Spectacularly, a whole week has gone by in the blink of an eye. Time is already flying. But I guess it’s just further proof of the saying “Time flies when you’re having fun!” Fun indeed is being had.

The class schedule was pretty much the same as last week. Monday we had Alexander technique, clown, and acting with Jenny, followed by rehearsal with Phil. Tuesday was acting with Debbie, pure voice with George, and text with James. With Debbie we worked on the directions aspect of Chekhov work. The direction I found most interesting was the side. Basically we pretended like we had a massive ear on one side of our body and then had to carry on a conversation with someone. Each person seemed distracted but like they were trying to look like they were engaged in the conversation. What I found so interesting about this was it was an oddly comfortable state for me. I realized this is because I constantly listen to all that is going on around me when I’m in a room of people. I eavesdrop, I watch other groups of people, I take in the whole room. While sometimes this is good and I can learn a lot about various things through this behavior, I realized during this exercise that it also means I am not giving the people I am with my full attention. Definitely an intriguing thing to keep in mind going forward.

James was enlightening as always. He very nearly articulated what it is about theatre that makes me love it so much. I wish I had captured his words verbatim but here’s an approximation:

“At some point in your life you give up and smash your dreams for another person and something else then enters the room. That’s why we do plays – we watch someone give something up and something else enters the room and it’s real and it changes people. That’s why we do theatre, it changes people.”

That “something else” is clearly intangible and a little mystical but it’s true and I can’t think of a better way to explain it. When you see truly good theatre, theatre that moves you deeply, there is something else in the room besides some strangers and a cast of actors. There’s an energy (or something resembling energy) that everyone in the space experiences together.

Lest you should worry I’m turning into a complete hippy, we talked about tangible things as well. Our discussion focused mainly on the importance of words, continuing his theme from previous classes. James preaches that words give us a revelation of the character, we see what’s on the inside on the outside through their words. To stress the importance of words, we had to read our speeches slowly and clearly. (I was reminded from someone’s choice of monologue how wonderful the wooing monologue from Henry V is. My favorite line is: “but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the moon; or rather, the sun, and not the moon, for it shines bright and never changes, but keeps his course truly.” I just think that’s lovely…) This allowed the words to do all the work, rather than putting on our “actor” voices and acting really hard to convey meaning. Whenever we started to slip into our actor voices, he would stop us and talk to us about normal, everyday things and then take us right back into our speeches. Combining the importance of a real human-being character and speaking in a normal voice, James placed an empty chair in front of me and told me to imagine a friend of mine was sitting in it. I then had to have a conversation with my friend, even though the class couldn’t “hear” the answers. Ok, fine, easy enough. Lots of imagination and a little creativity. Then, he had me pretend I was looking at myself in the chair. “Ok,” he said, “talk to yourself.” I froze. I had no idea what to say. What do you say to yourself when you’re sitting across from you and there are 12 additional pairs of eyes on you? I started just reminding myself to do things, going over my mental to-do list. James quickly stopped me as I struggled more and more to find things to say. After telling me to stop bossing myself around (truly a window inside my head…), he began speaking about how you at your most ordinary is you at your most poetic and relatable. You at your most ordinary is who we want to see on stage because that is a human, that is relatable. He continued by saying that actors are intensely creative artists. I paraphrase, but he said, “Actors are deeply creative because we don’t have a piano to smash or a paint brush to throw around, we only have ourselves. We are our only tools.” I’ve never thought of myself as an artistic person, nor would I ever think of myself at my most ordinary as being extraordinary. There was something about those two ideas and the vehemence with which he expressed them that triggered something in me and made me really emotional. I thought I was a crazy person until I talked to other people in my group and found out they had been feeling the same way. It’s certainly going to be an enlightening semester with James…

With Wednesday came applied voice with Stevie, historical dance with Diana, physical theatre with Yorgos, and rehearsal with Phil. In historical dance we were racing against the clock to learn as many dances as we could before our dance night with the Bs. In an hour and 15 minutes, we learned 2 and 1/2 dances. It was a bit of an overload of information, but I don’t mind. It’s such a fun class and I love learning all these dances. If I try and explain what we did in Yorgos’ class I will absolutely sound like a hippy. Written word won’t do it justice. If you’re genuinely curious, Skype me. I’ll explain. Basically we had a big dance party for an hour and a quarter.

Thursday was singing with Caryll, combat with Jonathan, and text with James, followed by rehearsal. I’m really loving singing. I actually look forward to my two singing classes. Caryll is very patient and kind. We each got assigned our own individual songs and she played through them as we recorded them. This weekend I have to learn my Elizabethan song. My neighbors should be quite, quite pleased. Combat was great fun. We got to hold our swords and daggers and practice some basic choreography. I can now stab, cut the head, groin, arms and shoulders, and defend myself against said moves. It all involved lots of lunging and arm movements. I’m a little sore… I think I need to get myself to the gym a bit more : P And, of course, I have a page full of notes from James’ class… This time he had each person stand in the center of the room and we all had to say words that described them. (An intimidating exercise in theory but people were incredibly complimentary and it was a nice warm and fuzzy feeling. There was no reason to be scared.) After we all had gone, he explained the point. Everyone had pointed out our qualities. You can’t actively act qualities. A person just is how they are. If you have any hope of making a character seem like a real human, you have to think about their qualities. But, again, you can’t act those qualities because then you will seem fake and very showy. “Character is the ordinariness of the inside and you have to see your character from the inside.” Definitely food for thought about getting at the depth of whatever character you’re playing.

And now I’ll take a pause from our regularly scheduled class overview to tell you about rehearsals. Rehearsals have been very fun this week. We’ve been doing scene work which means that the speaking roles have been divvied up and you don’t always get something to work on. Nonetheless, it’s been good to watch others work and Phil is diligent about throwing you in as a lady-in-waiting or a duke so that you get to participate in the scene even if you’re not speaking. We work slowly through each beat, discovering how staging and dialogue helps uncover even more in Shakespeare’s language. The scene I have a big part in will rehearse on Monday and I’m looking forward to that.

Today we had pure movement with Yuri, RP with George, and singing. I am loving singing in our small little choir. It’s such fun and definitely training my ear well.

