Stuff We've Done

I honestly have no clue how I can possibly leave in three days.

Yesterday:

Brighton: This is a place that I've always wanted to go, but never thought I would. It's quite easy to get around this country and this sovereign state (which is what the UK technically is called, says Wikipedia ;p) but I really haven't done it much, and it's a regret. But I did make it to Brighton with my family and it was pretty cool. I wish I could put pictures up, but right now, that's not possible. If you don't know, Brighton is a seaside town with beaches that give way to the English Channel. I didn't know much about Brighton before I got there besides that there was an ocean, that there is a movie called London to Brighton and that the Georgia Nicholson series takes place there (and funnily enough, when the first book of that series was made into a movie, the same actress that starred in London to Brighton played the lead.)
Something about seaside towns, or at least the ones I've visited in England: they're very windy and rather cold. Herne Bay wasn't too bad on the cold front, but Brighton was very chilly and my hair got ridiculously tangled in the wind. I really liked the town- it was very pretty and if you're a resident, I think there would be a lot of things to do. As a tourist, though, not so much. We stayed there for about three and a half/four hours before heading back to London.

Seeing a play: I do not come from a theatrical family, so when Laura contacted me months ago about seeing a show this week and I decided to invited my family along, I didn't expect them to want to come along. I was pleased when my mom said she would, and so last night we headed off to the Donmar Warehouse. This is the theatre outside of which Laura and I froze while waiting to get King Lear tickets, and they have a reputation for wonderful theatre.
We were seeing a Freidrich Schiller play called Luise Miller. It was first performed in the late eighteenth century (or perhaps early nineteenth), but the dialogue had been updated a bit by another playwright. I enjoyed the play, for the most part, though for some reason I disliked the performances at the end. The cast was really great, though, and Laura and I both freaked out when we saw that Alex Kingston was in it- even my mom knew who she was because apparently Kingston was in ER. The play was very dramatic and sort of a retelling of Romeo and Juliet (in a very roundabout German way. The basic plot, though, is that there are two young lovers. Their parents/parent don't want them to marry for various reasons. They love each other too much to not do it, and at the end of the play, they're both dead.) I would definitely recommend seeing it.

Today...

The British Museum: I have to admit, this wasn't my favorite. Okay, I was bored. Ancient Greek and African stuff just doesn't interest me.

Cafe: my sister had an appointment to go horseback riding in Hyde Park, and since it started to rain soon after she left, my parents and I took shelter in a cafe. Well, technically it was a saloon, and I walked in like a cowboy to make it more fun. My parents got drinks and the bartender made me a hot chocolate... And then he brought out petit fours. For me. I did not order petit fours, but he brought them out anyway. And he didn't charge us for them. I have never actually had petit fours, but I've been obsessed with them since I was about seven, since my favorite American Girl doll character, Samantha, had them at her tenth birthday party. My seven year-old heart was thrilled. And t were delicious.

Covent Garden: After walking through Trafalgar and Leicester Squares, we headed to Covent Garden for some window-shopping. I wanted it to be actual shopping, but as my family reminded me every time I squealed over a dress, I am poor due to this trip and also due to agreeing to be a last-minute bridesmaid for wedding #2 this summer (the dress is rather pricey.) After spending a bit going into shops, we had dinner at the lovely Cafe Pasta, which was delicious as always.

The Eye: My family really wanted to go on the Eye, but we hadn't gotten around to it. After dinner, it was still light out and we were an easy tube ride away from the Eyem so we figured, why not? It was perfect conditions and we saw not only the usual Eye sights, but a rainbow, too!

Now I am tired. I packed up my second suitcase tonight and have only a few sets of clothes and some books and trinkets to pack away in my family's suitcases. Packing is making me sad.

Cheery Chekov

Today was wonderful.

As you might have deduced, one of my favorite places not only in London, but in the world, is the National Theatre. It is my goal to work there one day because they put on such amazing shows with fantastic casts at very reasonable prices. Both Laura and I wanted to do the backstage tour as well as see The Cherry Orchard, so we decided to make a day of it.

It didn't start out well- though we left an hour early, our tube station was closed and we had to walk about a half-mile to the next one. The line we had to take is one of the slowest in the underground system, and we knew that in order to make the tour, we would have to run. And we did- we sprinted from the tube station to the theatre, only to find that they put an earlier time on the website so people will be on time.

I'd been on the tour before two years ago, but a tour at the National will vary from day to day because their shows are reperatory, which means that a show that's on today might not be on tomorrow. Our tour guide was great and we got to see some really cool behind-the-scenes stuff like an unused horse puppet from War Horse (which is one of the shows I wanted to see here and didn't), several sets, and some props being made. Sadly, we weren't allowed to take pictures, so I have none.

When the tour finished, we had about two hours before the show began, so Laura and I grabbed lunch and then took some pictures in and around the theatre (...we both really love the National.)





I will confess, the reason Laura and I wanted to see The Cherry Orchard was not because it was written by an extremely famous playwright. In fact, neither of us had a clue what the show was about. However, we are both huge fans of Zoe Wannamaker, the leading actress in the show. Most people know her as Madame Hooch from the first Harry Potter movie, but I became a fan of hers after watching the British sitcom My Family for many, many years.

Had she not been in the show, I probably wouldn't have seen it- all I know about Chekov is that his plays feature a lot of cold, depressed Russian people. And this show did, but they also made it really funny in places. The cast was great, and I was surprised to find out that Claudie Blakley (Charlotte Lucas from 2005's Pride and Prejudice) was in it. The acting was great, and I'm really glad we got the better seats so we could see everyone's faces. Zoe Wannamaker has a very distinctive acting style; though she didn't by any means play Susan from My Family, she does amazing things with her voice just like she does on the show. Claudie Blakley, too, has her own style so that even if you didn't recognize her name, you'd remember that you'd seen her in P&P.

I have at least two copies of The Cherry Orchard at home, but I've never read the play, and I'm glad I saw my first Chekov rather than reading it. The cast did a fantastic job with the material (it was technically an "updated" version, but it wasn't updated a lot; the dialogue was still very old fashioned), but I know that if I had been reading it, I would have spent the whole time thinking, "Stop talking about your bookcase. No one cares about your stupid bookcase" (which was monologued about for a long time. On stage, funny. On paper- NOT.)

One complaint that Laura and I had were the sound effects. Some of them just sounded fake, but others were confusing. This play was one you really had to pay attention to, and Laura missed one character coming onstage and asking another if they could wait to chop down the orchard until her mother had left the property. Because the chopping sounded more like a clock ticking than it did chopping, that's what Laura thought it was.

Overall, the play was really, really well done. The lighting was great and very detailed- they even put fireflies in the tall grass in an outdoor scene. The actors were wonderful and they didn't bow twice, which made me like them even more. Definitely go see this show if you're around London when it's on!

In Which I Lazily Discuss Two Shows

I am tired. I am very very tired and I don't know why. Maybe it's because of the weather- it's grey and rainy. Or because I spent about four straight hours last night standing, three of those craning my neck up to see what I'll be talking about later. Maybe it's because yesterday was a day of grieving, as it has been for the past few years for my friends and I. Or because I've been going to the gym every day and living on much fewer calories than I usually do. Perhaps because I've been studying for about five or six hours every day and I'm sick of it. Or it could be a combination of all of those things.
In any case, it's annoying. I am not motivated to do anything. I waffled a long time about if I even wanted to do this. But things need to get done today, and so here I am, trying to kick start myself even though the day is almost half over.

