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!