Venue Tour, National Museum of Scotland, and more

We are on Day 4 of our GEO and we started today off with a trip to Central Hall. Central Hall is the main venue for a majority of the theatre productions that will be performing as part of the Fringe Festival. The venue is originally a church, and it was transformed into a performing space in a matter of four days thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Fringe tech crew. After a few introductions, we split into groups of three to learn more about lighting, sound, and general backstage management. We both decided to learn more about what goes on backstage during a show and the entire set up process that it takes. All of the staff and tech crew members were super passionate about what they did and we were really grateful that they took the time to give us a small window into what it takes to manage the biggest theatre festival in the world. 

 

After that, we had lunch at Wagamama and then walked over to the West End Fair, where local craftsmen sold their work. There were so many cute shops and we made sure to pick up a few souvenirs for our families back home. We even got some homemade gelato as a nice treat to finish off our lunch expedition. 

Our last stop of the day was the National Museum of Scotland. We wandered around for a little bit before spending the rest of our time in the Game On exhibit, which was a special exhibition that is only open from July to November of this year. It is the largest interactive exhibition detailing the history and culture of video games. We played a few rounds of the earliest version of Pac-Man and then spent the rest of our time dancing our hearts out to Just Dance. 

After we got back to the dorms, the University had already begun to fill with students from all around the world, including members from our fellow prep schools like Andover and Lawrence Academy. After an hour of reworking and rehearsing our play, Away Went the World, we grabbed a quick dinner before beginning a scavenger hunt with all our fellow performers. Being surrounded by so many new faces was definitely a little overwhelming at first, but once we split into small groups of six and got to know people on an individual level, we felt a little more comfortable. We ran around the campus following a list of clues and ended the night with our daily check in. 

Today was an eventful day and we can't wait for another activity-packed day tomorrow!