Abington Friends School is taking their Spring production to Edinburgh in August 2025. In preparation, AFS Upper School theater team Kittson O’Neill (Upper School drama teacher) and Seth Schmitt-Hall (technical theater teacher) flew across the pond this past summer to scout out the performance space, meet with collaborators and get ready to lead a group of students there.
Why Scotland? Every August, the city of Edinburgh becomes a hub for theatrics, drama and technological creativity from around the world during what is called the Fringe Festival. As if by magic, performances fill every minute of a roughly three-week period, staged all over the city in places like theaters and concert halls to repurposed spaces like cafes, parks, or even shipping containers. But this magic is not easy – the magic of the theater, as every good dramaturge knows, is the product of hard work, sleepless nights and sleight-of-hand.
A different kind of performance. The Upper School Spring performance will be held in the Black Box as opposed to the Muller Auditorium for a few reasons. “We want to replicate what our venue is in Edinburgh light for light, so we can bring exciting student design with only 1.5 hours of tech once we get there,” says Seth. “We will basically build the Scotland stage here in Jenkintown.”
That sounds challenging! But constraints can also bring out true creativity! Seth explains that students will have to perform the show exactly like it is performed at AFS this coming spring. “As always, we will have a fully student designed show–set, lights, costumes, video, and sound, all of which will HAVE to be able to fit in suitcases,” says Seth. “Part of our ExTerm in June will be practicing packing up our show, touring it to somewhere off campus, perhaps in Philadelphia, tech-ing it in one to two hours, and being ready for an audience.”
Getting the word out. In addition to the actors and techies, there is a third group that stands to benefit from this experience. “It’s a great opportunity for our Marketing team to collaborate with our venue as early as March to get them our program, flyers, logo – the works” explains Seth. “They’ll get to work with some top professionals in the field and get their poster in front of thousands of people and the international press.”