I saw two shows in the past two days, and it was awesome. Thursday night, Adrienne and I went to go see Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre. When I booked my tickets, my mom said, "But you've seen Les Mis a million times!" It certainly feels like I have, but the fact is that I've only seen one high school production of it; the feel of seeing it a million times comes from when I was in it, rehearsing many times a week for almost four months. And even though I know the show very well, I've never seen or been in a full-length version (there is a student version of the show.) And so I was excited.

We arrived at the theatre with plenty of time to spare and got our souvenir programs as well as our regular programs. We were displeased to discover that we were sitting amidst three rows of pre-teen and teenage boys. These boys all had extreme difficulty in reading their tickets. They stood at the end of our row (we were on the aisle) for a long time, trying to decipher what their tickets said. Finally, they realised that they were sitting on the other side of us and we let them through. But then it seemed they had still misread their tickets- half of them were in the wrong seat. They all got up and musical-chaired around. A older couple arrived and remarked that the two boys sitting next to me were in their seats. More shuffling around. Then came the sudden need for them all to go the bathroom/get snacks or drinks/stretch their legs... and they did it one by one, every twenty seconds or so, meaning that finally, Adrienne and I stopped standing up to let them through and just moved our knees aside. We were fully prepared to smack them with our programs if they talked during the show (to their credit, they didn't.)

The show was incredible. Three main roles, including Eponine and Cosette, were being played by understudies, but you never would have known. Javert was amazing (and the only American in the cast.) Our Cosette was extremely young (because there are multiple understudies and we were kind of far away, we don't know who played her, but they way she acted and moved was in a way that I think can only be done by an actual teenage girl.) Eponine gave me hope for my future because she was quite short in addition to being fantastic. I wanted to adopt Gavroche. The Thenardiers were disgusting and hysterical. All in all, the cast was great (and, even besides Cosette, it was quite a young one.)

With the perfect voices, the great acting, and the awesome sets, there was only one thing I didn't like, and that was the blocking (or, for those of you who don't speak theatre, how the director has the actors moving around the stage.) Especially for the first act, it was really awkward and you could tell that the actors were uncomfortable with it. Perhaps something had gone wrong and they had just restaged it that afternoon, but it looked weird. The worst instance of awkward blocking was when Javert jumped off the bridge. When he hit the "water", the director had him roll all over the stage. This looked so dumb that I actually rolled my eyes. However, if there's only one thing wrong with a show, that's hardly anything to complain about. Overall, it was fantastic!

(Oh, and I was surprised to find out that the edits they make to shorten the student version are not to clean it up- most of the vulgarity is in the student edition. It's mostly the extra narration that they take out.)

Last night, I went to see Hamlet at the Globe (or, as they make sure to say here, Shakespeare's Globe.) Hamlet is my favorite Shakespeare play, and like Les Mis, I'd only seen a shorter version before (not including movies.)

Since I didn't to be late, I left much earlier than I needed to, but my obnoxious earliness worked to my benefit this time- if groundlings (which is what I was) get there early enough, they can get right up against the stage rather than trying to see over the other people. Because I was so early, I got a spot right at the front of the stage.

The show was really great, and very different than I think a lot of productions of Hamlet in that it was very darkly funny. The jokes are in there, of course, but this company underlined them and did it well. They also incorporated music- all of the actors (besides Hamlet, who was a little busy contemplating life and such) could play instruments, be it a drum, guitar, violin, recorder, or tambourine. It was really cool, since they used it to accompany the songs they opened and closed the show with as well as using them to add to the atmosphere of scenes like those involving the king's ghost.

They also cast all of the actors (again, besides Hamlet) in multiple roles- Polonius was one of the players as well as the preacher and the first gravedigger. The king also played the ghost (which was a cool idea, since they're brothers), and a player. Since the show is a traveling show, they were very creative with how they cast everyone. Even with Hamlet, they went against the norm- he was really short for a guy, maybe 5'4" at the tallest (I think he was shorter, but it was kind of hard to tell from where I was standing.) Everyone was taller than him, including Ophelia, and they didn't shy away from pointing this out. I'm glad they didn't decide not to cast him because of his lack of height because he was really great. In fact, the whole cast was and I would have given them a standing ovation if I hadn't been standing the whole time.

(One thing that definitely detracted from the show was the fact that the people around me would not stop talking. I know your ticket was only five pounds, but did you come here to see a show or have a conversation?)

And now I must go try to get some things done. The thought of studying more is saddening :(

Theatrical Differences

As I mentioned yesterday, I went to go see my friend in a show of one-acts this afternoon, and seeing my third show of the month reminded me of some more differences in American and British theatre that I've noticed since I've been here.

1) While I enjoyed watching my friend in the show- she was definitely one of the best performers in it- I noticed that most of the actors have a certain... way of performing. I hesitate to call it a "style," but maybe that is what it is. Whatever it is, I don't like it. I noticed the same approach in about 75-80% of the people who performed in the New Writer's Festival (thankfully, none of them in my pieces.)
It's not everyone- none of my classmates, that I've observed, take this approach to performance, but it seems like a fair majority of young performers do. As I was watching both today and at the festival, I thought, 'Why is their style so much different than the British actors you see on the West End and in movies?'Well, because... and I'm going to sound like a huge snob in saying this... but I think it's because a lot of the young performers I'm seeing aren't good. I could be wrong- it could just be that I'm used to seeing a very different approach to performance. But I will say that most of the actors I know back home have much closer performance styles to the actors you see onstage and in films, and I consider many of the actors I know to be quite skilled (and I'm including my British classmates in this.)
I know I just showed myself for the snob that I am, and I could be mistaken; who am I to decide what "good" acting is? But either way, I don't appreciate the acting that most college and university-age performers do here.

2) Burning things onstage in buckets. They looooove to do that here. I actually love it, too. (Watching it, that is. I've never been in a show where they've burned something onstage.) It's dramatic, it often concludes a heavy scene and when they bring the lights down leaving just the flames, it looks awesome. I do think it's funny that, while I've never seen it done in America, they've done it in 90% of the shows I've seen here... and I'm kind of disappointed when it didn't happen in the other 10% ;)

3) Bowing twice. This has been one of my biggest pet peeves in seeing theatre here. At the end of pretty much every show, no matter what level it is, the actors bow twice. This bugs me. A lot. It's not that I don't think that the actors deserve a second bow- I've mentioned how high the caliber of shows here is- but I do believe that there should only be a second bow is the audience is asking for it. The actors always bow twice, regardless of whether the audience is still applauding or if they've already begun to gather up their things and leave. When the latter is happening and the actors come out again for a second bow... it's kind of anticlimactic, and I wish the actors wouldn't put themselves in that position. Let the audience ask for you, don't beg for their attention.

(I will say though, to the actors' credit in the show I did here, they went by the audience. We only bowed twice once. Every other time, we would see if they wanted a second. When we realised they didn't, we didn't go out. I was very pleased.)

4) Unreserved seating. Many of the non-West End shows have this. I think I like it. All tickets are sold at a flat rate and it's first come, first serve. I often get a great seat at these shows.

5) I've mentioned the difference in dress code before, but I still hold fast to my opinion that one should look nice to go to the theatre. I don't think I'll ever stop doing it.


Something not theatre-related that I found interesting today: after the show, my friend and I were talking to one of the other actors, another one who had been quite good in it. My friend told her that I was an exchange student from America and the girl said, "Oh, that's so cool, I love Americans!" While this was lovely to hear, I always wonder what makes people love us or hate us just because we're American?

