Sara, here, blogging from Scotland!
As most of you know, I'm getting my MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Playwriting from the University of New Orleans. That means fall and spring semesters, I take online classes, and then I get to do these cool study abroad programs in the summer. In the summer of 2010, I started the program by going to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, and now I'm finishing it out in Edinburgh. Very exciting! (Technically, my last semester will be this fall, but this is my last study abroad.)
I'm having an absolute blast in my classes this semester. I'm in a playwriting class and an acting class that really work together in a lot of ways. In the acting class, we are learning different acting styles, but we are also helping to develop the work of the playwrights. So as I'm writing my play, I get to have actors help me out with it, which is awesome. I think it helps plays to be more alive when you are working on them with actors and not just writing them alone in your apartment and then handing them off to a theatre later.
So I'm working on a piece that will eventually be my thesis about a boy who is stuck inside of a snow globe. It's a childrens/fantasy play. I feel like somehow it is very appropriate to work on it in Scotland. At some point, I want to go to the Elephant House here in Edinburgh (where J.K. Rowling wrote some of the first Harry Potter book) and just sit there and wait for inspiration to come. Haha.
I did get to play an open mic night here at Lebowski's on Wednesday! (The dude abides.) I was really excited about that. And I've got a new acoustic cover that I'm working on. If I have extra time, I might just record it from here in the dorms, but we'll see. I'm hoping to post more touristy pictures on Facebook sometime next week. I've mainly been doing school stuff so far and I haven't had a ton of time to do the touristy things, but I did get to check out the National Portrait Gallery yesterday, which I enjoyed, and we randomly got to see the Queen, the Prince, and Kate Middleton driving by on The Royal Mile! How many times in your life are you going to say "I saw The Queen today!"? (Drag queens do not count. That's practically an every day occurence in Atlanta. Especially if you hang around theatre people. Haha.)
Tonight, I'm going to a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lay) or traditional Scottish dance. Haha. Watch out, Scotland! But first, I've got to get in some writing time. I am in a Writers Workshop afterall.
Much love!
Sara