It’s a rainy day in Edinburgh, our show closed this afternoon, and I am trying to wrap my head around how to articulate what I have experienced between Glenelg, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. I feel like I’ve lived three lives between each part of our trip. In Glenelg, I was mesmerized by the beauty and scale of the Scottish highlands. The air was crisp, and everyone was so generous and knowledgeable in Scottish history and folktales (shoutout to our friends and tour guides Eddie and Cammy). A few weeks after we left Glenelg, my grandma sent an email about my Scottish ancestors that I didn’t know I had until now, yay! That would explain the deep sense of belonging and patriotism I feel when I hear bagpipes…
When we relocated to Glasgow to begin classes and rehearsals, we were whiplashed into a very opposite schedule. For most of July, my days were spent in one classroom in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland from 9 AM to 9 PM. I was on the production side and my roles included dramaturg, assistant stage manager, understudy, and sound board op. I was challenged, in my element, exhausted, inspired, and completely immersed in the rehearsal process for Lifelong. In Glasgow, the most challenging aspect was finding a balance between getting enough sleep, staying caught up in my class, and staying locked in for every moment of rehearsal. I have a deeper respect for all of the hours and work that tech puts in behind the scenes (literally). Even with an insane schedule, I found my favorite places around Glasgow, like the thrift store in the mall near RCS, the Botanic Gardens, the Art Cafe, and nightlife that fed us Lorde and Ethel Cain remixes on the dance floor.
Now that I am here in Edinburgh, I’m feeling refreshed and excited. There is a new element of see it or miss it performances and thousands of options to choose from. The cobblestone streets are filled with food trucks, music, street performers, and actors flyering for their show that starts in thirty minutes. I am able to envision so much more in the scary land of post-grad opportunity here. Where I feel a lack of momentum and audience for theatre in the U.S., I feel connected to and encouraged by the vast range for what it can be in Scotland. From stand up comedy to drama to drag, I have yet to see a show that didn’t speak to current social and political topics. In the delightful girls only English 380 class I took in Glasgow, we learned about Scotland’s history of theatre, which is representative of Scotland’s relationship to England. (See also: Brooklyn’s blog).The Fringe festival came to be because when The National Theatre of London created a festival to showcase international theatre, they banned Scottish theatre from contributing despite it taking place in Edinburgh. In response, an alternative festival was created to showcase Scottish theatre and theatre that was on the fringes.
After seeing a few Edinburgh International Festival shows and sixteen plays at the Fringe, that history is still evident. The Edinburgh International productions we saw with the group were impressive and clearly better funded, but it didn’t compare to the experimentality and creativity that comes out of the Fringe. The shows I saw at the Fringe reached beyond baseline social or political issues because the storytelling did not have to first establish that an issue exists. As a result, the art could reach further into the realm of social and political topics and achieve a different level of specificity. I saw some really odd and beautiful stories. (And a lot more audience interaction! Here is a photo of me dancing during “Tether”, one of the plays we saw as a group!)
One performance stood out to me in particular. The show, “B48Y” or “baby”, is about an alien that finds himself next to a poster of RuPaul after crashing on Earth. The alien spends the entire performance using alien sounds to communicate with the audience and bring people on stage to assist him in putting on lipstick and heels, etc., as he attempts to dress like RuPaul. At one point in the show, one of our friends literally chased the alien out of the room while trying to help reattach an antenna to the aliens yellow latex body. Eventually the alien’s spaceship finds him
and we have a very emotional parting. But before the alien can board the spaceship, he must remove every aspect of his fabulous outfit that we all watched him achieve. It was actually heartbreaking to watch this little alien creature that we’ve bonded with have to remove layers of his identity to get to go home. I wasn’t expecting such a funny show to land a message about belonging and acceptance, but it clearly stuck with me because I can’t stop thinking about it.
I love performances that leave the audience thinking, talking, crying, laughing, or just feeling something real. Of all the theatre I saw, my favorite show was called Spin Cycle. It told the story of two people in a laundromat talking about their past relationships. In a very relatable and heartbreaking hour, the characters rehash the hurt they felt from their ex without realizing who the other person is to them (their ex). When they finally figure it out and start to reconcile, they forget each other again. I reached out to the cast and we had a great conversation over lunch one day! One of the actors had written the play and started her own production company by 25.
While I have been immersed in art in Scotland, I still find myself constantly connecting it back to how these shows would be received by an American audience. I wonder how much art we miss out on because it gets censored, and how many more stories are self-censored out of fear. I have definitely felt the implications of getting a degree in theatre during active censorship of art, and more so the limitations in authentically expressing myself at Pepperdine. Going to Scotland, a country that refuses to let their culture and perspective be squandered by England, was a good reminder of the value in creating art to hold onto identity and truth. I am feeling empowered (and possibly naively bold) about performance/creating art as I head into my senior year at Pepperdine because if one person can relate or one mind can be changed, I have nothing to lose!
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