Now I should stop being lazy and evasive go work on my script...

Randomosity

I have very little to report, but BEDA (Blog Every Day in April, for those of you who have forgotten) demands that I write. So here I am.

Another low-key day today, spent doing things like packing for my trip on Friday (Oxford, Cotswolds, Bath, Lacock, and Stonehenge) and pre-packing for my trip to Lille on Sunday. I'm taking my laptop with me this weekend, but I may have to just type up my entries and post them when I get back on Saturday, as I'm not sure what internet is going to be like wherever we're staying. As for France, I'm not sure if I'll be able to report 'til I get back- I'm not taking my laptop with me, since Megan's residence's internet connection is notoriously bad (to her and I, anyway) and I don't feel like pointlessly lugging my computer around with me again.

As I was packing, I caught up on some things I've wanted to watch, including Fringe and Castle and I also watched Tangled. The first and third made me cry, and Tangled is AMAZING. If you haven't seen it, SEE IT. It may be an animated kids' movie, but it's seriously funny and touching and the music is pretty awesome too. I am definitely getting it as soon as I can (which is June, since I can't buy DVDs here. Sad.)

Besides watching things, packing, and cleaning up my room a bit, I've been doing some writing. I'm super frustrated with my NaNo '10 novel because, after my last reader's comments, I have to make some extreme changes, things like changing a character's entire personality, even though I love her the way she is. This alteration will seriously change everything about the end, which is already undergoing changes as I need to possibly slow down the final scene, which is already dangerously slow for a conclusion. I am experiencing much frustration, but I won't make you read about it anymore.

Tomorrow I'm going to see one of my classmates in a series of one-acts at the Almeida Theatre and then possibly going to another write-in. I don't really feel like going to the latter, but I probably should raise my page count if I'm going to be computer-less in France for four days.

Off to combat the novel again...

Script Frenzy update: 59 pages

Think Positive!

Today started off not so great. A good number of bad things happened before noon. But then the day got much better, so we're just going to focus on those things.

THING #1: I got my replacement camera! I spent a long time comparing picture quality, because while I didn't want to spend a ton of money, I also have two months of picture-taking to go (possibly more while I'm waiting for my other camera to be fixed), and I wanted them to be fairly good pictures.

THING #2: The camera I got (Fujifilm AV130) is pretty good quality and cost about forty pounds less than I thought I'd have to spend for a worthwhile camera. Hurrah!

THING #3: So now I can take pictures!

THING #4: Tomorrow morning, I head out to a hotel by Stanstead airport so that I can make my 6:30 a.m. flight to ITALY on Friday.

THING #5: I'M GOING TO VENICE SOOOOON!

THING #6: After all of the [bad things that we're not going to talk about], none of it mattered. They let me into the show tonight with no problems.

THING #7: Oh, yeah- Laura and I saw The Complete Works of Shakespeare: Abridged tonight. It was AWESOME. I have been obsessed with that show since tenth grade when my English class watched it. I knew the entire show by heart, and I was surprised to realise just how much I remembered when I watched it tonight (I haven't seen it in years.) The show that I saw was different than the filmed version of the play that I watched over and over, for a few reasons. One, it was British-ised. A good deal of the lines were changed, the American football scene was changed to rugby, the Titus cooking show segment was specifically a parody of Gordon Ramsay's F Word (which I wouldn't have gotten if I hadn't read it in the program), and the verses of the Othello rap were almost entirely different.
The other huge difference was that there was a girl in it. This gave Laura and I much hope. The show is always done by three men, with one of them putting on wigs and bodices to play the female parts. It's very funny, but I've always wished that I could be in the show. Well, while it wasn't as funny with a girl playing the female parts, it was close. We both really enjoyed it and I'm so glad I finally got to see the show.

THING #8: In my inbox this morning were my novel edits from my second reader. The first reader I had didn't do such a great job- basically, she just said that she liked it and made some formatting suggestions. While I know that this novel is way better than my last one (or at least I hope), it is definitely not that good that it only needs some formatting changes. The girl who sent today's edits did an amazing job. She did like it, but that didn't stop her from kicking my butt in her comments and pointing out all the things I knew were there but just skipped over in hopes of them going away. I am very happy :)


Oh, also- some people seemed to think that I was being super grumpy in my Dear Blank entry. I did not compile that in one day- I've been getting those together since January and saving them in a document. I am not that unhappy of a person. (Plus, not all of them were bad...)

Okay, time to go finalise my packing for my trip!

In a Forest Dark and Deep

I saw this show this afternoon! I was really excited because Olivia Williams is awesome- I saw her first in Dollhouse a few years ago and was thrilled to see her again as Miss Stubbs in An Education. To be honest, I had no idea who Matthew Fox was (he is apparently from Lost and Party of Five, neither of which I've seen.) Also, it's directed by the playwright Neil Labute, of whom I am a new fan (I saw another one of his plays exactly a month ago, The Shape of Things, which I loved.)

The show was all right. I didn't like it as much as I would have liked, but there are a few factors that went into this "eh" reaction. First, both of the actors' energy was kind of low- the reason I tend to avoid matinees. As an actor, I know that matinees are usually not nearly as good as night shows, but the student price was only offered for Wednesday matinees. Also, my energy was really low, so I wasn't a great audience member. I wasn't a huge fan of Matthew Fox's acting for awhile, but he got better as it went on. I don't think he's done a ton of theatre, and it shows. That being said, he wasn't bad- it wasn't torturous to watch him or anything, but Olivia Williams just seemed more comfortable on the stage. And I think the main reason I didn't like it as much as some of the other shows I've seen, or even as much as Labute's other play, is because I wasn't supposed to. In the program, it says that the roles in this show are not for actors who want the audience to adore them. The characters, Bobby and Betty, are two terrible, terrible people, especially Betty, and they spend the play reminding each other of that. Betty is incredibly annoying- besides having a ridiculous amount of faults, she's also very whiny. I think Olivia Williams must have been exhausted at the end of the show, as she had to spend most of it crying.

Williams did fantastically with her accent- for a part that emotional, I heard one slip up, that's all. It's very interesting how high and young-sounding British actors' voices become when they do American accents. Williams has a lower, very calming English voice, but you only heard the low register in this show when she was sobbing without speaking. I was really impressed.

Overall, I'm glad I saw it, but I'm also glad that I didn't pay a ton to see it (though I was more than happy to take the free seat upgrade I was offered.) If nothing else, I got to see an actor I like live, which always makes for a good story.

World Premieres!

This weekend was The Weekend- the weekend that two of my short plays premiered in the QMUL Theatre Company's New Writers' Festival!

It was definitely an experience. I had hoped to attend a rehearsal or two of each to see how things were going, but I didn't end up doing so, for various reasons, which means that I was surprised on Friday night and tonight!

