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!