And they all lived happily ever after

Wow. Words cannot describe how amazing and memorable this trip has been. Performing in Europe with great friends has been a life changing experience that I will always love and cherish. I’m coming back to the states with a new view on the world and life. Experiencing the culture just in the UK makes me want to discover the rest of the world. There is art everywhere whether you choose to see it or not. Thanks to our donors and supporters, this has been one trip I will NEVER forget. Thank you all so much.

Now on to senior year.

Grant

A few show photos

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Days 3-6

I wish I had posted more but we have honestly either been seeing shows, working on our show, or sleeping. We have all been exhausted but it has been more than well worth it. On Tuesday, it was Amy’s last day of doing the show and Grant’s last day of covering another part as Troy and Michael arrived. We have had short rehearsals the past few days trying to the kinks out of our show. On the fourth day, we were lucky enough to have Chuck Ritchie and his wife Deirdre attend our show. It was so great to see them, and Chuck gave me a bit of advice on what he felt could have tied this international audience into the show more. So that next morning I wrote some new things in and work on them with the cast before the show. We found out that weather plays a role in our attendance because we only had about 14 people due to the rain (which the people at our venue said was a good amount of people on a nice day.) So today we are about to find out if our audience will be a bit more interactive. 

The shows that we have been seeing have been extraordinary. I would like to write reviews on them for my own use sometime soon if I can find the time. All of the art we have seen has changed the way I look at theatre. Erin and I were talking about it last night, but I came into this project thinking that my goal would be to put on a great show and to get as many people as we can to come to our show. But things changes even when we got to London.  Everyone we met was so incredibly nice to us! Then when we came to Edinburgh the same thing happened. When we were passing out flyers for our show, rather than trying to “one up” the person that is a few feet away from you doing the same exact thing, you just go up to him, talk to him, get to know him a bit, and do a switch where it’s “I’ll take yours if you take mine.”

With all of the genres of art and the community of artists we have been surrounded by it has been more than the largest arts festival in the world but the largest celebration of the arts in the world. Not a day has gone by where we haven’t laughed,  been moved, been challenged, or been inspired. I came into this project as a student of Kent State and I now feel like I am leaving it an artist who is apart of larger community. A community that is supportive, looks towards the future, helps those in need, and will never stop growing. 

-Dan

Wednesday

We decided to do a run through of the show at the house this morning which set us up for a great performance. Smaller audience today, (but hey still performing international at the Fringe!) After, we headed to see James I, the first play in the James plays trilogy about the Kings. The show was incredible and an absolute pleasure from start to finish. They had one or two elaborate set pieces but what made this show so cool was it’s simplicity. Everything was very minimal and just told an amazing story. After the show let out we then bought tickets to see James II for tomorrow night. We had dinner on the streets by the Royal Mile, split up got food and then ate together outside one of the performance venues. Our night ended with seeing a production titled Shitfaced Shakespeare. It was a one of a kind, truly hilarious show. The cast performed a classic Shakespeare piece with one member of group completely drunk. I don’t even know how to describe how funny it was other then the fact we just laughed all night. How the cast improved to deal with the drunk one to make the plot continue was just outstanding.

Scott

Naptime in Edinburgh

Multiple 8 hour flights, two 4 hour layovers, a 2 am rehearsal, 3 hours of sleep, countless cups of coffee, a 10 am performance slot, a fifteen minute walk, a 50 minute show, 3 more shows to go and 9 friends realize they cannot run purely on the adrenaline and excitement of The Fringe anymore and finally succumb to their exhaustion. Shhhhh! Let them sleep, they’ve certainly earned these dreams.

Around town on Tuesday

We woke up to have another great performance this morning, followed by meeting up with Michael and Troy who just flew in! We went to a pub for lunch before returning back to the house for a little put in rehearsal. After that we went and saw a great show called “Man of Steal” which was this man who is a professional pick pocket who works with the police force to teach people how to protect themselves from these thefts. Learned a lot, and he was really fun at the same time! Later that night we saw a performance called “The Red Bastard” which was a one man stand up show that was so off the wall and out of this world. Enjoyed every second of it!

-Scott

Thank you all!

I can not give enough thanks to everyone who has helped me to this point. With all the art I’ve seen, the experience I’ve had, the people I’ve met, and the country I’ve toured, I can honestly say I will not return the same man I was. This trip has been life changing. The knowledge I’ve gained has been endless, and it’s all in the one true art form I love. Thank you so much!

Cheers,
Devin

Grant’s Magic Show!

For more street promotion, we were able to secure a spot on one of the stages on the Royal Mile! For this stage spot, everyone was walking around passing out fliers and Grant did magic. It was a great experience and we have photos to prove it!

 Getting ready for the show!

Looking down the Royal Mile.

 Post magic show photo!

 Our ad in the Fringe book!

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Day 2

Words can not describe. This day has held the emotions of a lifetime. We had a challenging tech rehearsal. (If you’ve seen our show you know that the light behind the cyc is rather important for our shadow puppetry.) Yeah well that light completely broke at the tech rehearsal. We had to use an actual desk lamp for the shadows, but it worked well enough for one show! Then we rehearsed late into the night with our only rehearsal. This means we had 0 time to advertise when the streets here are packed full of people advertising. We got up around 7:30 in the morning and kept rehearsing. I can not express the pride and gratitude I have for this cast. The fact that we could put this show up with 6 people and one rehearsal when the original show had 11 people and over a month to work. The show was amazing, out of no where we had a full house! No one has any clue how that happened. Our best reasoning was that it was due to “Grimm’s”  being in the title and the quality of our posters. We saw a few shows for the rest of the day and simply had the best time in the city. 

-Dan 

Sunday and Monday at the Fringe

Sunday was a whirl wind of a day. We slept in a little then had our first meeting and talk through of show. Followed by a tour of Greenside, which is the venue where we are performing. I really like our venue and it is in the heart of the festival. After meeting we split up to divide and conquer. Doing props, lights and advertising. Amy, Taylor, Erin and I went to the Royal mile where we put up a few posters on the pillars but so many people just plaster over other posters , within 15 minutes some were already gone! Then we stopped to purchase some merchandise from the Fringe shop. We then went to the grocery store… which was a little different. Had no clue where anything was and check out is rather different. Its self check out and after you scan an item you have to place it in the pre packaging area or the screen shuts down and you have to get a manager to swipe a card.  Then came back to the house and had a snack before tech rehearsal. Everything went rather smoothly and we got in, set up, and tore down and came back to the house for a family dinner that Erin cooked for us. We then went straight into rehearsal in the living room (luckily it is large enough to tape out to be the size of the stage). It was a late night but we knew it would pay off!!

 

Woke up this morning after not getting too much sleep. We did another run through in the living room before heading up to Greenside. It was not the best performance for me personally, I rushed quite a lot, but I was filled with a lot of nerves and excitement.  I really can’t explain the feeling when we first walked out on to the stage and the audience was full! Our goal was for maybe 5 0r 6 because we really did not have time to do much of any advertising. The audience responded differently than back at home but we have been rehearsing and plan to adapt. This has been so unbelievably awesome and performing today was like nothing I have ever done. Afterwards, grabbed food at this local Italian place and came back to the house to take the most amazing nap. Then walked back up to the Royal mile, where Grant performed magic on the streets and we passed out flyers to a lot of people. Caught an awesome street performer on a unicycle who juggled torches of fire and then saw a show at our venue which was really good!!

 

Keep on keepin’ on!

 

Scott