I HAVEN’T EVEN TALKED ABOUT DANCE NIGHT.

On Thursday, we had social dance night with the Bs. (Bs are the second year students in the three year program.) At 6:00pm, we gathered in one of the bigger studios with Diana and she led us in the various dances we have learned. Bs would ask us Ss to dance and off we went! Most of us (including the Bs!) required a few reminders of steps but it was fine because Diana was calling out the steps to us as we went. We all laughed and giggled and danced the night away. We even learned two new dances all together, there, on the spot. One is called the Scottish Dance and the other was an Irish step dance. I was beaming ear to ear. It was great. It was Diana’s birthday so after we had danced all the dances we knew, we retired to the neighborhood pub to celebrate with Diana. (Please keep in mind Diana is probably in her mid-late 50s. A tall, petite, elegant lady who has clearly been a dancer all her life.) As I looked around the corner of the pub we were crammed in, I couldn’t help but smile. First, how un-American to go to the pub with your teacher after a day of classes. But more than that I realized what a unique situation we are all in regardless of what country we’re in. How lucky we are to be surrounded by such a large group of people who are willing to stay 3 hours after normal classes end to dance historical dances. I guess such is the life of drama school students… You’re constantly surrounded by people crazy enough to love theatre as much as you do.

I’m happy the weekend is here but already itching to get back into the studios to keep learning. I have plenty of material to go over this weekend but I’m also going to try to get to some museums and maybe see a show. We shall see!

I’ll leave you with this rehearsal candid my friend Michael took. If this picture doesn’t scream “drama school,” I don’t know what else could.

Missing everyone but still having a blast! Until next time…

Cheers!!

Saturday morning was quite, quite lazy. I stayed in bed for a while, reading and enjoying the opportunity to relax for a bit. Finally I got out of bed and headed to meet Hannah and Clara at the Jubilee Market in Covent Garden. Being a Saturday and being a fairly touristy area of the city, it was packed with people. Getting of the Tube at the Covent Garden station is like getting on and off a ride at Disneyland, except without the fun part in the middle. The market was nice though, lots of stalls of knick knacks and interesting trinkets. We wandered around the market for a bit, paused to watch a street performer for 5 seconds, and then went to Ben’s Cookies. Ben should really call his cookies muff-ookies because they’re somewhere between the size of a muffin and a cookie. The cookies were absolutely delicious and I shall definitely be returning for more before the trip is over.

There wasn’t much else to see in Covent Garden so we wandered across the river to the South Bank. Just across the bridge and under it was the South Bank Book Market. All I could think the whole time we were browsing was that this is what Emily’s heaven must look like. Rows and rows of every genre of book imaginable. Emily, you’ll have to come visit this place someday.

Just next to this is the National Theatre so we stopped in to find out some information about their student ticket prices and to browse their book store. I’ve never seen so many plays in one place before! It was wonderful. Plus, everyone we encountered who works at the National Theatre was friendly, helpful, and excited for us to be studying in London. I will certainly be back to visit again soon.

Earlier in the day, we had decided to meet up with some other friends around 5:30 to see 12 Years a Slave back in Covent Garden. Before heading back to the cinema, though, the three of us wanted to grab a snack. We stopped in at Las Iguanas on the South Bank for some chips and guacamole. Thank god we got inside when we did because about 15 minutes later the biggest rain storm I’ve seen yet came pelting down. There was thunder, lightning, and enough wind to blow the chairs on the deck all over the place, not to mention the rain that was coming down in sheets. We happily ate our chips and guacamole until the storm had passed, then headed to the cinema.

12 Years a Slave… one of the most beautifully made movies I think I’ve ever seen. It was horrifically graphic, stunning, and amazingly moving. The cinematography was breathtaking, the acting was out of this world, and the writing was brilliant. There were a couple scenes where the lead actor was simply staring into the camera and taking in his surroundings that moved me to tears. The last 10-15 minutes of the film had me shaking I was crying so hard. Once the movie was over, it was about another hour before I could form coherent thoughts. It was breathtaking and I highly recommend everyone goes to see this film. If it doesn’t sweep the Academy Awards this year then the Oscars mean nothing. Two of the actors in the film (including the lead) are LAMDA graduates and in particularly intense moments when I needed to extract myself from the mood of the film I pictured them on set, joking about their LAMDA days.

We all needed some sustenance after the film and someone suggested Shake Shack. A delicious burger didn’t sound half bad so we all wandered over there, grabbed a bite to eat, and I headed home for some Netflix, laundry, and sleep.

I slept in again this morning (a theme I think I will repeat frequently on the weekends). I did some homework and then got ready to go see The Duchess of Malfi, stopping on the way to get some food and work on my monologue (in the middle of Pret a Manger, I was the crazy girl talking to herself, reciting a monologue.) Anyway… the play. The Duchess of Malfi premiered at Blackfriars Theatre, before a small, private audience. Then, in 1613-1614, it opened more publicly at the Globe Theatre. I saw this play steps from where it was first performed 400 years ago. For a nerd like me, that might have been enough to make me love the show but the play held its own and was quite well done. Being more or less unfamiliar with the text, it was nice to go in with no expectations. The theatre itself is spectacularly beautiful. There were no photographs allowed inside but I snagged this one off Google Images:

The space is entirely lit by candlelight giving it a romantic, yet sometimes eery, mood. The chandeliers you can see in this photo were raised and lowered throughout the performance, helping to denote scene changes and throw the light in different ways. All the gold accents on the set sparkled when the candlelight flickered. As all theatre, dance, opera would have been performed by candlelight until the invention of the electric light, it was truly magical to see this play in its original state. The costumes were all true to the period, as well, and were of elegant and lovely design. The text itself was lovely. A line that caught my ear (it doesn’t really require context) went as follows:

“We are merely the stars’ tennis balls, struck and banded/Which way please them.”

I love that imagery and the play was filled with a lot of it as well as some enchanting extended metaphors. I quite enjoyed the direction, too; it took full advantage of the actors and the space. Each actor was talented but my favorite (by far) was the actor who played Ferdinand, the Duchess’ brother. The character has a psychotic break towards the end, on a Lady Macbeth scale. Before that, he is a slimy, manipulative, cocky duke. David Dawson played both aspects of the character brilliantly. His performance was dynamic, grounded, and very engaging. Overall, I really enjoyed the production and absolutely love this brand-new theatre.

