Another week over and done with before I even had a chance to accept the ending of last week! It was another busy week punctuated by a crazy day trip to Wales. This promises to be a long post so… settle in!
The schedule of the week was pretty standard so Monday I started off with Alexander technique, acting with Jenny, and clown with Michael. It was my turn to work on my monologue in Jenny’s class. I had chosen to work on Hermione from the Winter’s Tale. Jenny let me go through it once and then we chatted for a bit about the piece. She gave me a few small notes and things to think about and then had me do it again. The second time around I felt so much more grounded, like there were more levels, and that the whole thing was more connected. It felt great to be able to take such small, seemingly simple notes, and use them to enhance the entire piece. She was happy with where the piece is so I get to choose a new one to work on for the next time it’s my day to work.
Watching everyone else work in Jenny’s class is also really helpful. She’s quite a character but it’s amazing to watch her work with our monologues. She gives the smallest adjustments that make the biggest difference. It’s also incredibly apparent how much she adores Shakespeare and has lived with his texts for so long. While one person was working on the Marc Antony monologue (“O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth”), she was trying to get it to be more emotionally connected. As she launched into a side bar about violence and revenge and the love of another human, she sort of off-handedly threw out this nugget of brilliance: “400 years ago, Shakespeare said all there is to say about the human condition. And here we are, 400 years later, doing the same things.” Preach, Jenny. Preach.
Rehearsal this afternoon was spent working on Richard II 5.2. This is a fairly farcical scene with York and the Duchess; it includes an almost Commedia style lazzi including a servant running back and forth, the Duchess hitting the servant with a shoe, and a game of keep-away played with shoes. I got to play York and it was such fun to work on this scene. The scene goes from quite somber to hilarious in 0.2 seconds and then can be played where it comes back to the somber quality at the end. We had a lot of fun exploring the different ways to play this scene and ended our Monday with lots of smiles and laughter.
Tuesday we had acting with Debbie, pure voice with George, and text with James. James’ lecture today was all about finding a character. We have a really lengthy assignment for this coming Tuesday which includes preparing a 5 minute presentation on our character’s factual (what can be found and undisputed in the text) biography, a piece of music the character would listen to, a pair of shoes the character would wear, a picture of what they might look like in real life, and 3 objects that would be part of the character’s world. I’m looking forward to hearing everyone’s presentation. The character I’m working on is Margaret and I’m quite excited to present on her. I read my monologue for James today and he was quite complimentary. Getting compliments here, no matter how big or how small, feels like winning the lottery. Each time it happens it’s so validating and feels honest. No one is here to pay unnecessary compliments, they are here to give you honest feedback. While it feels incredibly good to get the odd compliment from a tutor, it’s also motivating and makes me want to keep working even harder. My favorite James quotation from this class was, “Some of the happiest people I know don’t understand anything, nor do they try to. They simply live life moment to moment.”
Wednesday we had applied voice with Stevie where we looked at a new piece of text, the first scene from As You Like It. Then we had historical dance with Diana where we went over the dances we have learned thus far, adding a bit more technique to them and really cementing them in our bodies and brains. Just before lunch, we had Yorgos for physical theatre. A lot of people in my group are sick with extremely terrible colds (I have managed to avoid the plague thus far, knock on wood) so rather than having the intense conditioning class that Yorgos had planned, we had a healing class instead. It was lovely and relaxing.
Wednesday’s rehearsal was spent working on Richard II 5.3. This is really a continuation of 5.2 as York and his son, Aumerle, try to get to Bolingbroke first. York wants to accuse his son of treason and Aumerle wants to be pardoned for his treason. Then the Duchess shows up to pray for Bolingbroke to pardon Aumerle. It’s another funny scene with a darker undertone and, again, it was a lot of fun to work on. After we finished working on that scene, we began our rotation with Phil of working on our monologues. For our first session, he spent 30 minutes with each of us and then a subsequent 20 minutes. I was not on the rotation for Wednesday so I got to go home a bit early. It was still daylight when I left school. I was so disoriented!! But it was also great because the Tube was closed due to a strike and walking home in the dark didn’t sound like much fun.
Thursday’s schedule was text with singing with Caryll, combat with Jonathan and Christina, and text with James. I sang my song in singing and it actually didn’t sound half bad. Caryll said it was good and to come in next week with a performance of it – make a decision about the character and the story I’m telling. Combat was bad-ass as usual. We learned a few more techniques with the rapier and dagger. The entire class is spent in lunges and I’m almost always sore the next day. Text was enlightening as always. We continued our conversation on feelings and characters. James discussed how important it is to be an unselfish actor. He said the moment he realized that was when he looked out at the audience one day and saw this old woman who was there by herself. He realized she didn’t give a crap about his acting. She was there to be moved, to be entertained. It isn’t about the actor. It’s about other people, it’s about the audience, it’s about making people feel something. The best part of today was when he asked us to define acting. People had some really beautiful definitions but my favorite was: Acting is about making things that are invisible visible.
This afternoon I worked with Phil on my monologue. I am doing one of Richard’s monologues from 3.3 which begins, “What must the king do now? must he submit?” Richard is very nearly beaten at this point and it’s a powerful monologue. I had done a lot of work on it already which we could use as a starting point to explore the text. It was cool to see how you could play this one monologue a million different ways and be totally justified in each choice. Phil is incredibly brilliant and it was nice to work with him one on one. It’s been ages since I’ve had such focused, individualized attention for one monologue. He helped identify some of my personal actor habits that I need to break as well as telling me what I bring to the room right off the bat which is helpful and good. After our 30 minutes were up, I had a bit of a break before my 20 minute session later that evening. Lindsay and I got some dinner and then headed back. This 20 minutes was just a continuation of the work we had already done. We got the monologue to a really great place and I was honestly very proud of myself. Brilliant, snarky Phil gave me a high five so really that was all the validation I need for the rest of the year.