First up was Funeral Circus (I'm sorry that I'm making you follow a link to see the videos- Blogger won't let me display videos. I promise it's just YouTube.) This is a piece inspired by a dinner I went to with my friend Kara, her mother, and her grandmother. It was a lot of fun and when I went to a day-long playwrighting workshop and we were given forty-five minutes to write a scene, that dinner popped into my head and I wrote this scene. It's hardly been edited at all since its first draft, and I was really happy with how it was received and how it was presented. The director added a ton of stuff, all of which I loved. In the original script, the waiter is only in the scene for about three seconds to give the women their desserts, but I thought it was pretty cool to have three waiters onstage the entire time making comments on the action onstage.
Tonight's piece was Funeral Sketch. I promise, I don't only write about funerals. I almost didn't get to see this one- though I had e-mailed them days ago, they forgot to put my name on the reserve list and so told me I would only get a seat if people didn't show up. I looked around crowded lobby and knew I wasn't going to get in- I wasn't even the first on the reserve list! I tried to think of a backup plan and finally decided to ask a girl from my RT class to film for me- I HAD to film it so I could get the reactions of the audience and edit the piece accordingly. Thankfully, fourteen people (which is kind of a lot) didn't show up, so they were filled by people like me, desperately waiting for a ticket.
This piece, though also comedy, is very different- no family dynamics here. It also took me months to write, which is why the audience reaction was a little disappointing... or lack therefore. I'm not sure whether they didn't like the piece or if they were just a quieter audience, as it was a different crowd of people than Friday night. Either way, I saw a lot of places where I needed to do some tweaking. The actors' delivery of lines were sometimes much different than I expected, and there were a few lines that were changed. I loved the projected pictures on the back wall, and even though it took me a few minutes to get that, though the actors are seated far away from each other, they're actually sitting together, I really liked that in the end. And I thought the actors were especially great during the eulogy part of the scene- they made me laugh and I've been living with this script for about a year.
Overall, it was a good experience. It's pretty awesome to have people laugh during a scene and know that you wrote it. And I'm not going to lie- I was extremely nervous before each piece, the same kind of nerves I get when I'm about to open a show. I was shaking and I couldn't sit still, wondering how things were going to go. It was also a very different theatrical experience than I've ever had before. It's the first time I've done something in theatre where not a single person links me with the piece. I was completely anonymous- yes, my name was on the poster and in the program (which thrilled me to bits), but no one here really know who I am. This is something I've never experienced; acting is a pretty public thing, so for better or worse, people know it's you up there and you get feedback of all sorts, Also, while I sat there all nervous... I sat there alone instead of being surrounded by my fellow, just-as-nervous actors. This is is why it was a bit weird to walk out of the theatre... and just leave. And while I'm going to sound like a horrible person, I wasn't a huge fan of the anonymity. I like getting credit for my work. Maybe I'm just immature, and since I do want to be a playwright, I suppose I'll have to get used to this. But it is something very different.

Anyway, I feel extremely honored to have been included in this festival- most of the material in it was truly great. Both of the other pieces tonight really blew me away with both their writing and their presentation. I'm glad to have been a part of it and that my work was seen by real, responsive audiences. There is at least one great thing about the fact that people didn't know who I was- when I overheard that someone liked what they saw, I knew they meant it :)

*sigh* Frustration

I am working on an essay right now. Well, not right now. Right now, I am procrastinating on the essay by blogging about how much the essay is frustrating me. When I procrastinate, I write/edit anything but what I'm meant to be writing/editing.

Here is the problem: I signed up to write an essay about my favorite-in-the-world play and its film version (which I also love) for my Adaptations essay. Sounds perfect, right? What's better to write about than favorite material? Yes, yes, I thought this, too, naive blog readers.

I joyfully re-read the play. I gleefully watched the movie again and excitedly held the play in front of me while watching it and scribbled down TEN PAGES of notes on the similarities/differences, why certain things work/don't work within the theatre/film setting, etc. I was pretty proud of myself because, from a play that I knew backwards and forwards and upside down, I got to know even better.

Yeah. Yay. Until I found out that the essay wasn't supposed to be 4,000 words long. It is only 2,500. Usually great to find out about an essay, except that I have about ten times too much material for this piece, I don't know what to cut, and here's the worst part- I haven't even used any of my sources yet because I've got so much to say on the play myself that I haven't needed them. And I have less than 400 words left to write- AHHHH!

"But Rachel," I hear you say from your distant, non-play-obsessed Land of the Normal People. "Surely having too much information is not a problem at all. Just cut it down." You think you know all, don't you, blog reader? Yes, perhaps this might not be a problem for you, but again, I am not normal. I can b.s. my way through any essay-I'm rather wordy, if you haven't noticed- but I have a serious problem with cutting things down when I've got a lot to say. To me, it is all important (especially when it comes to my favorite plays.) This is why I am sad. I've got about eight pages of notes left uncovered in this essay and I really really want to talk about them.

*sigh* Well, there's only one thing for it. If I can't talk about it in my essay... I guess I'll just have to talk about it here.

Whoa, did I just lose all of my followers? :p I am kidding, I will not subject you to my insanity. I will just go cry quietly in the corner by myself now :/

P.S. Also, due to the awesomeness that is Jersey Boys, I cannot get Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons out of my head. I would like the awesomeness to quiet down for a bit right now...

The Children's Hour, or I Thought I Was Cooler Than This, But...

Now that I'm breathing evenly again, I can tell you that tonight was ah-ma-zing.

I've been a huge fan of Keira Knightley since I was fourteen years old and saw her in Pirates of the Caribbean (a movie I did not want to see, by the way, but then harbored an obsession for after seeing it, for many, many years.) I've also loved the play The Children's Hour since I was fifteen or sixteen. Tonight, I saw a play I love that starred an actor I admire.

I'd been getting more and more excited as the day got closer, but I seriously thought I would be cool about it. I mean, I'm an actor. I do theatre. What's the big deal?

IT'S A BIG DEAL. It's a very big deal to see someone you're a fan of, especially when you get to see them in action, let alone in a favorite play. We were sitting sort of far away from the stage on the stage level. We had been warned before we bought our tickets that there would be a pillar obstructing our view of certain parts of the stage. We thought it would be annoying when we first sat down, but I overheard one lady say that once you're into the show, you don't really notice it, and she was right.

The play was really good. I actually thought the first act dragged a little bit, but maybe that's because I know it so well, because Adrienne and Laura, who came too and who didn't know the play, said they didn't think it did. The performances were great from the start, though. All of the girls were at least eighteen (WHY did I not try out when they were casting in America?!?!) and they were pretty awesome. Ellen Burstyn was great as the doting, conclusion-jumping grandmother. Bryony Hannah was wonderfully hateful as Mary- I actually rolled my eyes and glared at her character numerous times. Elisabeth Moss, who is very famous here but who I had never heard was really good as the somewhat stoic (and later, very punchy and then very depressed) Martha.

And Keira Knightley... where to start? Well, first of all, her acting. She's been criticised a lot as an actor, but believe me- she can and very, very well. She was very authoritative and powerful with the girls, loving with her fiance, and terrifyingly angry at the end of the show- stuff you've never seen in her movies and is mind-blowing work. I actually thought she was remarkably comfortable onstage- I was expecting her to be too small with her gestures or awkward with the blocking, but she made the adjustment beautifully. Her American accent was pretty good. I couldn't figure out if the actors were slipping on certain words or if they were using Boston accents. And the movies don't lie- she's very beautiful in person, too.

It was also just wonderful to see the show itself- even if the cast hadn't been what it was, I would have been in the audience tonight. Though I love the show, I'd never seen all of it- I'd seen one scene done and then was in the same scene a few years later, but it's not the same as seeing it all full-out. It's just such a great show that comments well on the dangers of lying just because a person is bored. While I do think that the first act moved slowly, the second act was fantastic. I don't want to give away anything about the plot, but there's an incident that happens in the last scene that's horrifying and of course, I knew what was coming. As the final scene crept towards that point, I couldn't sit still, I was so nervous. I kept changing my position, finally sitting with my arms tightly folded, and I was actually shaking. My arms were crossed so tightly that I couldfeel my heart beating much faster than usual. And for the rest of the scene, I just cried and cried, and it was one of those performances after which you just want to sit there and cry. In fact, after the cast had taken their bows and the lights came up, I just sat there with my face pressed into my coat while I cried a little more.