Now I’m back in my room, preparing for classes tomorrow. I have a few scenes to look over and two monologues. Such is the life of a theatre student and you won’t hear me complaining!

Until next time!

Cheers!

I love, love, love the good ‘ole U S of A. A proud American, I am the first to be decked out in red, white, and blue on any and all American holidays. However… dearest America, there are two things in particular we could learn from the UK. 1) The little chip thing in credit cards. Here, people just insert their cards into a machine, enter their pins, and boom. Done. The chip is much, much harder to replicate therefore incidents like the now infamous Target-at-Christmas debacle don’t happen. We really need to get moving with that in the States. Plus, whenever I have to hand over my old-fashioned magnetic strip card and show my ID to prove my signature is really my own,I get funny looks from all the store clerks. 2) Prepared food. Today for lunch, I had a couscous, avocado, quinoa, arugula, and feta salad with a mint-lime dressing. Where was it from? The BP station/M&S Simply Food store down the road from LAMDA. My friend, Hannah, had a lentil, giant couscous, pepper, and goat cheese salad with a tangy lemon dressing. America… let’s get on this level. Please?

But I digress… Amidst this embarrassment over having an old-fashioned credit card and eating deliciously prepared food, I have indeed been going to school. Today we were all remarking at how incredible it is that we’ve only been here two weeks and only had about a week of full time classes. It feels like much longer, in the best of ways. We’re close with each other, comfortable at LAMDA, and finding our ways around the city quite well.

Yesterday, we had singing with Caryll to begin our morning. Singing intimidates the crap out of me. Well… I guess I should say singing in front of other people intimidates the crap out of me. I was pretty nervous for our group lesson but Caryll is amazing. She is a sweet, older woman married to an actor who used to be part of the BBC Singers. We did a group warm up and then started to learn an Elizabethan song. She went as slowly as we needed and was quick to clarify anything we were unsure of. Fortunately, I’ve got a great small group of people to have this lesson with. Everyone is very supportive and the talent level ranges from absolutely incredible (lookin’ at you, Gage, if you’re reading this) to never sung before in their life. Caryll is patient, warm, and clearly loves to teach something she loves so much. We’ll get our individually assigned songs next week and I have to say, I’m actually looking forward to that. Caryll asked me in the middle of class if I was related to Leonard Bernstein. Since that is indeed my grandfather’s name, I’m always tempted to say yes without further explanation. I told the truth but did include that I’m related to a Leonard Bernstein. We all had a good laugh about that.

Next was Stage Combat with Jonathan. We had already been informed by the group to have the class first that we would not be doing any actual combat in class this time. Once I got over my initial disappointment (I was ready to wield a sword and possibly whisper, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya, you kill my father. Prepare to die.”) I settled in for what proved to be an incredibly informative class about the history of weapons and the psychology of violence. For anyone interested in the details, I took notes and would be happy to share but am thinking that the larger blog-reading community might not care too much. My favorite fact? The social violence that usually occurs in bars between two testosterone-filled males (ok, yes, I’m stereotyping and generalizing… sorry) is referred to as “The Monkey Dance.”

After being assured we would start learning combat next week, we headed off to Text with James. (Don’t worry… I have lots more quotations from him.) This class simultaneously made me feel like I was 3 inches tall and like I could rule the world. It was quite a conflict of emotions and very strange. Let me explain… He had us bring in a Shakespeare monologue of our choosing. Individually we stood up to read it while the rest of the group listened. As soon as someone didn’t understand what we were saying, they threw a balled up piece of paper on the ground. Once every person had thrown their paper, you had to sit down and the next person stood up. No one got more than 6-7 lines into their monologue. It was still mortifying when paper started flying and a bit embarrassing, even though everyone was having the same thing done to them. Once everyone had had their turn, he explained the point of the exercise to us. I think James’ class will be something that I slowly start to understand over time. He speaks with such philosophical power but that makes it so that the meaning and take-away lesson is buried somewhere underneath. The biggest take-away I got this time (and it may evolve and change over time…) is that actors need to trust the words on the page like musicians trust the notes on their music. I’m curious to see what our subsequent classes hold… I think James has a lot of wisdom but it will take some time to be fully realized in tangible ways. Some choice sayings from our class: “No one knows anything but everyone’s educated.” “The alpha and omega of acting is speaking to and having a relationship with another human being.” “The future really is behind us, we can’t see it. The past is in front of us because we can SEE it. Don’t wake up with your eyes open, keep them closed. Discover what will happen. Go out in the world to meet people who will change you. Go home a better, different person than you left. You’re changed through interactions and communication.” He gave us some homework for the weekend and sent us on our merry way.

Christian, Megan, Lindsay, and I spent lunch preparing for our presentation in rehearsal. All too soon the break was over and we headed in to our afternoon rehearsal. Everyone’s presentations were extremely thorough and well-researched. We all missed the memo that each one only had to be 5 minutes long and each group went on for 20-ish minutes. Oops… After the presentations, we continued reading the play and going over the language. Very fun, very informative.

Remember how I told you about an improv show we all went to see on Monday? Well what I didn’t mention was that it is part of a larger improv festival going on right now called The London Jam. Our improv teacher, Adam, is the one who set up and organized this festival. Well, Thursday night a group of us went to see another troupe perform. Clyde, Megumi, Hannah, Megan, Dani and I all headed to see Showstoppers after school was over. This group performed an entirely improvised musical in an hour. Adam is part of this group and it was very fun to see them perform. I was in awe of their improv ability… It was also nice to sit back, relax, and laugh for an hour.

