Assassins Camp Begins

Things are getting exciting here and we haven’t even left the country.

But first, a quick introduction. I’m Adam Stasiw, a rising senior from Glastonbury, CT studying Computer Science with minors in Dance and Theater. In “Assassins” I play Leon Czolgosz, Polish workingman, baritone extraordinaire, and the successful killer of William McKinley in 1901. Playing Leon is quite an interesting experience and very different from most of the other acting I have done, given that he was an actual person living in Michigan just over 100 years ago (I wonder what his house looked like?). It has been a meaningful and challenging experience trying to find and bring out Czolgosz’s humanity on stage, and I am so happy to haave the chance to keep exploring his character over the next weeks.

Anyways, back to our story. Yesterday we were reunited (save Alex and Matt, both already in Scotland) at Lily’s house for an evening barbecue, and we had a blast catching up and hearing about each other’s summer escapades. And though our experiences ranged from working at an insurance company (not as bad as it might sound, to be honest) to coaching a swim team (Brian) to making some pretty sweet original dubstep remixes (Casey), I think we all made it through the last months knowing that these two weeks would be the highlight of our summer vacations.

The gang with our beautiful Fringe cake. Note the Princeton P.
(Left to Right, Back row: Pat, Casey, Mark, Adam.   Front Row: Luke, Ari, Izzy, Lily, Brian)

After dinner (and an awesome Fringe Festival cake), we gathered upstairs to watch a dress rehearsal we recorded back in May to refresh ourselves on the show. I still can’t believe we open (in Scotland of all places) in just under a week! Enthusiastic for the days to come and inspired to get our performance up to and beyond the level we left it at in the spring, we soon split up and headed to Lily, Mark, and Luke’s houses to spend the night. And while I can’t speak to the other groups, Casey, Pat, Mark, and I had an awesome time over at the Watter Household jamming after hours with Mark’s suite of guitars, synths, and other musical oddities; I even got some bass lessons.

Today we launched back into things with a full rehearsal day over at Germantown Friends School (Lily’s high school), and I love how quickly the songs and lines have been coming back for us. And not only that, but tech is in pretty great shape now too, with the props sorted and the guns painted. By this point, every little detail makes it clearer how soon we’ll be flying over to the Fringe, and I’m honestly still amazed at how close we are. This all has felt like a dream for the past six months, something we looked forward to as the ideal adventure at the end of the summer, so now that it’s here, we’re all unbelievably thrilled and still a bit incredulous. But with all the anticipation and activity, being with this group again just feels right, and I am so excited for the rest of our experiences over the next two weeks.

For now, the grill calls at our cast party, so I'll leave you to go cook some burgers. I'm sure someone else will have some great stories to tell about the rest of today.

Until we meet again (from across the pond),

Adam “The Polish Immigrant” Stasiw