I was determined to stage door stalk afterwards, and there weren't that many people there. Something that freaked me out, though, was the presence of paparazzi. That doesn't happen in America, and it made me really uncomfortable. It was very cold, and I knew that Adrienne and Laura were waiting there because I demanded we do so, so I was relieved when the actors started coming out. Sadly, none of the schoolgirls stuck around- even Bryony Hannah, who played the lead, only signed a few before she left, and that's because someone called after her to do so. However, we did get the autographs of Ellen Burstyn, Keira Knightley, Elisabeth Moss, and Tobias Menzies.

When Ellen Burstyn got to us, Laura commented on the performance (I, as usual, froze and could hardly remember how to breathe. WHY AM I NOT COOLER?!), and Burstyn exclaimed, "Oh! You're American!" Laura said that we were here studying and Burstyn asked where and what. I managed to chip in at this point... I had a conversation with Ellen Burstyn.

Keira Knightley came out then and signed everyone's program. I (along with everyone else) said how much I loved the performance and she smiled and thanked everyone before hurrying to her car. I love finding out that actors that seem nice, actually are.
After those actors left, most of the others had gone, too, so we made our way back to the tube station to go home. We were all extremely giddy, skipping down the sidewalk and talking a mile a minute. I know I couldn't breathe evenly and we were all smiling ridiculously. On the tube ride home, we alternated between talking super-fast and not talking at all, staring into the distance and grinning while stroking the covers of our programs. I seriously thought I would be cooler than this about this whole experience, but it was like I was fourteen again.

It was just an amazing, amazing night of theatre.
(Oh, and a little sample of how theatre nerdy I am- during intermission, we were all talking about different shows we'd seen and Adrienne mentioned a production of Macbeth she'd seen... and she said the title. In the theatre. She stopped in the middle of her story because I think I actually went pale. When she asked what was wrong, I was like, "You said... you just said... it. You said the title. In a theatre. You said it." If there's one theatre superstition I believe in, it's that one- I've seen and heard of a lot of shows having issues because someone's said Macboo in the theatre (in fact, I always call it Macboo, whether I'm in a theatre or not.) Because Adrienne is a normal person, she was unaffected by this utterance, but I actually considered telling her that she had to do the ritual (go outside, spin around in a circle three times, spit, swear, and ask to be let back in.) I knew that that would be too weird, so I didn't... but I was very nervous for the rest of the show. It makes me wonder, though- that's never happened to me while I've been in the audience. Is it just actors saying it that affect the show? 'Cause I've seen some pretty bad stuff go down after an actor's let it slip.)

There is No Bad Theatre in London

Like, seriously... knock on wood and all that, but I'm beginning to believe it. I just came out of another production that I did not want to see and ended up loving it (Frankenstein at the National Theatre.)

The funny thing is that I still think the story is terribly boring. I read the book in eighth grade and it was like torture, and I read it with two boys, too, so it's not just my ultra-girliness that kept me from enjoying a book about an ugly monster that kills people. But the production was so well done that I loved it.

The cast was amazing. Benedict Cumberbatch (Atonement, Sherlock [on TV], The Other Boleyn Girl, Amazing Grace, etc.) played Frankenstein and he was fantastic. Johnny Lee Miller (Trainspotting, Dexter, and a lot of other stuff I don't recognise... and he was married to Angelina Jolie) played the Creature, and he was incredible- I respect him so much for doing the role as he did. Apparently, because the role of the Creature is so demanding, he and Cumberbatch switch off week. I heard as I walked out that Cumberbatch is better as the Creature, but I think Miller did a great job.

The two young boys who played William Frankenstein (Haydon Downing and Jared Richard) were great. Naomi Harris (Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3, 28 Days Later) was really, really amazing as Elizabeth- she blew me away- and George Harris (Harry Potter, The Interpreter, Raiders of the Lost Ark) was great as the father. Lizzie Winkler was one of my favorites as Agatha de Lacey. It was just a wonderfully cast production.

The sets were simple yet did their jobs well. The lighting was fantastic- there was this accumulation of differently-sized lightbulbs and styles of lamps hanging above the audience and would flare whenever Frankenstein had an epiphany.

The production, aside from being good, was also surprising in many ways. The show began with a ten-minute long scene of the Creature basically learning how to walk and move... and since he's just been created, he was completely nude. This might be the American prude in me, but I was surprised because I've never seen a full nude scene done onstage. There was also the scene where Frankenstein presents the Creature with the woman counterpart he's made- again, the woman didn't have a stitch of clothing on. In less physical surprises, the stage had a rotating center, and they would constantly move the set around to allow literal trains to pass through, houses to appear and disappear... it was awesome.

There was a scene that didn't so much surprise me as scare me as an actor, which was Elizabeth's death scene. I didn't remember how she died in the book, since I read it so long ago, I just knew that she did and that it happened in her bedroom after her wedding to Frankenstein. So I was kind of surprised at the onstage rape scene... but the thing that freaked me out most was that the Creature killed her by snapping her neck. I know the stage tricks and I know it's controlled and how the noise was made... but I just can't help thinking how terrified I would be every night for that scene. There are so many ways that it could go wrong- even being an inch too close to your fellow actor can do actual damage. So scary, and the entire audience gasped when it happened. Also, the Creature has so many combat scenes that he must have to arrive at the theatre so many hours earlier to get all the fight calls (which is what they call it when you come to the theatre early and practice your fights. This happens before every single show, even if you have two in one day) in.

I also liked the show just because I am biased towards the venue. It is a life goal of mine to work at the National Theatre. Such amazing actors have worked there and they put on such high-quality productions.

I forget sometimes how casual the English are about going to see theatre. First of all, the age bracket is a lot broader. In America, it's usually just older people or theatre geeks who go to see theatre. Here, it's everyone. They also don't dress up. I've was sort of brought up, in the theatre world, to dress up for performances, especially evening shows, and now, as an actor, I see it as a mark of respect for the creative team and the art form; I'm a bit of a stickler for it, actually. This is not to say the English disrespect it- absolutely not- but they do wear jeans to the theatre.
They also eat during performances. This really bothers me- even more than not dressing up. Again, as an actor, I say no. A crinkling wrapper in the audience is incredibly distracting, and can you really not go for two hours without eating? And tonight, the girl next to me pulled out a jar of Nutella and a spoon and started eating it! At least she wasn't crinkling, I guess, though she was when she was digging into her bag of sunflower seeds.


Before I went to the theatre, I got a lot of work done today. I went to the gym, read a bit while I waited for Adrienne so I could let her in (she had forgotten her key), which was nice because I don't sit down and read very often anymore and it's a tragedy, went to the cafe and wrote/revised my play for a few hours, watched Proof with the script in front of me and took pages and pages of notes while crying (the story gets me every. single. time.) then got ready for the show. Hopefully tomorrow is half as productive.

