Giant Massive Update Because I'm 3 weeks Behind: Part 2

The Week of November 17th

On Monday of this week we had our movement final. All semester, we have had movement for the actor which has been a struggle for me because I want to turn everything into dancing for the Tim. It's hard to ignore the training that you have beat into your body over a number of years just to do something totally different that is contra to everything that you have been taught. Additionally this week we had our last audition tutorial classes, which was actually so sad! My audition tutor was this stereotypically British lady who was so encouraging and warm. I'm probably going to miss her the most out of all of my teachers. 

On Tuesday of this week I saw the ballet company Rambert perform. This was very exciting, as they are one of the UK's oldest dance companies that was started way back in 1926. They have obviously grown and changed over the years, but seeing them perform proved that you can teach an old dog new tricks, and they are still kickin it and kickin it well after almost 90 years. Also on Thursday David and I saw King Charles III, a play about the hypothetical situation that Queen Elizabeth dies and Charles, her successor, goes crazy and abolishes Parliament. Is was very interesting to see characters like Will and Kate being portrayed on stage. Additionally I learned a great deal in this show about the complex relationship that exists between the crown and the parliament and how there are many people who have very mixed fixed feelings on whether or not the UK should have a queen. 

On Friday we left for a last minute trip to Amsterdam! Yep. A few weeks ago, some of us decided that we really wanted to visit Amsterdam, but we haven't had a weekend free to go yet, so we took advantage of this free weekend and went for it. 

So this is all of us before the 10 hour bus ride FROM HELL took place. We decided that it would be a good idea to take the National Express bus from London to Amsterdam because it was only £50 a person. The bus was overnight, and it was 10 HOURS. We didn't realize that we would't be able to sleep the whole way through because the bus went from London to Dover, then we had to get off the bus to get on a ferry, and then we drove 5 more hours from Northern France to Amsterdam. To top it all off, there was a super drunk and terribly trashy family that decided to start a bunch of drama on the bus by taking people's seats after we re-boarded to leave the ferry. God bless. 

We arrived in Amsterdam at 8 am on Saturday morning with little sleep, but ready to see some sights! 

Comin at you live from the Van Gogh Museum 

One of the million canal views that we saw 

House Boats are all the rage in Amsterdam

After checking out the Van Gogh Museum and taking some pictures of the canal we sort of wandered around Amsterdam half-asleep because of the bus ride, but still enjoyed taking good pictures and drinking lots of coffee. We also took a canal cruise at night to see the city all lit up, and did not regret that decision. 

Dam Square

After checking into our hostel (WHICH WAS A LITERAL HOTEL) we cried tears of joy to be sleeping in a real bed (good work, WOW Hostel). We then got up super early to get to the Anne Frank House. If you do not get there an hour before it opens, you can wait in line for up to 3 hours... so to avoid that we got our butts out of bed immediately. We got to see the sunrise amidst all of the canals on  our walk to the house. The Anne Frank House was probably my favorite thing that I did while in Europe. It is incredible to see the house and to feel the heaviness of her narrative. What really touched me was the fact that her bedroom in the annex still had the posters that she glued up. She was a 13 year old girl who put posters of movie stars on her bedroom walls. Something about that touched me very much. 

The line for the Anne Frank house at 10 am 

Following the Anne Frank house, we went to the Rijskmuseum that holds many of the Netherlands' great art works from the ages. The Dutch (umbrellaed under the Flemish) are known for their painting techniques. This museum is massive and takes hours to go through, so we took more of an abbreviated tour. It is also right by the "I amsterdam" sign... so of course we had to get some pics. 

The gang's all here- shout out to Julia for the photo cred

Rembrant's Night Watch

So conclusions about Amsterdam: 

Although I only spent about 36 hours in Amsterdam this is what I observed

• Everyone bikes places, the bike lanes are often as big as the car lanes, in addition, everyone is very trusting of their bikes' safety and people often leave them unlocked 
• A common misconception is that Amsterdam is all about weed and prostitutes. Most people do not realize that these things are kept in one part of Amsterdam, and the rest of the city is largely free of them. Don't let the red light district deter you from seeing the beautiful city that is Amsterdam
• Amsterdam is a very beautiful city that is full of complex history (like any other major European city)
• Dutch people are very friendly to tourists, and most people speak very clear English 

I hope that I get the chance to visit Amsterdam again in the future. I would love to see the Dutch country side (preferably not by overnight National Express bus though). Even though it was a hot mess getting here and back, it was still well worth it to see this city, and I only wish that I was able to take more trips like this while I was here. I guess I'll just have to come back! 

