by Alex, Year 13
Back in February 2006 the first sketchy concept of tackling a large theatre project which would tour around the world was revealed. The Scottish play was proposed. Fast forward a year and five teachers, fourteen actors, three musicians and two technicians (all students) are preparing to perform Macbeth: That Old Black Magic to a 250-strong international audience at Confirmation Weekend, having already been on tour to England and performed at the Fringe Festival. Before we go on, Mr Williams tells us: “This is the big one”, and it almost is, as this is the last time we are to perform before the tour to New York.
Before continuing, it is important to note that this Tour was to be our finest hour. Many of the students taking part have been closely involved with drama at Gordonstoun for years, and this final project was the defining piece. The last time the School performed a Shakespeare was in 2003, so the pressure was on. However, after receiving favourable reviews at Edinburgh and, with the knowledge that we knew the play inside-out, we set off, confident and poised for whatever awaited us on the other side of 'the pond’.
We spent twelve days and nights in the USA, enjoying the finest people, food, places and jazz the Eastern Seaboard had to offer.
Performing
We performed Macbeth six times, in a number of venues to a variety of people. Ross School and LaGuardia Performing Arts School had spaces similar to our own Ogstoun Theatre, but the most memorable was at New York University, where we performed in an intimate black-box space, to a hugely rewarding audience, including none other than RSC actor, Roger Rees, an actor with many film and stage credits to his name. We were also lucky enough to meet up again with some of our friends from the Round Square Conference, at Hotchkiss and Deerfield schools, where we also performed to large audiences. In Brooklyn, at MS51, we faced our largest audience yet, but were confident enough at this point to enjoy every minute of this show.
Hosts
The Brooklyn show was extremely important, as we wished to thank our hosts of three nights with a special performance. Staying with hosts, in my opinion, worked better than if we had all camped in a youth hostel or suchlike, as our host families were able to give us a better taste of American culture and life than we would have been able to gain ourselves.
The first nights were spent in the Hampton’s area of Long Island, with hosts from Ross School. We then moved states to Hotchkiss School (Connecticut) and stayed in boarding houses not dissimilar to our own, with high-school students. Our final, tear-filled performance was to be held at Deerfield (Massachusetts), home of the Yankee Candle, where we stayed again in boarding houses with familiar hosts! Everyone on the tour is very grateful to all those who opened their homes to us and we hope to keep in touch.
New York
This was hailed as the New York tour and, although much of it was spent in other states, we saw a lot of the city. As a group we saw the New York Knicks lose a basketball game, RENT, Avenue Q, some “experimental” theatre and many of us witnessed some fine live jazz, as well. After boarding for so long, everyone was relieved to get a hotel bed in the city centre. Bagels, coffee and Central Park ensued. Some people experienced the delights of a yellow cab; two lads even got lost on the subway! We had about four free days in NY and everyone has different stories to tell. However, I think most people made it to Macy’s, Soho, the Empire State Building, Ground Zero and Time Square.
We have done so much surrounding this show that it was difficult to fathom it was all aimed at these twelve days. However, we executed the piece perfectly every night and made some lasting friendships along the way.
Thanks must go to Mr Thomas (who took far too many photos), Mrs Parker (who helped us all the way through and knew where everything was), Mr Parker (for tech and the hidden details), Mr Gaston (for never-ending underscore), Mr McEneney of MS51 (for his continued help), Mrs Brinton and Mrs Thake (for organisation) and, of course, Mr Williams (who had the idea in the first place, 18 months ago).
If you would like to read a day-to-day account of the Macbeth Tour to New York, please take a look at Mr Williams's New York Diary.