We made it!
Even if my iPad didn’t. But we’ll get to that.
We left LA on Sat. July 27 and landed first in London then made our way to Edinburgh. The flights themselves were pretty easy. LAX → HTR was great because the plane was too full so Ishika and I had an empty set between us. I don’t sleep well on planes, and I figured I’d try to power through, so I stayed up and watched a bunch of movies:
- Wicked Little Letters: I loved this. Everyone was great in this, Jesse Buckley was fantastic…and Olivia Colman. Please. She may be my favorite actor. I’m just in awe of her work.
- The American Society of Magical Negroes: This was fun. I really liked it…except the last shot/scene made me say, “why did you have to do that?”
- Roadhouse: A Jake Gyllenhall vehicle that is SO much better than the original. And he actually looks like he coulda been a UFC fighter…to these completely ignorant eyes.
- The Beekeeper: Another vehicle, Jason Statham, where we’re expecting one man to topple governments, take out 30+ elite military soldiers, etc. Totally ridiculous, but fun fight scenes and perfect for a plane.
We landed in London, had to gather our things, go thru Customs, and go back thru security to board our EDI-bound flight. It was in the security line when I went to pull my iPad out of my backpack that I realized I didn’t have it. I’d left in on the plane from LA. So…after a slight meltdown, I went to Cust Service, explained the issue, and was told the plane had been cleaned, the crew wasn’t yet back, so they didn’t know if they’d found it, and to check online the next day. I did all that, found the entry online, making my claim…and now have been waiting 3 days for a reply. 
Thankfully I’m in the UK for 30+ days.
Ed. note: How did I leave it there, you ask? Ishika and I had an empty seat between us. I plugged in my iPad and put it in that seat’s back pocket. Turns out there was no power in any of the USB plugs. When I realized that a few hours later, I put the cable away…but not the iPad. Idiot.
2nd ed. note: Not 30 minutes after posting on Twitter…and here…about this…I got a note from BA asking for more identifying details. 
So…we landed in Edinburgh, got to our flats, and set about getting reacquainted with this gorgeous city.
I’m staying about an 18 minute walk to the Bedlam, which is a theatre near and dear to my heart, in a little neighborhood that’s full of great restaurants, with Tesco/Sainsbury’s and a Co-op nearby, and is quiet at night. At least in the days before the Fringe starts. We’ll see once it all picks up. 
I’ll be working some while I’m here, but it’s a much better setup than last time, which is when LASA really started to implode. But that’s a story for another time…over a pint. 
On Monday, we basically got acclimated. We met to drop everything at the theatre, put together some set pieces, and then go rehearse the show in The Meadows. As usual, we spent a lot of that time laughing and entertaining ourselves…but we did seem to entertain a lot of the passersby. Hopefully that turns into paid audience during the festival.
We also went over to Henry’s place for a little get together. Henry was the Bedlam venue manager back in 2015 when we did Big Shot there. He became our graphic designer and has done that since, along with building the TMB website. He’s great. He’s also a freakin’ genius. He’s about to defend is PhD in mathematics relating NLP for AI…and his fellowship at Princeton starts soon thereafter. So nerdy in the best ways…and totally loves theatre. My kind of guy. It was also cool meeting his pals, Georgia and Seraphina. Listening to Henry and Seraphina talk the ins and outs of AI modeling research was fascinating. Again…nerdy in the best ways. 
Tuesday we had our 3hr tech in the morning…which was much too short a time for all the things we have to figure out in a new space, but we’ll see how it goes. Then we worked on our busking songs, passed out some fliers, and broke for the night. Which was really nice because I’ve been tired. “Pushing though” didn’t work as I’d hoped in reducing the jet-lag.
With such a large group, we have multiple flats. The one for ‘The Gilmore Boys’ is pretty nice, with large bedrooms, an okay sized common eating area, but a very small actual kitchen. We seem to have a bit of a routine going already in terms of rotating who is using the kitchen when, as having more than one person in that tiny area is very difficult.
Our first preview is today, so we’ll meet up for busking at 4pm, then aim to be at the theatre by 5:30 for our 6:05 show. Some of the traffic patterns and holding areas for set pieces/props will be made up on-the-fly as we never got to run it, and we’re not really sure how much more space will be required by other shows in the very small wing space. It’s an exercise in ‘letting go.’