Giant Massive Update Because I'm 3 weeks Behind: Part 1

Ahhhhhhh. So I basically have forgotten about this for the past 3 weeks because everything has been coming at me like a bullet train as I try and tie my last few weeks together in London. BUT if you have been wondering what I have been up to, I shall give you a couple of hints:

The Week on November 10th-

On Monday of this week we had our final showings for our period dance and stage combat classes. What are these classes? You may wonder. Period dance is where we learned all about the court dances of the well-to-do in English society from the late 1500s to the late 1900s. That is about as exciting as it gets, folks. As a dance nerd, I still felt challenged to pay attention in this class because the work is very tedious and stylized, which is difficult to focus on when all I want to do is jump around. Stage combat was a little but more exciting as we got to play with swords. I've had a little bit of experience with the sword working on Pirates of Penzance at the Muny, but this gave me 10 weeks to refine what I knew already and improve on my sword fighting techniques. If you run into me in a dark ally whilst I am wielding a rapier, be afraid because I'm deadly. (jokes) Photo credit here goes out to Vanessa!

Me and my dance partner Maryn 

Our period dance class 

Vanessa thinking she can stab me 

Friday- 

We went to go see a production of John Ford's Tis Pity She's a Whore at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe. This is a replica of a traditional Jacobean playhouse that would have been found in Renaissance England. The production was done in all candlelight in a very intimate space. It was truly one of the most beautiful productions I have ever seen even though it was about incest!

A photo I took during the show... whoops 

This weekend we went to Cardiff, the capital of Wales! Why you ask? Because we felt like it. We put our butts on a megabus and took the short journey to see this sleepy little coastal town. While we were here we saw the Doctor Who Experience as David is slowly turning me into a Whovian and we went through Cardiff Castle, because no one should leave the UK without seeing at least one castle. Here are some pics from our day-trip. 

Roald Dahl Plass

The Mermaid Quay

The National Assembly Building

The apartments in Cardiff Castle

The interior of the castle keep

The view from the top 

Bottoms Up 

Weekend Update - November 9th

Much theatre. Very arts. So wow. What a wonderful week it has been. I can't believe that I am living the life of luxury still in London. To be honest, I'm surprised that the UK hasn't kicked me out yet because I'm basically broke. Anyway... it has been a fantastic week of stress, learning, shows, and all the other things that have been blowing up my blog as of late. It's weird to think that I'll be leaving here in about a month just as I finally feel like I am adjusted to life in London. There are still so many things that I want to do before I leave!!! I don't think I'll be able to see it all and do it all before I leave, but I know I'll be back at some point in my life. Can you apply unemployment checks to international airfare?? I hope so... 

Monday- 
Today I saw the worst play that I have ever seen. I'm not kidding. I would have rather sat through a middle school production of Into the Woods than have to be anywhere near this production ever again. It was a production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. I love the Cherry Orchard and feel like it is a show that CAN BE well done. This production did not do that at all. It was the most miscast and poorly directed show that I have ever seen. -200/10. Do not recommend. 

Wednesday- 
I went to the Royal Opera House to see a quadruple bill of works by famed Royal Ballet choreographer Frederick Ashton. This show was such a rare performance to see as many of his works are not done outside of the UK. It was very inspiring to see these works, and I left the theatre feeling ready to get back into dance. 

Friday-
After staying up super late the night before to turn in a 17 page hand-written autobiography of my character for acting class, I figured it was good to just go see a show. Sooooo I did. I saw Kristen Scott Thomas in a production of Sophocles' Electra which was really good. It is one the only productions of a Greek tragedy that I have just seen done straight, which was a welcome change. 

Saturday- 
Busy busy busy living that young London life. Today we went to the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Bond in Motion exhibit at the London film museum. So much culture to take in. So little time. It was nice to revisit the National Gallery and see some of the other works that I missed last time. In addition, the National Portrait Gallery has some beautiful portraits of all the English monarchs. The Bond in Motion exhibit had a collection of a bunch of the James Bond cars, motorcycles, subs, and the like that were used in Bond movies through the years. 

As seen in Skyfall

To top it all off, I went to the Royal Ballet AGAIN to see 3 contemporary works. I was literally living the life of a millionaire this week. I was super surprised to get to the theatre and find out that my seat was in the stalls and not actually in the peasant nose-bleed section for once. 

Sunday-
Today I had to go visit Hamstead Heath for my acting scene with my scene partner. Hamstead Heath is a HUGE park that is a green paradise in the middle of a huge city. I thought it would just be a little patch of green, but it was actually an enormous green space that took about 30 minutes to walk one side to another. Our task was to go and play hide and seek in the park and then visit the Kenwood house to pick our favorite painting. Wow, acting homework is so difficult.... It was a great excuse to spend a whole day in a green paradise that looked like something out of a fairytale book. To add to the awesomeness, we went to a Hungarian tea room to get tea and cakes. I can die happy having Dobos Torte- 7 layers of spongecake and chocolate buttercream topped off with caramel. MMMMMMMMMMMMM. Now it's time to get back to reality and do homework...rip. 

