Our final week in Nepal was very busy as we prepared for the performances of New Normal. The Nepal International Theatre Festival had such an amazing atmosphere. There were performances happening throughout the day, both in indoor theatre spaces and outside in the courtyard, so it was nice to see all of the different events happening at the theatre over the few days we were preparing and then performing. We didn’t have any of the projection until we were in the theatre space and it was exciting to see the AV and captions. The costumes also arrived while we were doing tech, and it was exciting to see the cast try them on for the first time. We also went from using spare tables and chairs in rehearsals to having a set. Everything came together very quickly, and it was exciting to see the production come to life. Before long, we had finished with tech, and it was time for our performance at NITFest. It was pretty incredible to have an audience watching a show that didn’t exist two weeks prior. After our performance, the festival team presented us with Letters of Appreciation and a beautiful plaque for participating in the festival. 

We then had one more performance outside of the festival for an invited audience. This fell on World Theatre Day, and it was amazing to celebrate while delivering such an amazing project creating a new piece of theatre. We had information available about how the show had been developed and about the artists that had been involved in the workshops. One artist from the workshops, Chomu, came to watch the performance and was excited to see how we displayed their, and the workshops’, input into the production. We had tea and biscuits available for the audience before and after the play, and it was a really lovely atmosphere with people socialising and getting to know each other. The owner of the rehearsal space attended the performance and was excited to see the play, having been around while we were rehearsing. It was nice to have people in the audience who had been a huge part of the process, and to be able to share the piece with them and see their response. 

After the final performance, we shared small Scottish gifts from BOP with the cast and creatives: some shortbread, tablet, and BOP branded beanies. In return, one member of the cast had brought some beautiful scarfs to gift to the Scottish team. Gunjan had also brought a cake to celebrate. It was nice to have a moment to reflect on all of the work we had done, and in such a short period of time. Everyone was able to take a step back and really appreciate our collective achievement. The members of the team based in Nepal spoke of how they would love to re-stage the play if the opportunity arose. Everyone was also excited to carry forward the aspects of creative access that had been used on this production. It will be exciting to see how these things may be implemented in their future work.  During our last afternoon together, we ate momos and played Uno before saying a teary goodbye. All of the Scottish team were so sad to be leaving Nepal but we have all had such an amazing experience. It’s been amazing to meet everyone, and meet some people in person after having done the workshops with them via Zoom. Although we were all sad to leave, we have made sure to exchange contact details to stay in touch, and it will be exciting to see what we all go on to do in the future!