This morning, our day began with Pure Movement. The class was taught by a petite Japanese woman trained in Kabuki dance, Michael Chekhov technique, LeCoq technique, and even graduated from LAMDA. We did a lot of exercises that got us in our bodies and woke us up. You might have noticed a theme of there being a lot of movement oriented classes. As I mentioned before and as Rodney mentioned on our first day, LAMDA is the most physical training of all drama schools in the UK. As someone who started out as a dancer, I can’t say I mind one bit 🙂

Following Pure Movement, we went to a voice class taught by George. (The same George who taught one of our classes earlier this week.) Friday classes with George are dedicated to learning RP, or received pronunciation. Essentially, we’re learning how to do a British dialect. George was quite clear that for anyone who has already had dialect training, he will try and help us move a bit faster. We will start learning more nuanced sounds, such as sound changes that distinguish between different regions of England. Having had some dialect training previously, this is exciting. However I also know that it won’t hurt to go back to the basics, particularly because this time I’ll be learning the British accent from someone who was born and bred in London.

After voice class, we had singing. Singing on Fridays is more of a choir class. Again, singing… therefore I was intimidated. Little did I know, I had absolutely nothing to fear! I’ve never really sung in a proper choir and I’ve been missing out. We warmed up for a while and then began singing an Elizabethan song. Each part learned their line separately and then we would put it all together. Seriously… so much fun. It sounded good when just the boys would sing, or just the altos, or just us sopranos. But then we would combine it and it sounded so beautiful! Besides being beautiful and fun, it’s really good training for my ear. I tend to sing whatever note I hear being played, which proves challenging when the piano part is different from the vocal part. This is something that has consistently challenged me in my voice lessons back at GW. Singing in a choir forces you to sing exactly what your part requires, even while there are what seems like a million other notes being sung and played at the same time. Fun and helping improve a skill that badly needs improving – 2 for 1!!

After a great morning of classes, we had lunch and headed to rehearsal. We finished reading Richard II today and I was reminded of just how stunningly beautiful the language is in this play. It’s incredibly poetic and yet tells the story brilliantly. It contains one of my favorite Shakespeare monologues. As we read each scene, Phil would randomly assign characters to people and luck would have it that I got assigned Richard in the scene where this monologue is spoken. I attached a small portion of the monologue to an earlier post so I won’t put it here again. But, it deserves to be read in its entirety so if you’re interested, you can find it here. The whole scene is great but I’m specifically talking about the monologue that begins “No matter where; of comfort no man speak.” We stopped and worked on it a bit and for the one of the first times since getting here I felt my nerves completely melt away. I felt confident with the language and reveled in having the opportunity to work with it. It’s not that I haven’t been comfortable before this, it’s just that I can feel myself really getting into the groove of things and letting unnecessary worries go. I’m here to work (as is everyone else) and we couldn’t be in a better environment in which to do so. 

After a week long of 8.5 hour days, I am overjoyed the weekend is here. Time to catch up on some sleep, do my laundry, and go grocery shopping. I’m also planning to visit Portobello Market with Hannah. And the activity I’m very excited about is seeing The Duchess of Malfi at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on Sunday afternoon. Oh, and of course I’ve got some homework to do. Lots of work. Lots of play. One very happy Meghan.

Until next time!

Cheers!

This post is dedicated to a magical cookie — pardon me — biscuit that exists here. They are called Digestives. They’re delicious. I have to hide my pack of them from myself or else I’d eat the whole thing in a day. Today, I found a convenient resealable package at Marks and Spencer which meant I could carry them in my bag. Dear Digestives, thank you for getting me through the latter half of the day when my stomach was eating the rest of my body as a snack. And thank you for being my reward to myself for making it through the day. A Digestive (or two, or three, or four…) a day keeps the doctor away! That’s the saying, right?

Today was a much more physical day than our previous days. To begin the day, my group had Applied Voice with our tutor, Stevie. This class will expand on the ideas taught in Pure Voice by George and start applying those concepts to speaking text. After introductions, we looked at the Ophelia speech from act three, scene one of Hamlet. We will continue to work with this speech, learning how to best deliver it keeping in mind the verse, meter, word choice, etc. This sounds very similar to many of the other classes I have described. In some ways it is, in some ways it isn’t. The thing is, all classes are classical text oriented. We use Shakespeare’s writing as a tool to learn these more general concepts about voice, text, and movement. Each class really builds on every other, which should make for a cohesive lesson by the time our 3 months are over.

Once Stevie’s class was over, we went to Historical Dance with Diana. In about 2 weeks time, we have a dance night. On this night, my level (called the S’s – for semester) and the second year of the three year program (called the B’s) will gather in a big studio for an evening of historical dance. B’s will ask S’s to dance and, to anyone peaking in a window, I’m sure it will look like we’ve jumped back a few centuries. With the knowledge that this night is coming up, Diana jumped right into her lesson so we can learn as many dances as possible before the big night. We learned one and a half dances today. It’s very fun and my group learns quite quickly. I very much look forward to our next lesson with Diana.

Next up was Physical Theatre with Yorgos. He’s a beautiful man from Greece who will be teaching us a class basically on being grounded in your movement on stage. More or less he is concerned with getting us comfortable in our own bodies so that when we’re on stage we have the ability to use our bodies to their fullest extent. I’ve heard you sweat a lot in his class and he mentioned the word “workouts” today in his introduction. Hmmm… we’ll see about this…

Lunch, then rehearsal! Today in rehearsal we continued reading the play, moving a bit faster than before but still pausing to discuss meaning, verse, meter, etc. Additionally, we got assigned monologues from the play to be working on by ourselves for the next two weeks. Next week, we will do some scene work from the play and the week after we will rehearse our monologues and then have a little monologue showing for each other on the last day of our working on this project. Our group is really starting to gel together nicely. We had a fun, giggle filled and productive rehearsal with Phil.

Now I’m home and procrastinating doing some research for Phil and Richard II. We were divided into groups and each has something to research. We are functioning as our own dramaturges essentially but in much less detail than a dramaturge would provide. My group is researching the historical facts of the real Richard II and his reign. Shakespeare likes to deviate from the facts occasionally so it’s interesting to learn the truth behind the real king.

I should probably stop procrastinating now and get to work… (after I eat a Digestive of course!)

Until next time 🙂

Cheers!!

Whew! What a whirlwind couple of days. Classes are off to a running start and it’s exhausting but exhilarating.