Packages and Theatre Snobs

While I did not have a significant other with whom to spend Valentine's Day, I did get a V-Day gift of sorts today! I came back from my RT class to find a large box sitting by my door. I knew it was the package my mom had sent to me, but I was unaware of the awesomeness of its contents. Behold, readers, a box to make any Valentine's Day a good one:

In this box were wonderful things like calling cards, candy hearts, potato chips that are actually potato flavored (it's really hard to find plain ones here), Pop Tarts (unfrosted, 'cause frosted is just gross), a pot holder, Apples to Apples, my copy of Peter Pan for playwrighting reference, graham crackers (you know the story about those), animal crackers (also can't get those here), instant breakfast drinks, chocolate straw thingymajiggers, yummy cereal that's hard to find even at home, some pictures of my own face (...I needed some more headshots, okay?), gum (I could own Violet Beauregarde in gum chewing), and... FRINGE SEASON ONE!!! (I am obsessed with this TV show but do not own any of the DVDs... or didn't! I actually went, "Oh. My. God. Yeeessssss!" when I saw them. I've already watched two episodes [one with commentary] and a bunch of behind the scenes stuff.)

This lovely box made me feel a little better after RT. It's definitely my least favorite class. I really enjoy the seeing shows factor, but the big problem is that I think my classmates believe that to enjoy a show means that you're somehow intellectually beneath those who didn't, so they declare that they hate every show. This isn't everyone, but it's most of the class. I don't understand how, with the shows ranging from Shakespeare, opera, experimental theatre, classic stories, adaptations of classic plays, and a farce-y musical, they couldn't pick out one show that they liked. I liked all of them, and most of them aren't the type of theatre I'd usually go to see. While I may be a theatre snob, the prescription of all of these shows is curing me of that, and they seem to refuse to do the same. As I wrote, I thought Water was brilliant, but I walked into class to people insulting it without taking breath. When I sat down, they asked me what I thought. "I loved it, actually," I answered. I really wish people would be more open-minded, at least for this class. We can all go back to our snobby ways once we're out, but this term, I'd really like to have an RT class where there's not a fog of negativity blanketing the room.

Tomorrow night I'm seeing Frankenstein at the National Theatre. I think I'm going to get there a little early, as they have an awesome bookshop attached to it; I bought many plays when I was there with my theatre posse in March of 2009. And Wednesday, I'm seeing The Children's Hour, which I get more excited for by the hour. I love theatre!

Carmen and the Random Things

I am feeling very cultured tonight- this afternoon, Adrienne and I went to Sadler's Well Theatre to see Carmen. But the version we saw was a little different than the opera one might expect- we saw it done with only flamenco- no words, just dancing! It was part of London's flamenco festival, and it was an awesome experience.

I was actually a little worried about seeing it. Besides the fact that I had never seen any production of Carmen, didn't even know any of the story except that she dies tragically, I had never seen flamenco before. I knew it would be at least an interesting show because of this, but I was concerned that I wouldn't understand the story.

I shouldn't have been worried; I got the story no problem, and the dancing was really cool. It's amazing how much the performers could tell with just a flick of their skirts. The lighting beatifully complimented the gorgeous costumes throughout the entire show, and it was also nice not to have to take notes like that while watching the show! It was a really great first experience with flamenco and I would gladly see some again.

Now for some micellany, a few things that I've noticed or have done but was never been able to fit into my stories:

-There are betting places all over London. EVERYWHERE. The biggest company is called William Hill. I think we have at least four of these on my street alone, and the rest of London is similar. Coming from a place where it's illegal to gamble, it's still a bit shocking to me to see these everywhere.

-Last week, when I went grocery shopping with Adrienne and Megan, we took the bus and I excitedly suggested that we ride on the second level. Even though I've taken double-decker buses while I've been here, I've never ridden on the top. I'm not going to lie- I was excited and it was awesome. It was a beautiful day and it was a very nice ride :)

-When people pack lunches (usually for children), they don't put them in lunch boxes or bags like we do in America. Instead they put everything in a bigger Tupperware container.

-It is a lot more common for people who have difficulty walking to use forearm crutches. You don't see them much at home- I think people will use a walker or a wheelchair before they'll use forearm crutches. Here, however, those who need them- from young kids to the elderly- do, and unself-consciously, too.

-I met with my Adaptations instructor to talk about the big paper we have to turn in next month. We had a few prompt options, and I knew which one I wanted to do, but I had two very different ideas as to a topic. After talking it over with her, it was decided that I would write the paper on my favorite play, Proof, and its film adaptation. I am very excited- I have a good deal to say on the subject, as well as a general passion for the story.

-My friend from home, Megan, and I have been planning our reading week adventure. We were originally planning to go to Dublin for the day, but the price is literally climbing by the hour and we would need to get up around three a.m. to make our plane. This would be a problem, as the tubes don't start until six-thirty (which I couldn't believe), the night buses aren't the safest, and a cab would be expensive. It got more and more impossible as we tried and tried to plan it.

Today we admitted Dublin defeat and planned other things within England like Canterbury, Warwick Castle, Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, a Harry Potter walk, seeing Billy Elliot, and two full days to explore London. I can't wait for reading week!

Jumping Through Hoops

Today I handed in my first assignment to my school. Actually, it was three separate assignments (a theatre program, a 300 word show review, and a thousand word show analysis) that, cumulatively, are worth 50% of my final grade. The other 50% comes from my final 2,000 word paper.

Now I know why the students in my RT class are prone to freak out when writing is discussed. After all the hoops they make you jump through, you feel like you're handing over your life when you pass that stack of papers over the desk.

First, you obviously have to do the assignment. Difficult, but not terribly. The essay format, as far as I can tell, is not extremely different from home (I say this now... I'll probably fail and then have to eat my words), but they required us to work from a "style sheet," which basically tells you how to make your bibliographies uniform. The problem was, until last night, despite searching both on the internet and physically in several buildings, I could not find a style sheet anywhere. Finally, I asked the only professor who was around at five p.m. last night where I could find one and she brought me a packet. The three-page style sheet was hidden within the depths of it, but it wasn't even headed with that title, so you'd never know what it was.

It was a relief to find out that the bibliography was basically MLA and I added those touches to my already-completed essay. Printing it out once that was complete, though, was an adventure in itself. There are not a ton of computers in the library because they provide lot of space for you to bring your own laptop, set it up, and print it out. I'll be doing that next time, since all of the computers were taken up, and I'd estimate that 80% of the people were on Facebook. I love Facebook, but if there are fifteen people wandering around looking for a free computer with panicked looks on their faces, I'd say you should go Facebook in your room.
I went over to a librarian (dun dun DUNNN) and asked him if I could use the staff-protected computers (they had let me last time I traumatised them.) He asked me why and told him I needed to print out my e-voucher to turn in with my essay. "Hm," he said, and I knew what was coming. "I've never heard of that."
Okay... is the academic system new or something? Every academic question I've had in the library has been met with blank stares and "I've never heard of that"s. Surely all of the students on campus have had to print out an e-voucher at least once a term in the library.

Eventually I found a free computer, printed it out (I had already printed out my hard copies) and went with a girl from my class to hand it in. I knew that you had to submit it both in hard copy and online (the latter with a secret code that they never tell you; I got it from Emmie), but what I didn't know was that in order to turn in the hard copy, you had to have a printed-out e-ticket that verifies that you've already submitted it online and a cover sheet, which basically says, "My name is... My e-mail is... I am handing in this packet [signature.] This packet, I am handing in [signature.] I am removing this packet from my hands and putting it into yours [signature.] This packet was given to me by the student [school stamp.]"

My classmate and I took turns asking questions that seemed stupid to the guy who was taking our papers, but were legitimate problems. Like the fact that apparently, our name is not allowed to be on the papers anywhere (they're graded objectively by several different parties)... but our e-mails have our names in them. The guy said, "No, they don't. It's your login code." But the official papers were got say something completely different. We changed it, but I am worried about that.


