After a few weeks of waiting and rescheduling, I am delighted to be able to report back with an update on my placement at the Rep!
Yesterday (Monday 4th) was our first meeting, held in the Rep bar. I only ever seem capable of arriving early or late to things, so I had fifteen minutes to distract my friend on reception from his work before we started.
When the show’s director, Ewan Donald, arrived, there was that surreal moment of meeting in person for the first time a talented actor you’ve seen on stage in a dozen different guises. The immediate recognition of someone who is in fact a complete stranger. But he and everyone else proved to be very welcoming.
The show itself, A-Z of Dundee, is apparently still in its early stages, but the job of my fellow intern Hamzah and myself has been confirmed: go out into the public, gather up as many different stories as possible, and find out how the world relates to Dundee, and how Dundee relates to itself. Even though I had been told already this was what we’d be doing, now that our work is beginning in earnest it all feels much more real – and exciting! All through yesterday I kept getting distracted from whatever I was doing, pausing in my work to add to the list of people and groups I think it might be interesting to try and interview. My hope is to try and gather as diverse a range of interviews as possible, showing both Dundee the old and the new. Gail, our tutor, has also emphasised our opportunity here to showcase the communities and stories that don’t often get told, so from my end expect an obnoxious barrage of rainbows and glitter.
Hamzah and I have already agreed on a few targets, and have arranged to meet on Thursday for some research in a certain nautical, supposedly haunted location, so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, I have another meeting tomorrow about another placement I have agreed to join…
Your intrepid journalist,
Kai
P.S. In far more important news, I have just beaten the Casino of Envy palace in Persona 5, and survived the half hour long cutscene that follows it. I knew a certain “ace detective” was too good to be true!