Monday morning I began the day with Alexander technique, our tutor’s name is Bethen. We spent most of the time talking about spinal alignment and how it changes from the time we are a baby to when we grow up. Some of the changes happen naturally, some happen because we are told to sit up straight and so we force ourselves into unnaturally upright, tense positions. We finished the class laying down in semi-supine position which is so comfortable and relaxing that I very nearly fell asleep. I think I shall enjoy having Alexander first thing Monday mornings. Next was Clown with Michael. We received our red, plastic noses and spoke a bit about what we would be doing. Then we did a brief exercise in which we individually sat on a stool and just made eye contact with the audience. Michael would then give each person some instructions. It was so simple and so hilarious. We all giggled and laughed and had a wonderful time. Next came Acting with Jenny. This will function more as an audition techniques class and we should have at least 2 audition ready pieces at the end of the term. Jenny told us what work she expects each of us to do before coming in to work with her. She seems like she will be brutally honest and make us work very hard. Knowing what she expects ahead of time is great and I am excited to get some honest feedback about my work. Working in this setting will be refreshing, I think.

After lunch, we had our first Richard II rehearsal. Our director is Phil, a young, British, almost-hipster looking guy who clearly knows his stuff. We did a bunch of exercises to warm up and establish group dynamics. We also did some exercises examining personal relationships. Then we sat down and read the first scene of the play, painstakingly going through the text, asking questions, looking at the verse, examining the word choice, etc. Our homework for the night was to go home, read the play twice – once for content and the second time to ask questions about it. We needed to bring in a list of 50 for our next rehearsal. I thought this was a big ask but it turned out to be quite fun and easy. The questions could be simple and I found I reached 50 quite quickly. This is such a fantastic play so it wasn’t a chore to have to read it.

Once school was out for the day, a few of us headed to the Park Theatre to see an improv troupe perform. The show was called Austentatious. They performed a Jane Austen style novel in an hour, completely improvised, with the title being drawn out of a hat with suggestions submitted by audience members. It was hilarious and quite well done. Then it was home straight away to read Richard II and get some sleep.

Today I began my day with Debbie’s acting class. Her acting class will focus more on technical training, with lots of emphasis on Michael Chekhov exercises. We did many exercises today and I’m already finding lots of tools to put on my actor’s tool belt. Next was Pure Voice with George where we worked on how to properly warm up the body so you are ready to speak with your greatest power and ability. We did one exercise which really just involved stretching to touch your toes and slowly rolling back up (ok, it was a little more complicated than that but not much) and I’ve never felt taller in my entire life. It was wonderful. After Voice, Text with James.

James.

A character if I’ve ever seen one.

I think I need to start a Twitter, @Sh*tJamesSays. He was so full of wisdom but would make his point in absolutely hilarious ways. I wrote down the meaningful quotes today but next time I’ll write the funny bits as well. Generally, he was making the point that we are on this earth to be exactly who we are because that’s how we were created. But here’s (paraphrased) just one way he made that point: You don’t see a penguin hiding in the corner thinking “I’m ugly” and another penguin giving it a pill for its depression. No. Penguins just waddle to and fro thinking “I’m a penguin.”

He also made the claim that we are put on this earth to love. That’s what we are manufactured to do. There’s something really beautiful about that idea to me… Some of his other meaningful quotes of the day: “There are no poets in the world anymore because no one believes in imagination.” “To change the world, you just have to talk to people about reconciliation and love.” “What’s wrong with your feelings? Nothing.” “God didn’t create you to sit in a corner.”

I think I shall enjoy Text with James. And I think you, by extension, shall too.

Lunch, then rehearsal. Rehearsal consisted of similar warm up exercises and relationship establishing games. We then put a bunch of our questions out there, just for all of us to think about. Finally, we read some more of the play and all too soon our time was up. We only got through about a scene and a half further. It’s obviously much slower than I’m used to but I’ve never had someone take the time and effort to so meticulously go through Shakespeare’s texts with me before. We go word by word, line by line. It can certainly be frustrating but I’m learning any and all things to look for in Shakespeare that helps you access the story and the character. I’m building my skill set for analyzing Shakespeare. It’s glorious.

After classes, LAMDA took us to see Henry V starring Jude Law. To be honest… not my favorite. The design was really beautiful but I didn’t care for the directing most of all. It was quite declamatory and the blocking annoyed me. No one ever stood still! They were constantly shifting their weight and wandering about. There were also no levels. It felt like they all just yelled at each other the entire time. Many of the people I was with absolutely loved the show. It’s not that it was terrible or really, really bad. I have just definitely seen better. (I have been assured that a normal first two weeks at LAMDA do not usually include seeing Tennant, Hiddleston, and Law in three sold-out productions across London. I’m thanking my lucky stars to be fortunate enough that mine did!)

I’m still in disbelief that we’ve only had 2 days of proper classes. I feel like my brain is already jam packed full of new information. I’m trying to remind myself every moment to be soaking it all in. I don’t want to miss a thing!! The days are long and exhausting; I’m still adjusting to being on such a rigorous schedule. I’ve never been so pleased to be so tired, though. Everything I’m learning is the knowledge I’ve been hungry for and, until now, I had been unable to satiate that hunger.

I must get some sleep now but I will write again soon. I’m missing everyone back in the States and incredibly jealous of GW’s snow day today. Of course the one semester I’m gone is the one when the famed GW vs. Georgetown snowball fight occurs!! All my love to everyone back home.

Until next time!

Cheers!

Not sure how many of you could tell but that last post was written in quite a state of sleep deprived delirium. After my nap I re-read the post and realized just how many typos were in it. I’ve fixed the ones I found but am finding it hilarious that in my drowsiness I still updated the blog.

Anyway! I spent today sleeping in to completely recover from my night on the pavement. Then I took a jaunt to Oxford Street to acquire some more black clothes for school. I have a feeling that by the time I come home every item I own will be the color black. (I’m an artist, didn’t you know?) Praise the lord for Forever 21 where I found shirts for £3. I have a sneaking suspicion I’ll be back for more…

Oxford Street is a stone’s throw from Amy’s flat so we grabbed some afternoon tea and some delicious carrot, ginger, parsnip soup. I love having friends all over this city. It’s wonderful and makes it feel a little more like home. (Don’t worry Mom, it doesn’t feel completely like home.)