Finally, it was time to hand over the papers, and at this point, we had invested so much work into them (more work filling out the forms than writing them, probably, and much more stress) that we didn't want to turn them in. Should it really be this much work to turn in a few papers?

So basically, I suppose this is our midterm time.. it's weird to think that in about a month and a half, I'll be done with classes.


Last night, I saw an incredible play called Water (you can see the video about it here). It was a seamless production- the scene transitions were incredibly well-orchestrated, the story and acting were fantastic. I only had one teeny-tiny nit-picky complaint that the actors sometimes had trouble with their Canadian accents, but a)I doubt the British audience noticed it like I did, b) they switched between so many different accents that it hardly mattered and c) everything else was amazing. They went between using extremely high-tech sound and light effects to just using their bodies (like flicking their cheek with a finger by a microphone to make the sound of water dropping) and flashlights... and it was just as effecting. A truly fantastic production. I have yet to see a bad play here.

Rehearsal soon for class, where we'll be discussing... essays. Goody. Like I haven't had enough of those today. But she is giving us snacks.

Flying By

That's basically what my time here is doing. Not only have I been here only a month, but I didn't realise until tonight that this coming Saturday is when I'm going to Wales, and next week is going to pass by in a blur because on the days when I'm not in class, I'll be seeing show (Carmen with flamenco dancing, Frankenstein with Benedict Cumberbatch [who played Paul Marshall in Atonement] and Naomi Harris [Tia Dalma from the Pirates movies], and The Children's Hour WITH KEIRA KNIGHTLEY!) Then that Saturday, Megan's coming, reading week and our adventures commence, my plays are produced that next weekend, and I see another play... and then February's over.

After sitting through another slightly painful RT class (during which a group of classmates verbally attacked another's opinion. Their arguments were redundant and tedious after three minutes, but they kept going for much longer while the rest of us, including our teacher, studied our nails until they chilled out), I observed a few things. Despite some of my classmates in RT being like wolves when they get bored, most of my English classmates are quite timid when it comes to doing things. For example, when an American student answers, they just say what their response is. Students here seem to preface nearly every academic response with, "Isn't it..." or "Could it be..." They also apologise when they get an answer wrong, which baffles me. You're in school to learn. Yes, it sucks to get something wrong, but it's no reason to apologise. It's not the end of the world.
Also, because the students are so hesitant, teachers have to drag the answers out. They have the habit of, after the student has responded initially, pressing them with, "Can you expand on that?" I sometimes feel like the students here are terrified of making mistakes. I can't claim that I'm not this kind of person, but students here tread very, very carefully. I think it does have something to do with the fact that your entire grade depends on three or so assignments, but it's still a very different attitude than in America. But even with all that, it also seems like sometimes they try to do as little work as possible (like with RT's giant freak out last week.) Sometimes they'll even say they prefer not to answer a question... and the teacher will allow it, without asking them to try to answer (quite the opposite of the "expand" idea.)

Teachers also apologise a lot. My oldest teacher (who isn't very old at all) doesn't so much, but my two younger ones are constantly apologising- for the length of assignments, going overtime in class, making a slide that's hard to read... it's all very tiring, actually. At home, teachers rarely apologise for the length of an essay or going overtime... then again, students don't complain about it to the teacher, so maybe it's all give and take.


On another subject, I had dinner at a place called Nando's tonight with Adrienne and Megan. They're all over the city and they serve delicious chicken "burgers" (which are just chicken sandwiches) with "chips." Their restaurants are nicely decorate with cool lights, too- sadly, I didn't know we were going, so I didn't have my camera to take a picture.

That's all for me today!

How Do You Describe a Graham Cracker?

Greetings, readers!

First of all, I got my ticket to Wales! Yay! I was especially happy about it because I bought mine literally a minute or so before the trip completely sold out. I'm pretty jazzed to go to the land of Dylan Thomas, besides only having read a few of his things... but I did see a play and a movie about him! Does that count?

Today has been full of interesting and fun little tidbits... I learned a few new English words/phrases and taught my English classmate some as well. Our teacher stepped out of class today for a second, so we were all chatting and all of a sudden, one of the girls, Emily, says, "Okay, I have to ask you guys this- what is a graham cracker?" All three Americans stared first at her, then at each other. "Do you really not have graham crackers here?" I asked. They're such a staple of... everything, from childhood up, that I never considered that they might be an exclusively American thing. She shook her head. We tried to explain what it was, but it was really hard. I mean, how do you describe a graham cracker? It's difficult to find the words to talk about something you've never explained before because everyone always knew what it was.
Eventually, we ended up saying that it was sort of a cross between a regular cracker and a cookie ("biscuit"), but they were confused, saying that a cracker is supposed to be "savoury." I have no idea what "savoury" is supposed to mean. I've seen it on boxes of crackers and stuff, but I assumed that that was just a synonym for "tasty" or something. Apparently not.



So one of my American classmates, Tracy, asked, "Well, if you don't have graham crackers, what do you make s'mores out of?" More stares. "Please tell me that you guys eat s'mores." A short silence, then Heidi said, "...I've seen them on t.v." Now it was our turn to stare before declaring that introductions between the English and s'mores must be made.
But this led to further intrigue. "We could just make them in the microwave," I said. "But nothing is the same as making them over a campfire." Funny looks from the English classmates. "Do you guys go camping a lot in America? Like... outside?"
"Yes."
"And do you make a fire all the time? Even in the summer?"
"Especially in the summer!"
"How much food do you bring?"
"Enough for the whole time, it's just not fancy."
"And how long do you stay out there, a day or two?"
"Sometimes a week or two."
"But... why?"

Now, I'm thinking that perhaps there are people in the UK who go camping once in awhile, but I could be wrong. Perhaps my classmates are in the majority who think that we Americans are weird for desiring to spend a week or more sleeping in a tent and cooking our food like pioneers.

Another inquiry was what a Twinkie was. Another hard thing to describe (without simply saying "gross.") We ended up saying it was sponge cake with cream in the middle. They were also pretty enthusiastic about Pop Tarts, which seem to be a rarity; when they do crop up, they're in limited flavors (Tracy asked if perhaps they had s'more flavored ones.)

It's so funny that there are little differences like that that turn out to be not so little at all. Can you imagine your life without graham crackers? I don't even eat them regularly, but I'd certainly be at a loss when wanting to eat s'mores (yeah... picture life without s'mores. Looks pretty bleak, doesn't it? :p)

While we were working on a group project today, we were giving our pictures funny headings like "I Lovez You Anywayz", "No More Eyeballs For You", and "Everyone Hates Soranzo" (all of which pertain to 'Tis Pity She's a Whore), Emily wrote on top of one, "Up the Duff." This is apparently a slang term for being pregnant. They asked us Americans if we said that and we answered that the closest thing was had was "bun in the oven."
I don't know if I've mentioned it, but in addition to the English and American students in my class, we also have a German girl, Ilka. She studies English (along with other things), and her English is amazing. Emily asked her if German had any colloquialisms like "bun in the oven"/"up the duff." Ilka responded that there is, in fact, a German phrase that essentially translates to "meatloaf in the oven," which we all thought was hysterical.

Something else that provided a good deal of humor was my explanation of how my theatre class played a warm-up game. In the game we were playing, you pass around a clap with a certain "word" or noise. They mixed up their version a little bit and needed something that would send someone's gesture back to them. I suggested that we do what my classes do, which is making a sound like a "wrong answer" buzzer on a game show. They could not stop laughing at the sound and couldn't seem to bring themselves to make it when we were playing the game. That's another thing I've never questioned because every theatre group I've gone to in the past eight or so years has done it like I demonstrated, so no one ever found that sound funny.

