{"id":2304,"date":"2026-03-16T15:20:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T19:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/shakespeare\/?p=2304"},"modified":"2026-03-16T15:25:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T19:25:33","slug":"as-you-like-it-blog-entry-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/shakespeare\/as-you-like-it-blog-entry-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring 2026 “As You Like It” Entry #7"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cIt is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue\u2026\u201d  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ironically enough, at the end of this wonderful adventure, I\u2019m finding it tricky to know how to  begin. Jet-lag has taken me out at the knees these last few days, and has resulted in a brain fog  the likes of which I haven\u2019t known in a good while, so you\u2019ll forgive me if my reliably compelling  prose isn\u2019t quite as sparky as usual. Disclaimer: if my sarcasm hasn\u2019t bled through these last few  entries, let that prior line be proof that it\u2019s very much alive and well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, we\u2019re home. I\u2019m writing this from my favourite Soho coffee shop, and as I\u2019m typing I\u2019m  suddenly reminded that the last time I was here was to pick up a coffee before our first script  readthrough, the very first day this whole adventure kicked off. We\u2019re still not quite finished,  however; Sunday sees our homecoming show at the Cockpit Theatre, and next week our final  college residency at Notre Dame\u2019s London campus, including the first time an AFTLS  performance has been held at the London campus. A handful more classes and performances  before, to coarsely paraphrase, what was once prologue becomes past. We\u2019re in a bit of a limbo  state at present – not quite finished but not quite in the thick of it – and I\u2019m sure my sleep  deprivation is contributing to that feeling of unsteadiness. I can blame a percentage of that on jet  lag and my total lack of sleep on the plane home, however if I\u2019m being entirely truthful I think our  final week mentality of \u201cwe can rest when we\u2019re home\/dead\u201d (delete as appropriate) may have  been something of a contributing factor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For all we\u2019ve only visited four stops this tour, they\u2019ve all felt incredibly distinctive and individual,  and Austin was no different. We stepped off the plane and into the blast of a warmer climate as  you may imagine someone who\u2019s walked for days in a desert might step into the sweet relief of an  oasis. We were positively giddy – so much so that a two-hour kerfuffle at the rental car desk  couldn\u2019t quite dampen our spirits, though I can assure you they gave it their best go. When we  finally decamped at our hotel we decided that the best course of action was to hit the ground  running; our hotel was dangerously close to the Texas Chilli Parlour, so naturally that was an easy <\/p>\n\n\n\n

choice for dinner, and afterwards we wandered the city centre until we stumbled into an  underground jazz bar. I managed to see live music every night we were in the city – not that it\u2019s a  particularly hard thing to do in the self-proclaimed live-music capital of the world – and sitting in a  basement jazz club watching aspiring musicians rotate their line-up to equally astonishing effect  whilst chatting with good friends over cocktails is pretty close to heaven for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I exercised a little restraint, however, as my first class the next morning was an early kick-off and I  didn\u2019t entirely trust myself not to get lost in the enormity of the UT Austin campus. To give you an  idea of scale, Shenandoah had around 4,000 students enrolled – Austin has a little over 50,000.  It\u2019s mind-boggling when you lay it out, but I managed to find my way to the creative writing class I  was taking over that morning and lead the workshop I\u2019d planned – half on public speaking skills to  hopefully help them share their own work with confidence and ease, and half on character  development to give them an idea on how one may approach building a believable, fully  developed human being from the inside out. The engagement, creativity, and lack of ego these  students exhibit across the board is something I\u2019m in awe of; everywhere we\u2019ve visited, I\u2019ve  prefaced workshops by saying that the only outcome I want to guarantee is that they have fun,  and that for all we may throw some strange or unusual exercise at them the last thing that we  want is for them to feel uncomfortable. They\u2019ve then proceeded to dive head-first into improv  games, genre experiments, human statue exercises, without hesitation or complaint. It\u2019s incredibly  heartening to see the way students will take creative