The Kenwood House

 This week will hopefully not be so exhausting. I have 2 final showings tomorrow, so hopefully that will alleviate some of the work load. It should be an interesting week. Over and out, y'all. 

Weekend Update - November 2nd

Woahhhhhh. It is hard to believe that we have plunged into November already. It doesn't feel like November though because we have had the best weather ever, with it being between about 50 and 60 degrees all the time: aka perfect sweater weather. I had a really busy week last week and this week, so that's why I've condensed two weeks into one post.

Last Week (aka the week of October 20th):

After our "Fall Break," (which wasn't really a break because we went to Paris and walked all over the whole city) it was a rough transition into being back in class. In addition, our Shakespeare teacher (and arguably our most intense teacher) was gone for the 2 weeks before Fall Break, and he's back! So we literally hit the ground sprinting as we got back into the monologues that we were working on with him.

Thursday:
We went to go see a production of Ibsen's The Wild Duck. I should actually call it an adaptation because it strayed heavily from Ibsen's original text... but I still thought that the production worked for what the director wanted to accomplish. The star of the show was an actual duck that was onstage. Even though I absolutely hate birds, the thing was pretty cute. The set was this giant glass box that the actors performed in and were not outside of until the end. Such art. Very wow. The show was a part of the Barbican theatre's international Ibsen season that has been bringing in companies from all around the world to do new productions of Ibsen plays (hence the production in German that we saw earlier in the year). Luckily this company was Australian so we could actually understand what was being said.

Friday:
Today I got to go on a day trip to Oxford! It was so nice to get out of London to see some of the countryside, and to spend some time in such a historic town. We got the afternoon to explore the city. We were not allowed into a lot of the places because it is a working university, you know, those Oxford people just can't be bothered with peasants like us. So we got to tour the historic Bodlein Library, which has millions and millions of books in it. We didn't get to see the books, but we got to see the building that they used to be in until there was just too many of them. In addition, we had some yummy food at The Eagle and The Child pub where famous authors like Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to frequent. Finally at night we went to go see a production of Othello at the Oxford Playhouse. It was an experimental production that was produced by a physical theatre company, so it was full of movement. Unfortunately the show didn't do it for me... but oh well, I didn't pay for the ticket.

The Radcliffe Camera

Backside of Oxford from Christ Church Meadow

The Divinity Room

Saturday:
After a long day of taking a trains and running around Oxford, David and I decided to get up and go see 3 plays today! Haha. So there is a series of 3 plays that are all related called The James Plays that premiered at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival earlier this year, and now they are in rep at the National Theatre. SO why take 3 separate days to go see all 3 when you can see them all in one day! On a standing room ticket! That is right. We stood through 3 shows from about noon until 10pm. We of course got breaks and could sit on the ground at intermission, but yeah it was a really long day BUT TOTALLY WORTH IT. These shows were truly an achievement of Rona Munro, the playwright. Probably one of the best/most memorable experiences that I will have had in London. These plays will be around for a long time, and I can easily see them still being relevant in 50, 100, and 200 years.

This week! (October 27th):

As usual this week flew by. I sound like a broken record I know, but the time literally just goes by so quickly when I am constantly so busy and immersed in something.

I was hoping that my workload would lighten up this week, but haha that's a joke, it just keeps going. Between having to memorize about 3 monologues, reading a few plays, getting started on 3 new scenes, etc, etc, etc, I thought I wasn't going to make it through to Friday (akakakaka Halloween). SO Halloween is a lot different over here. People dress up but it's not as big of a deal as it is back home. People definitely don't get as creative with their costumes (unfortunately same as I pulled together a Hogwarts student costume). But yes, the night after Halloween, we had a 2 and a half hour train to Stratford-Upon-Avon :-). So yes we spent all of yesterday exploring Shakespeare's birthplace, grave, and seeing the Royal Shakespeare Company perform. It was a good time, I wish we would have had more time to explore Stratford though, it was such a quiet little town that was packed with history in every nook and cranny. The Costa coffee shop that was in the town center was in a building that was probably about 200 years older than America, so that's how old were talking.

Interior of Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried

The grave of Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway

Shakespeare's birthplace

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS

This amused me: Marlowe's Restaurant

That brings me to this morning! Which was the first time that I have not been woken up by an alarm to get up and go do something since before fall break. Today I went to the Royal Opera House to hear a lecture from the ballet mistress about the evolution of the ballet class, which was very interesting. We are headed into a very packed week (surprise surprise), seeing The Cherry Orchard, 2 performances at by the Royal Ballet, and seeing Kristen Scott Thomas in Electra. WOWZZZZZZZ LOLZ SO MUCH THEATRE SO LITTLE TIME. Over and out, y'all.