Menlo Drama at the Fringe Festival!

Today was our final day in Edinburgh. I can’t believe the trip is already over! We started with a group breakfast before heading over to the AHSTF wrap-up ceremony. There, we watched a highlight reel/slideshow of the program and had an awards ceremony for all of the high schools. Every school got a cute award personalized to the theme of their show, and Menlo won the “Flip-a-phrase and Flick-a-Fan” award for the Learned Ladies. Super on brand.  After the ceremony, we went to the Edinburgh Dungeon, which was basically a simulated dungeon with actors portraying the city’s most infamous historical characters, like serial killers from the 1600s. It was pretty cheesy but filled with jump scares so we had a ton of fun. We then stopped at 2 gelato places before our final dinner, and yes, I got 2 scoops at both places. For dinner, we went to this Italian place and I got fried Mac and cheese balls and penne pomodoro. It was actually really good. We ate chocolate cake and then walked to St A...

To start off the day we woke up early at around 8:30 am to get ready for our bus tour around Scotland. We all had to be at the bus by nine where we boarded our bus to start our journey. We drove for around an hour before we got to our first stop at Stirling Castle. The castle was very beautiful! Isla and I dropped by the café and enjoyed a delectable breakfast. After that, we went and explored the beautiful garden full of all the different kinds of flowers that the property had to offer. At the edge of the wall, you could see a beautiful view of the city.  Next, we reboarded the bus and began our drive to our second stop, which was Loch Lomond. We enjoyed a delicious lunch and sat on the grassy hills overlooking the water.  After we finished eating the pre-packaged lunch we were provided, we took a walk down to the lake just to see the water. It was fun to see all the kids and families swimming and spending time in the water.  As we drove to our final destination we all t...

On this beautiful day, we slept in until 9:20 am. In the morning we separated into two groups, one half relaxed at the dorms while the other half went on a beautiful hike up to the highest point in Edinburgh - Arthur‘s Seat. I (Zach) and Beti enjoyed our hike so much that we might even wake up at 5am tomorrow to go see the sunrise from the peak! Afterward, everyone gathered for a meal in the dining hall before going to watch a show about all the Brothers Grimm stories. Immediately following the show, we traveled to the Royal Mile and then into Edinburgh Castle which, like Arthur’s Seat, had amazing 360-degree views of the city, bay, and countryside. But that’s not all (it was a very busy day if you can’t tell!) We then rushed back to the theatre to watch another show. This time a very meaningful and beautifully written, sung, and acted show called ‘The Beautiful Ugly’. It was so moving and it is definitely a show I would strongly recommend to others and worth watching for its thought p...

Today we had the luxury of sleeping in but in order to start the day right I got up a little early to take a quick shower and get ready before breakfast. Once everyone got up we headed out to the dining hall for breakfast and then got ready to join one of the fellows performing casts to support their show, Flowers of Algernon.  It was well done, and personally, I enjoyed it! Then we walked a while to the Lyceum Theatre where we were scheduled to partake in a comedy workshop. Before we went in we had some time to get lunch around the area. I was initially skeptical, but I ended up having an enjoyable time, and I thought many of the improv exercises were really funny.  After that, we had to walk a bit to find a bus station and once we finally got back to Pollock Halls, we had barely an hour to get ready for our final performance! We all got ready and met up at our usual spot in front of the dining hall, and then walked over to the bus and headed to the venue. We had a pretty smo...

 Today was a jam-packed day!  After breakfast as a group, we had the opportunity to attend a college workshop hosted by AHSTF. Along with the other high school groups, we talked to representatives from various colleges, got to listen to panels, and got free pizza! After the workshop, the group walked to The Underbelly, a festival area where we could choose from a bunch of food trucks for lunch. I had a delicious Cubano sandwich!! After that, we headed over to a circus performance, put on by a group from Ethiopia called Circus Abyssinia: Tulu. There were stunning acts that had us all on the edge of our seats, like contortionism, flips and stunts, fire juggling, and more. It was also all set to Ethiopian music and interspersed with cultural dance, which made it extra amazing.  After that, we fast-walked back to Pollock halls to change for our taster performance. We taxied over to St. Andrew Square, where we performed a scene from the show for a park full of people and hande...

Today was overall a great day. To start the day off, we had a very good breakfast. The same one as we’ve had every day, bacon, eggs - the classic breakfast items.  Afterward, we went to see another AHSTF show called Motor Court 103 from a school in Kansas City. It was written by students of the school which is really cool. The ending line of the play had everyone talking about it for hours after the show was over. After the show I went to sleep because I was exhausted and slept until our rehearsal at 4:30. We rehearsed for around 15 minutes and then suddenly it was time for our second performance!  In my opinion, it was the best show yet and everyone did great! Isla and Maya crushed it at the beginning and the Trissotin scene was absolutely amazing. The audience was great and were laughing and clapping the whole time! When the performance was over, some of us went out to get ice cream which was a lot of fun. I’d never gone out that late in Edinburgh and it was beautiful. Amory...