In this class, my group also performed that piece I mentioned last week, with the conglomeration of Beatles music, recitation of Shakespeare, a scene from 'Tis Pity, a ton of Post-its, lines from Titanic, and German songs, among many, many other things. I was a little worried about showing it, to be honest. I wasn't sure if we had worked it out enough and thought perhaps we would emulate the Wooster group a little too much (they tend to figure that if they know what they're doing, it doesn't matter if anyone else does... which kind of defeats the purpose of a performance group.) However, when we finished, our teacher exclaimed over it- she loved it! Apparently, the presentation would have been acceptable to show for an exam- whoa. Our classmates seemed to like it, as well, so yay!

Two more observations: many times, instead of agreeing with "yeah" or "exactly" or whatever, a lot of the English will just give an affirming, "Mm." I always noticed this in British movies, but it really is a common thing here. Also, I stopped in a show repair place a few days ago to get some leather protector for my Oxfords (things of beauty, they are... but I need to spray them to keep them that way), and when I paid for it, the man at the counter said, "Ta, love." I've read about this expression and I was ridiculously excited to actually hear it said (basically, it means "thank you." "Cheers" is more commonly heard.)

The shoe place was a stop on my way back from Samuel French, which is the company that distribute a good percentage of all plays. I've always wanted to go to an actual Samuel French store (ah, the odd dreams of an actor.) The one in New York is just a warehouse; you can't actually buy anything there, so I was excited to go to this one. It was surprisingly small, with only one or two copies of any given play that they happened to find. It's actually probably a step or two below the Drama Bookshop in New York in terms of space and material. However, I found all but one or two of the plays I had on my list and got a few more for good measure. Really, I only stopped buying because I had a limited amount of money in my wallet, as I hadn't planned to go there that day.
One of the plays I got was so good that I read it all yesterday; I couldn't put it down. I read it while I was cooking, waiting for the tube, on the tube, before and during intermission of The Invisible Man... it's amazing. I've just been reading scenes from it all day today (I may also have been reading it out loud while making dinner.)

The Invisible Man was another show I didn't want to see. It was a good show- a little silly for my taste (it was part musical and a little farce-y at times.) Again, the casts' resumes are incredible. The youngest woman in the cast, who I thought must be close to my age, is either older or just really got a head start- her credits are astonishing. She was the original lead in Well, a play that I love, and I would have just been impressed by that, but she's also been on national tours, on several tv shows, and a movie... and hers was one of the shortest resumes.

I think that's enough for today. I'll tell you more stories later. Tonight for me: unsupervised rehearsal, perhaps embarrassing myself in a belly dancing class with Adrienne and Emmie, and then Sense and Sensibility with the same two!

London Audition #2

This past Monday, I went on my first real London audition. You might be wondering why I am writing about it now, nearly a week later. This is because I am extremely superstitious about stuff like this and believe that if I talk about it, I will jinx it. However, since the director said he would let us know by this weekend and Sunday has come without any word, I'm thinking I didn't get it.

The audition went really well, actually, which just goes to show that not all good auditions glean parts. In fact, many good auditions don't and vice-versa. I've gotten parts when I went to auditions exhausted and left thinking I was terrible. You never know what they're looking for, I guess. This time, it wasn't me, and that's the way it works sometimes.

(Notice how level-headed I am about this; I really did want this part, but it doesn't feel life-or-death like the other one did, even if I did dream about this one for the past two nights.)

The audition was for a play by a playwright that is well-known in England, but who I’ve never heard of back home, Jim Cartwright. It's an edgy, very dark piece from the '80s.

I got to the theatre fifteen minutes early, and it took me a second to find the venue as it was literally under the train tracks. However, I was the first one there. Two girls walked in right after me and we went into the green room and met the director. Over the next forty-five minutes, the room slowly filled up; there were a good number of people there.

The director gave us a pre-audition talk and then we started. Though I got there first, I was one of the last to audition, which kind of screwed me up a little bit because I chose a monologue from the script (a requirement) that just reading it made me cry. I was ready, I thought in the beginning. I'm gonna impress them with my crying skills; God knows I do it enough in my real life. But all that waiting kind of killed my mood, which shouldn't happen, but does. Also, everyone was talking around me and I felt really anti-social not joining in. I didn't for about two hours, but then an older lady started chatting with me about books and her love of Metallica, and then later I was talking to a girl my age. The girl was very interested in America, saying that she was going to go someday and she knew that there resided a tall, handsome American boy just for her (funny how people dream of different things, huh? All us American girls came here for the same thing... oh, and an education :p)

When I got into the theatre around 9:50, I wasn’t feeling teary, no matter how many situations- real or fictional- that I presented myself with. I feel like life might be easier if I were a Method actor, but… I’m not and I don’t think I ever will be.

I went in and climbed up onstage. The director was gone and I was hoping that he was going to come back; was he bored already? His assistant director took my picture and we chatted a bit about my experiences in England so far- I was the only American at the audition, so of course I stuck out. That's another reason why I didn't talk much in the waiting room; I dreaded displaying the neon sign of my accent.

Oh, my accent… yeah. I haven’t mentioned yet that this play takes place in Lancashire, England. And that accent, according to a few sources, is very hard to learn without a few months and a dialect coach. Me? I had a few days and YouTube. When you take acting classes, one of the first things you’re told is that you should not audition with an accent unless they ask for it. I had been practicing with an accent and it wasn’t terrible, but I didn’t know how good it was (if it was at all) and I didn’t want to insult anyone with a horrendous accent. So even though I wanted to blend in, I decided to follow the rules and use my own accent. It helped that the director (who didn’t have an English accent himself) gave us permission to use our own. In hindsight, I'm glad I used my own; it allowed me to concentrate on what I was saying, not how I was saying it and if it sounded bad.

Finally, the director came back, assured me that using my own accent was fine, and I started the monologue. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I got teary but never actually cried, and it drives me crazy when that happens; I could feel the tears built up, but the wall would not come down. It's like a really obvious metaphor for my acting in general.

The director asked me to move a little more, to use the whole stage, and I did so (I hope.) They seemed to really like it, saying it was great to watch. Then the director asked, “Do you think you could learn the Lancashire accent if you needed to?” I said yes, that usually if I hear an accent long enough, I can emulate it, which is true. He said that it might not have to be Lancashire- he might be able to work different accents in, including my own. We discussed this at length, and in the end, I think we were all pretty happy with what had gone on.

The director had told us at the pre-talk that he didn't want to have callbacks if he could help it. I don't know if they took place on Friday... if they did, I wasn't invited. I'm not sure if we'll be notified even if we weren't cast; it's always helpful to know when to move on.

Like I said, not getting this part doesn't feel nearly as bad as the other one. Partially, it is the whole thing that I got to put myself out there for it and I know the audition wasn't bad. I also know that I presented them with a very full conflict schedule, what with Thursday class rehearsals and all the plays I have to see. It helps, too, that while I really do like the play and think that being in it would push me in a way I've never been pushed, it's not a play I've pined after like the other one; I just haven't had time to develop the same passion for it.

So maybe I'll go and see it when it comes out. It is a pretty awesome play. I just wish I were here longer so I could audition for more stuff. Come March, I won't be able to audition for anything because the performances will most likely commence once I'm gone. But there are other auditions still on the horizon, so I have those to look forward to.

EDIT: Just got the final word- no role. Oh well.