb scene could hold more weight and have a more haunting feel. We explored with some vocal and musical choices and are quite open that this may be one of that shifts as our play grows and settles. A scene that we have been finding challenging is the Beatrice Gulling scene, it’s such a difficult one as the dialogue completely contrasts the comedic nature of the Benedick gulling, which makes it harder as an immediate follow on. We’ve explored more by leaning into the darkness of the scene and that in fact, Hero may be speaking with more hoensty than she has been able to do previously. Currently, we’re enjoying the new direction we’ve taken and are excited to keep testing this in front of an audience. Reblocking and reworking during the run is perhaps a new found thrill about not having a sole director, we can constantly have ownership over our piece and the way that we want to tell the story.

Outside of workshops, Alex very ecstatically spotted some chipmunks in the woods, Pamela, a turtle, and us all, a RACOON! Stunning work all round Attenborough Team. Thank you so much to the Wellesley community, we felt so welcomed and looked after, it’s been a wonderful week.

The ChenEATS FOOD HALL OF FAME AWARD:

It was a tough one this week but I’m feeling grateful that I’m struggling to choose. This week’s winner is ‘The Cheesecake Factory‘. In particular, the Oreo Cheesecake. Now, I’ll be honest, usually I would slander those that choose Oreo as a ‘basic’ choice but I am converted, the decadent mouthful of fudgy heaven had me skipping around the mall. The win was solidified when I accounted for the experience, the wide array of options, and the amount I reminisced afterwards. The close second has to be Dunkin’ Donuts, I had the Coffee Roll heated up and I’m literally drooling at the thought of it, sticky, fluffy, and sweet-pastry like clouds of joy. The hold back for this was that the others I sampled were somewhat bland in comparison and the same cannot be said for the winner. My hunt for more Cheesecake Factory joy continues.

Thus, this blog release has come to an end. I hope you enjoyed the insights into our first two stops as much as I did recounting them. Well, I’ve just seen that our flight is delayed and a different one, cancelled. Fingers crossed we make it to Pennsylvania folks!!

Fall 2026 “Much Ado About Nothing” Entry #1

Posted on by

So, I’m going to be completely honest. I expected to have done daily updates by now but I had no idea the whirlwind that this process would be! We are officially halfway through our rehearsal process and it feels as though we have lived a lifetime since we began. Wow.

Week One saw us all stepping into the bones of a rehearsal room and building it into our own, piece by piece. We had an incredible consent based workshop with a member of R C Annie, which gave us the tools to communicate what we need as individuals and what we expect as a collective. With democracy being demonstrated in full force, we created “Our Values”, which outline the way we want to run our space so that we can all have the most fun, exploration and ownership of this piece.

Food has already been a highlight of this process, the incredible Elaine and Francis at the Karibu Centre cooked us up an absolute storm of a meal which beautifully brought our first week to a close! We had a cast trip to a Jamaican shop for delicious patties on Jamaican Independence Day, yums all round. Personally, I’ve had Chinese food at least 4 times already and am constantly dreaming of the next. Our biscuit collecting has been reigning high and kept us all sane – provided by our incredible Jen. Daily talks are, of course, a ritual in anticipation for all the food we’re going to try in the US, the countdown has begun!

Week Two is where we started to really settle into our rhythm and our true, competitive selves stepped into the light. Warm ups are an essential part of any rehearsal room but I dare say that our ones are a sight to behold. Our competitive nature is fiery and olympian worthy and I guarantee we are going to be the world best at zip zap boing, 4 square, and g’day Maj (curious? Some of these might be popping into our workshops…)

So, success would be an understatement. This process is entirely unique to anything we have done before (“always excepted our dear” Grace, an incredible AFTLS alum) – we have navigated directing ourselves and each other, enjoyed getting “stuck in the treacle” of our rapid multiroling and somehow covering bases of; script editors, costume/set designers, stage managers and welfare team. All of this being said, we concluded Week 3 with a full run through of the entire piece. HUGE pats on the back all round, team!

Looking ahead to the coming weeks, we are planning for run through after run through, costume catwalks to make our final design decisions, all props locked down, chaos, laughter, last minute US packing and most importantly an almost-pinch-me-I’m-dreaming-is-this-real-finished-version-of “Much Ado About Nothing”! Updates pending.