prompts and run with them, seeming almost  unaware that they\u2019re being creative in the first place, and I\u2019m truly going to miss leading the  workshop element of the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With an early class finished and no show that evening, the rest of the day was my own. Sam was  determined to show me east Austin and I was determined to let him, so we met up after class and  wandered to the city\u2019s most eclectic neighbourhood – coffee shops, vintage stores, trendy food  trucks and craft breweries, one notable spot thrift store in somebody\u2019s house wherein we did have  a slight moment of panic that we were unknowingly breaking in and rifling through somebody\u2019s  wardrobe wardrobe. I was introduced to the simple delight of Mexican Coke on a very hot day  and was once again floored by how insane it was to me that I was being paid to be here. Jo  headed out to join us, all of us still not entirely processing the fact that after weeks in thermals  and knitwear we were suddenly in t-shirts, and after taking in the sunset on the roof of our hotel  we made the pilgrimage to Cuantos Tacos, Michelin-starred food truck and, as a foodie, a big  cross off my Texas to-do list. The plan for the evening was to see the Longhorns take on  Louisiana State at the Mardi Gras basketball game, and if ever there was living proof of everything  being bigger in Texas it was this. Pyrotechnics to introduce student athletes, the entire crowd  springing to its feet every ten seconds, the mini-blimp floating around the stadium at halftime  dropping barbe-coupons. Jo and I spent half the game looking at each other quizzically at each  new spectacle, and the other half screaming for the Longhorns as loud as our show-conscious  throats would allow us to. Sam had decided on an evening to himself taking in a little more of the  city\u2019s music scene, so naturally Jo and I decided to crash his solitude and head out to the  Continental Club after the game to meet him – it\u2019s at this point I\u2019ll refer you back to the \u201csleep when we\u2019re home\u201d mantra for this week. The three of us were deposited back at the hotel by  driverless car (another Austin novelty – I\u2019m not so sure I enjoyed this one as much as the others  we\u2019d encountered) further past midnight than may\u2019ve been sensible, but having had as full an Austin day as I imagine one could possibly experience, barring a rodeo of some kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wednesday was a biggie, as I was meeting yet another mythical figure in the AFTLS canon – I had  my class as part of the Shakespeare at Winedale outreach programme, run by the one and only  Clayton Stromberger. Way back in rehearsals Al beguiled us with tales of the beauty of Winedale,  a UT programme-come-summer-camp which serves to cultivate young performers with an  interest in classical text, with Clayton being one of the leaders. He was currently working on  scenes from As You Like It with kids from several nearby elementary schools, to be performed in  the lobby of the theatre we were performing at before our final performance that Saturday – he\u2019d  tasked me with working on some group scenes with them and we had an absolute ball looking at  the scene between Audrey, Touchstone, Martext, and Jaques. When the students weren\u2019t  performing as the characters, I tasked them with doing what we do so often in the show and  populating the scene as human set pieces, building the Forest and Audrey\u2019s goats. The kids are  intelligent, receptive, curious, respectful, and totally blew me out of the water with their talent and  aptitude for Shakespeare, qualities I\u2019m sure Clayton has honed and encouraged in his time with  them. I went into our final tech that afternoon with a new wealth of energy from the enthusiasm  and joy we\u2019d found in an elementary school cafeteria that afternoon, as well as with excitement to  head to a local line-dance bar that Clayton had recommended for us that evening.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our final few days went by in something of a blur, all of us so eager to maximise every aspect of  our remaining time in the States. I went full Texas tourist and queued for Franklin\u2019s barbecue –  Sam joined me just as I reached the front of the line, and thank goodness he did or else I fear I  may never have eaten again for the rest of the week. We went two-stepping at the Broken Spoke,  Benjy spinning me round a dance floor like nobody\u2019s business and me having the time of my life  pretending I knew what I was doing. We went swimming at Barton Springs, me desperately trying  (and eventually succeeding!) to get Jo to dive into the beautiful cool waters looking over the  Austin skyline. Somewhere in all of this we even managed to squeeze in a few shows, our final  performance being particularly special as we got to see the \u2018curtain raiser\u2019 – the showing of  scenes by Clayton\u2019s elementary school students before they come and see us in the play that <\/p>\n\n\n\n