Now I’m already in my pajamas and mostly packed up for school tomorrow. I’ve even made my lunch and it’s sitting in the fridge, complete with a giant reminder to actually put it in my bag in the morning sitting on my desk.

Oh! And someone snapped this group photo at the Tower on Friday. Here are my newest friends and theatre nerds:

But who cares about today and a group photo? There are much more important things to discuss.

Coriolanus.

The play absolutely, positively, 300%, without a doubt was worth every moment spent waiting for a ticket. It was easily the best show I have had the great fortune of seeing in my entire life.

I was almost entirely unfamiliar with the script so it was exciting enough to be seeing a “new” Shakespeare play on its feet. Even with all the hype and rave reviews, nothing could have prepared me for what we saw. From the space to the design, the actors to the technical elements the production was simply brilliant. The Donmar Theatre is a small theatre; it only seats about 250 people. The stage is a small square, nearly even with the first row of the audience. The set was a purely vertical ladder about 1/4 of the way onstage from stage right stretching all the way to the ceiling with a bare back wall of brick and some simple chairs. The design used projections along the back wall to help set each scene and there were musical interludes in longer scene changes that fit the mood well. The actors were incredible. Throughout the performance, if ever there was a moment of silence on stage, you could hear a pin drop in the house. I have never seen an audience (of quite a wide age range, I might add) so captivated by the performers. It was an ensemble based show with 4 actors playing all of the smaller roles and the remaining 9 playing the leads. That’s not including the little boy played by 1 of 3 adorable kids depending on the night. Unlike in Richard II, where I felt there was quite a disparity of talent, each actor held their own in this production. Each character clearly lived in the same world as all the others, unifying each individual and the story and making this violent Roman world come to life. They spoke the words as agents of the story, rather than treating the text as sacred simply because it is Shakespeare and poetry. That is definitely something I personally need to work on as an actor.

Tom Hiddleston (as Coriolanus) and Deborah Findlay (as Volumnia) were my personal favorites. Both of them commanded the space and, whenever they were on stage, I couldn’t tear my eyes off them. They had such presence and energy which made them mesmerizing to watch. Coriolanus delivers a famous speech after he is banished from Rome. He cries,

You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
As reek o’ the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air, I banish you;
And here remain with your uncertainty!
Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders; till at length
Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,
Making not reservation of yourselves,
Still your own foes, deliver you as most
Abated captives to some nation
That won you without blows! Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere.

Hiddleston’s performance of this was spectacular. There really isn’t another word for it.

Volumnia has a long speech at the end of the play in which she implores her son not to destroy Rome. It persuades Coriolanus to give up his plan of war and ultimately costs him his life at the hands of Aufidius. It is an emotionally charged scene to say the least and Findlay delivered the speech with power and vehemence. Where we were sitting, we could see both her face as she spoke the words and Hiddleston’s as he reacted to them, with his back turned to his mother. As she neared the end of her monologue, tears started falling from Coriolanus’ face. I, myself, (as well as nearly everyone I was with) was also moved to tears. We cried from that point all the way until we exited the theatre. It was truly a beautiful, cathartic, moving production.

I feel so fortunate to get to see such wonderful theatre. Each time I do, it reminds me why I am doing what I am and how much I truly love it. Classes begin with full force tomorrow. I have Alexander technique, acting, and clown in the morning before heading into our first Richard II rehearsal in the afternoon. I can’t think of a better pre-cursor to my first week of classes than seeing Coriolanus this weekend. I am feeling perfectly inspired to buckle down and work my butt off for the next 3 months. As Volumnia says so beautifully, “Action is eloquence.”

Until next time… Cheers!

Speaking to Mom yesterday evening she lamented the fact that it would be a bit longer than usual before I posted on the blog. I had an event in the evening that would keep me from posting at my normal hour. I had every intention of coming home after the event and posting an entry then. However, the night took a surprising turn…

Yesterday was a busy day. In the morning, Debbie introduced us to two of our course tutors: George, a voice tutor, and Diana, the historical dance instructor. George talked us through the voice curriculum, what is expected of us, and what we can expect in turn. He emphasized the fact that at LAMDA they like to teach a mix of various vocal techniques, with particular emphasis on the work of Cicely Berry and Kristin Linklater, and we are encouraged to take the bits and pieces from everything to compile the best formula for ourselves personally. We then did a few vocal exercises with him. Following George’s summation of the vocal course work, Diana talked us through the movement curriculum. As I think I mentioned in a previous blog post, LAMDA is the most physical of all theatre training in the UK. We have classes such as clown, stage combat, Alexander technique, historical dance, pure movement, and applied movement. It all sounds incredibly practical and I think my background in dance will become particularly useful in these courses. I have always found my dance background to be helpful in theatre but I think specifically with this training I will discover how exactly to make dance work with theatre in the most effective way. Once Diana had finished discussing the courses, she taught us a bit of a historical dance. It was so amazingly fun. I have a feeling historical dance will be a class I will go on and on about later when we learn even more so I’ll save the majority of my fan-girling for that time.

We were then dismissed to lunch and at 2:15 we headed to the Tube to go to the Tower of London. An hour and a half was about all the time we had to explore the Tower but it was a good amount of time for this trip because we were all a bit tired anyway. I’ll never get tired of seeing the Tower of London. There is so much history is contained within the stone fortress. Standing in a large banquet hall of the White Tower, it dawned on me how many people had passed through that exact same room at some point in history. I was sharing the space with the memories of the likes of Henry VIII and Richard III. It really becomes too unfathomable to even imagine.

From the Tower, I returned home. I made some dinner, spoke with Mom, and got ready to go to LAMDA’s New Year party. It was back at the school building so only a quick Tube ride away. It was just a big dance party and, as you can imagine, theatre kids never shy away from the dance floor. It was so fun to jump around with all my new friends for the evening, despite my tired body and aching feet.

Now here is where the night gets interesting.

