After a night of flying and a few hours of driving in a car with a bunch of sleepy strangers who I’m about to go through theatre boot camp with, I arrived at paradise. The Farm is beautiful–they’ve renovated the old dairy farm structures to be spaces for communal living, and two barn spaces are absolutely beautiful wooden sweet-smelling rehearsal studios. The main one–referred to by company members just as The Space–is directly over our heads in the hostel-style rooms we’re sharing (three per–we’re gonna get to know each other!) There’s a vegetable garden and fresh eggs from the chickens. It rained all day. We cooked together, had a grand tour–double edge has been running for 25 years this year, and they’re very proud of what they’ve made of their environment, as they should be. There are 10 intensive participants, a couple of apprentices, and about 10 full company members about, and the whole operation is pervaded with a sense of groundedness, affection, and deep respect for the work of making theatre.

After dinner, with many of us having traveled overnight and not slept in a day and a half, they decided to take it easy on us–we only trained for about 2.5 hours tonight, from 7:30-10pm. I think I sweated my cold right out–we worked intensely physically (following the lead with company members’ hardcore physical improv–felt like a conditioning warmup, only it lasted 2 hours) and sang a beautiful little italian song about a grasshopper, in sweat-soaked 4-part harmony as we flung ourselves around the room.

It’s good here. I am physically exhausted and mentally charged and filled with well-being. Through my mind keeps running “how did I get lucky enough to end up here?”

The schedule for the week includes training every day from 10am-1am, with 1-hour breaks for lunch and dinner, and one extra afternoon break. Saturday’s our day off, and they’ve promised to organize some sort of excursion into the wonders of Western Massachusetts. They’re keeping us good ‘n busy.

The internet was down when I arrived, is working now. There’s one shared computer for all 10 intensive participants and not much free time, so my online time will probably be sporadic, but I’ll try to post when I can. In the meantime, love, happiness, and drowsiness from Ashfield.