evening. The kids were spectacular – for all I\u2019d only worked with them for one workshop, I could  have burst with pride seeing them doing scenes from our play, and what a gift it was to hear it  anew and belonging to an entirely new cast. We\u2019ve come to almost take this story for granted;  we\u2019ve been with it since our readthrough at the tail end of November, a long time to stay the same  words. For all we go into each show mining for the newness, it was endlessly refreshing to hear  the students make it their own and have it chime afresh – or, even in some cases, see them  interpret the lines in very similar ways! As if they hadn\u2019t spoiled us enough, they also made for an  exceptional final crowd – as Jo, Benjy and I were in the midst of the banishment scene I realised  that the student who had worked on it and performed it in the curtain-raiser earlier were mouthing  the lines along with us, like Shakespearean karaoke. They were fully in our corner and having a  blast, and it was an incredibly special one to end on. High on adrenaline and the bittersweetness  of closing out the US shows, we spent our final evening in a honky tonk joint on the outskirts of  town, fittingly named Sam\u2019s Town Point. Clayton asked the band to play Dancing In The  Moonlight, and that\u2019s exactly what we did until the very small hours of the morning, until we all  ventured out to find pizza and a cab home at a time I don\u2019t know I could admit to. Thank  goodness for an early evening flight the next day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And now here you find me – home, after five weeks of wayward adventuring, and not quite sure  how to finish this thing. It\u2019s a great feeling to know we still have shows to come – I\u2019m a nervous  wreck for our London show, but mainly because I\u2019m lucky enough to have such wonderful friends  in my corner who are all coming along to see this thing I haven\u2019t been able to shut up about for  the last few months. I can\u2019t wait to show them what we made in that room in Brixton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing I would like to end on – I came across this blog when I was first auditioning for AFTLS\u00a0 and wanted to know a little more about what I was potentially getting myself in for. At the risk of\u00a0 being presumptuous, there is a chance that somebody reading this is doing the exact same thing,\u00a0 and I was thinking about what message I would like to give somebody who may be considering\u00a0 taking on this bonkers, brilliant job, and I landed on this – grab it with both hands. This company\u00a0 is a remarkably special one to be a part of, and I\u2019m honoured to count myself amongst such\u00a0 intelligent, adventurous, and, most importantly, kind people. It\u2019s the sort of job I could never\u00a0 conceive of doing the I first began my career and one that I am so grateful I got to be a part of; for\u00a0 how much it\u2019s challenged me, for what it\u2019s afforded me, and for everything it\u2019s taught me. It can be\u00a0 daunting, and it will be, but the control and freedom it affords you across all of its many facets is\u00a0 worth every moment of feeling afraid of it, which shall hopefully be few and far between. I wish\u00a0 you luck, and hope you can have just as much of an adventure as we did.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the entire AFTLS network – thank you for letting me be a part of your brilliant ranks, and for\u00a0 your words of wisdom and encouragement when we were figuring out whatever this show was\u00a0going to be. To each and every one of our many friends in the US – thank you for welcoming us\u00a0with open arms and a wealth of kindness. To you, dear reader, thank you for following our\u00a0 adventures, and I hope you\u2019ve found a little bit of joy in these ramblings.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al, Benjy, Sam, and Jo – thank you for being my co-mates and brothers in exile. I won\u2019t ever forget  this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026when I make curtsey, bid me farewell.\u201d  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Grace x<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue\u2026\u201d   Ironically enough, at the end of this wonderful adventure, I\u2019m finding it tricky to know how to  begin. Jet-lag has taken me out at the knees these last few … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47487],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shakespeare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2304"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2317,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304\/revisions\/2317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/shakespeare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}