Coriolanus is playing at a theatre in Covent Garden. It stars Tom Hiddleston and a really exceptional cast. It has been sold out from the moment tickets went on sale. However, you can queue up outside the theatre and attempt to buy the tickets (mostly standing room only) that are released at 10am. At the LAMDA party, I ran into a friend who is in the 1 year MA program. She and some other people were planning to go camp out outside the theatre in order to secure tickets to today’s performance of Coriolanus. Camping out is the only way to get tickets, particularly for a weekend performance. It seemed like such a crazy idea buuuut I REALLY wanted to see the show and it honestly sounded like a fun experience and a great story to have from my time abroad. So… I raced home, put on some warm clothes, and met up with everyone at the theatre.

We arrived at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre at just about midnight. There were already quite a few people in line and we settled in for the night. There were 6 of us total and we piled in under blankets and sweatshirts, coats and scarves. We had food and good company and it seemed like the night would be a breeze. I dozed on and off on the cold concrete but around 3 or 4 it got really, really cold. Oh, and keep in mind this is London. All night it rained on and off. So it was a cold, wet night but we all managed to sleep a bit and by 7:30 the line stretched all the way down the block. There were people from all over the world in this line. Behind us was a woman from Malaysia and a group of women from Australia. Ahead of us were some people from Poland and Germany. In our group we had Americans and a Canadian. At 10:00am the box office opened and we anxiously awaited to find out if we would get tickets. It was so nerve-wracking as we walked up to the window, anxiously inquiring if there happened to be 6 seats together. Somehow, they had it and all 6 of us are now the proud owners of a seat at this evening’s performance of Coriolanus in the Donmar Warehouse Theatre (a small, 250 seat theatre). I cannot possibly explain how ecstatic I am. 10 hours and one cold, rainy night later our efforts paid off. We all went out and had a full English breakfast (complete with baked beans and roasted tomatoes) and somehow managed (despite our zombie-like, sleepwalking state) to return to our individual rooms to get some rest before the show tonight. I cannot wait to see this show. It is supposed to be absolutely brilliant. Emily, I’ll send Tom Hiddleston your adoring love and wish him well from you.

Now I must go nap.

Cheers!

Fortunately we got to sleep in today as we had a late start. Besides tomorrow when we start an hour later than normal, this is our last partially free day for a while. I can’t say I’m particularly complaining but things are certainly about to pick up.

I had a leisurely morning which included sleeping in and slowly getting ready for the day. Then I went to Waitrose (our local grocery shop) to get some, you guessed it, groceries. That was fun (sarcasm) because I recognized none of the brands so it took me twice the time it would have at home (#definitionofAmericanstudyabroadproblems). I managed to find all the staple food items I wanted although their produce expires so fast that I skipped some things because I knew I wouldn’t eat them by tomorrow. (Yes, tomorrow. That’s when the lettuce expired. So weird…) All in all, though, I was pleased with my grocery shopping experience. I even got some Digestives. (Thank you, Amy, for getting me hooked on those last year.)

Dropping off my groceries at home, I decided I still had so much more time before I needed to be at school so I grabbed a book and my bag and headed to the local coffee shop. I got some tea and just sat, reading my book (Ok, ok, I’ll admit it. It was a Shakespeare play. But I needed to re-read this one because I’m working on a monologue from it). It was lovely. Some tea, a good play, and a bit of time to myself.

Arriving at LAMDA around 2:00, we spent the afternoon with Debbie. Debbie is a warm, soft-spoken, kind woman. We will have her for acting classes about once a week from now on. She will work with us on mostly Michael Chekhov techniques which I am anxious to begin because I have a bit of background with those concepts and look forward to expanding my knowledge base. She is a maternal woman and I think I can comfortably make the claim that many of us see her as our LAMDA mom figure. She’s made it clear her door is always open if we need to talk and it’s obvious she loves to meet with students even if it’s just to chat. While kind and caring, she is clearly brilliant and knows her stuff. We did many exercises today with the whole group which included some partner work. One partner exercise had one person being a piece of seaweed and the other the ocean current. The seaweed swayed back and forth in the tide while the current could brush past an arm, leg, shoulder, or knee which would affect the movement of the seaweed. Ok… Dad I can see you rolling your eyes. Yes, on paper is sounds really silly. But it was one of the most relaxing and centering exercises I’ve ever done. We also did an exercise Bekah had shown me and Josh while working on her directing project this past semester. (I felt like a such a pro but I was just as bad at it today as when Bekah, Josh, and I tried to do it last semester.) We continued doing exercises and playing some more get-to-know-you games before going over the LAMDA student handbook. The handbook includes detailed descriptions of all the classes we will take. As if I needed more to fuel my excitement fire…

After class, Claire, Megan, Hannah, Alex, and I went to Covent Garden to find our rehearsal skirts as well as some dance shoes for some of them. We then all had dinner together. The area of Covent Garden is a bit touristy but really, really beautiful. We will have to go back in the daylight because we all quite enjoyed ourselves.

This morning, I came across one of my fellow student’s own study abroad blog. He’s a really great writer and had a wonderful description of Rodney I wanted to share with you all:

“Our tutor for the afternoon was the Head of Drama at LAMDA, a cheeky, cherubic man named Rodney whose love for a good sodomy joke is second alone to that of a clever insult of the French. He’s devilishly irreverent and he clearly enjoys his exhilarating command of the room.”

Ok I think that’s it for now.

Until next time!

Cheers!

Our timetable informed us our morning would begin with an improvisation class for the first half of the day. I was petrified. Improv? Sounds like a good opportunity for me to embarrass myself in front of 38 new friends. I like to think of myself as having a good sense of humor, being witty sometimes, and occasionally coming out with a great joke. But put me in front of an audience and it’s like the English language vanishes from my brain. So an improv class sounded a bit scary.

I should have known it would all be fine. I had forgotten, of course, that improv isn’t just being funny and getting laughs. Improv can help you build a character and build an ensemble. Our improv class was AWESOME.

(This is when the blog will get pretty hippy-dippy sounding for all my non-theatre friends. And every entry is going to start sounding like nerd central. I’ll try to keep it brief and just capture the highlights but I apologize in advance.)

In the improv class we did a number of exercises and all were great. It was so refreshing to be in a room of people who were committed to doing the work. During warm ups and the exercises, there wasn’t anyone in the corner rolling their eyes, clearly thinking what we were doing was silly or stupid. Instead, every person jumped at the chance to work and committed fully to whatever the task at hand was. This is a good group of people who should prove fun to work with over the coming months.

