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.
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!!