After improv, we got some lunch and headed back for another lecture by Rodney. I think this is our last Rodney lecture for a while which is a shame. I love that man. He is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met yet has an incredible sense of humor. Much like Shakespeare himself must have been, Rodney can go from spouting a beautiful piece of wisdom to telling a ridiculously dirty joke or asking an actor to put the f-word in front of any other word beginning with an f in a monologue. We all had a good laugh today over a little language difference between the US and England. In the US, when you hit someone in a car from behind, we call it rear ending. Well, over here, it most definitely does NOT mean to hit the back bumper of someone’s car. Ok, ok, but in all seriousness, he’s wonderful. Over the course of the afternoon we discussed the differences between editions of Shakespeare’s work and worked our way through act one scene four of Henry VI. It took us just about three hours to work through the whole thing, starting and stopping to swap out actors for each role, discuss the meter, discuss vocab words, and much, much more. The pages of the script that I have are covered in notes. What was especially educational was that everything we worked through can be applied to any other scene we need to analyze (though some of the stuff Rodney pointed out I never would have found even if I stared at the scene for a million years). Queen Margaret makes a formidable speech in that scene and I was one of the people who got to work part of it on its feet. It was so much fun and I am officially obsessed with Margaret’s character. My ideas for my thesis are running rampant around my head but, again, a story for another time. Here’s the section I worked but I highly encourage looking up the rest of the scene. It’s really something else.

Brief background: Richard, Duke of York has tried to usurp Henry VI through war, after promising to allow Henry VI to live out his reign and then Richard and his family could take control. Margaret, Henry VI’s wife, and her lover, Clifford, have defeated Richard and his army. Clifford killed Richard’s young son and now Margaret and Richard meet on the battlefield. Margaret makes Richard stand upon what is probably a head of one of his soldiers or possibly even the head of his son. She then ruthlessly mocks him and torments him.

What! was it you that would be England’s king?
Was’t you that revell’d in our parliament,
And made a preachment of your high descent?
Where are your mess of sons to back you now?
The wanton Edward, and the lusty George?
And where’s that valiant crook-back prodigy,
Dicky your boy, that with his grumbling voice
Was wont to cheer his dad in mutinies?
Or, with the rest, where is your darling Rutland?
Look, York: I stain’d this napkin with the blood
That valiant Clifford, with his rapier’s point,
Made issue from the bosom of the boy;
And if thine eyes can water for his death,
I give thee this to dry thy cheeks withal.

I bet you all didn’t know that reading my blog you’d get a little Shakespeare education as well! And I bet you all appreciate it oh-so-much. (Really I have visions of everyone scrolling past all the monologues. I’m not offended, really I’m not. You’re just missing out haha)

Rodney’s lecture ended right about 5:30 and we had a bit of a break. Then, we met with two members of the Student Council at LAMDA. They gave us some information about LAMDA and London and we could ask them absolutely anything we were wondering about. Both of them were incredibly nice and told us to not be scared to meet the rest of the students at the school. There is a party at LAMDA on Friday to welcome everyone back for the term. It should be nice to meet students from other programs there.

Now I am back in my room and still can’t believe this is my life for the next few months. I apologize for sounding like a broken record… This is just exactly what I was hoping for and more and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be here.

Until next time!

Cheers!

All the activity yesterday really wore me out. Claire and I fell asleep as soon as our heads hit our pillows. And thanks to the relatively easy schedule of our first week, we could sleep in and have a leisurely morning. We met everyone at LAMDA around 10:20, got some breakfast, and boarded the bus to Hampton Court Palace.

Hampton Court Palace is a structure torn between two worlds. It was originally built for Henry VIII during the Tudor reign. A lot of it is clearly in Tudor style with no expense spared in the building and decorating. When William and Mary came to power, William hated everything English. (Ironic, I know, considering he had been crowned King of ENGLAND.) William III started to demolish anything English and build a more Baroque palace. Fortunately for us, he died before it could quite be completed which is why we still have so much of the structure built during Henry VIII’s reign of opulence. We had over four hours to explore the palace which at first we though was a bit much. Turns out, we really did need that time. The property is absolutely massive, and two of the areas usually on display were even closed today. The gardens are even bigger and, despite the cold, we explored thoroughly. I’m not sure words can quite capture how large and grand this place is. It has been kept in remarkable condition, with Queen Elizabeth II renewing the drive to conserve it in the recent past. It’s truly magnificent and, if I could, I’d move there tomorrow. I’m pretty sure I could live there with about 45 of my closest friends and no one would even know I was there. It’s a palace the scale of which I’ve never seen and still can’t quite comprehend. You have to see it to believe it.

We boarded the bus at quarter till 4 and headed back into the city. I had dinner with my friends Alex, Megan, and Claire. (Look Mom! I have friends!) At 6:45 we headed to The Barbican and took our seats for Richard II. Precisely at the hour printed on our tickets (7:15), the show began. David Tennant starred as Richard II and was really great. I didn’t care for some of the other actors in the production or some of the directing choices. The first half dragged a bit. But by the end of the first act and all through the second act I was enthralled. I was completely unfamiliar with Richard II until tonight. I think I have a new favorite Shakespeare play. Tennant delivered some of the most beautiful poetry brilliantly. Go read some of it, preferably all of it. It’s truly some of Shakespeare’s best poetry (in my humble opinion). This show paired with our lecture yesterday even gave me some ideas for my thesis… Another topic for another time but it’s nice to be getting inspiration already.

Being theatre nerds, we stayed at the stage door to see David Tennant after the show. He was extremely gracious and very nice. I snapped a lot of pictures over people’s heads. Here’s one of the best:

This is a very, very tiny portion of one of my favorite speeches in the play. Richard has just found out that he has all but lost the crown to his cousin, Henry. He laments for a while and finishes his speech with this:

Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence: throw away respect,
Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while:
I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,
How can you say to me, I am a king?

So brilliant. So beautiful. Tomorrow promises to be another exciting day. I’d say pinch me but I don’t ever want to wake up from this remarkable fairy tale.

Until next time!

Cheers!