Friday we had movement with Yuri, RP with George, and choir. In rehearsal, we showed our monologues to each other while continuing to work on them. Basically we each did the monologue once, Phil gave some adjustments, and we did it again. I was blown away by everyone’s pieces. Each person clearly worked hard and took direction well. It was awesome to see. This was our last day of working on Richard II with Phil. As our last activity, he had us write a letter to ourselves that we will get back on the last day of the program. I took a lot of time writing mine and look forward to seeing what I was thinking now in about 2 and a half months.
Friday night I went to dinner with Amy to celebrate her birthday. The big 2-2!! My little old lady best friend. We got burritos and it was nice to sit and chat. Plus I had been craving a burrito so it was really a win-win situation. I returned home and went straight to bed because I had an early start on Saturday.
Saturday morning I woke up early and headed to the bus station to catch our 7:30am bus to Cardiff. Jules, Lorenzo, and Hannah met me there. Somehow, for our very cheap bus ticket, we had managed to land ourselves a seat on a Megabus Gold bus. We travelled in style. The seats were so comfortable with plenty of space and leg room. Half way through the busy ride, a nice man came around with cold drinks and muffins followed by some shortbread cookies. Guys… this is the only way to travel. It really was luxurious. I slept for a little bit but tried to stay awake because the drive through the countryside was practically worth the price of the ticket alone. We saw sheep and rolling green hills and beautiful cottages. At one point, we could even see a full rainbow from one end to the other, framing the most beautiful landscape. It was as picturesque as you can imagine.
Around 10:30am we arrived in Cardiff. First things first: caffeine. We walked from the bus stop into the city center. The whole city is built around Cardiff Castle so within two seconds of getting off the bus, we could see the castle walls. In the main square, we found a Cafe Nero and I got some tea and a muffin. We warmed up, enjoyed our sustenance and headed to the castle. There are ruins on this site dating back to when the Romans built a walled fortress on this spot. You can still see the ruins of the Roman wall which are nearly 10 feet thick in some places. Then there are various aspects of the castle still standing today, some built in the middle ages, some built closer to the 17th-18th century. The castle apartments are spectacular and very well restored. The vibrant colors of the decorations have not been lost to time, making the rooms feel like their inhabitants have only just gotten up and left for a mid-morning stroll.
Upon leaving the castle apartments, we visited the castle keep.
This is where the knights and soldiers could defend the castle from attack. There were also some stately bedchambers maintained in the walls of the round, stone structure. Our helpful audio guide informed us that at one time, Edmund, Duke of York had stayed in one of the bedrooms. The Duke of York featured heavily in Richard II and Lorenzo had worked on one of his monologues. We all paused for a moment to deliver a couple of those lines through our beaming faces. It’s great traveling with fellow nerds.
After exploring the grounds a bit more, we decided we were quite hungry and headed out. Oh, but don’t worry, we didn’t forget to take our pictures in the stocks.
We had lunch at a small, local restaurant on the high street. We noticed there was deep fried brie on the menu and obviously had to order that. We enjoyed our cheese and our meal and headed out to keep exploring. It was absolutely freezing and was raining off and on. Lorenzo didn’t have a scarf or hat and was frozen. Jules needed a hat too so we stopped in a store to purchase them some warmer garments. Hannah had looked up a castle she wanted to visit called Castell Coch. Unfortunately, it would take a bit of time to travel there and, by the time we got there, it would be closed for the day. Disappointed but determined to keep exploring (despite the pelting, freezing rain) we decided to be the ultimate tourists and take an open top bus tour. The front of the open top was covered so we could still see everything while being protected from the rain. It was the perfect way to see all of Cardiff without a car and without being soaked to the bone. We passed Cardiff University (which had a dragon on its gates), the National Museum (which had some dragon statues out front), the law courts of Cardiff (with a dragons on the top of the posts out front), the old senate building (with some dragon motifs), the new senate building (did not spot a dragon…), the Millennium Centre, the BBC studios, Cardiff Bay (dragons galore here), and much, much more. With the weather as it was (extremely windy and rainy), the water was ridiculously choppy and the locals seemed to be avoiding the waterfront area, though we did see some people boarding a water taxi. Crazy people…
Why all the dragons you ask? I don’t really have a good answer other than the fact that there is a red dragon on the Welsh flag. Wikipedia has informed me that the red dragon is the “Red Dragon of Cadwaladr, King of Gwynedd.” From what I can gather, the Welsh love two things above all: rugby and dragons. Oh! And putting all their signs in both English and Welsh, the Welsh looking like the vowel thief has come round and stolen them from one word and put them all in another.
After the bus tour, we decided to head out to Castell Coch because we wanted to get out of the city and, even if it would be closed, we could still walk around it. A recurring theme throughout the day was how incredibly nice everyone we met was. As we boarded a public bus that we were fairly certain would get us to where we needed to be, the bus driver could clearly tell we were not all too certain. He took his time explaining to us that we were, indeed, on the correct bus and how we could purchase a round trip ticket so we didn’t have to pay again when we boarded our bus to come home. We settled in and when we got to the stop we needed, he stopped the bus, got out of his seat, came to tell us this is where we needed to get off, and gave us walking directions for the rest of the way to the castle. I was absolutely blown away by his hospitality.
We could see the castle from the bus stop but it was off in the distance, up on a hill. We walked up, through a beautifully charming residential neighborhood, and climbed the hill to the castle. It was an enchanting place. The castle is nestled amongst trees and tucked away, nearly hidden by the foliage around it. I’m so glad we made the trip up there, it was absolutely worth it. We didn’t get to go inside but we took our time exploring the grounds and wandering all around it.
We caught our bus back to the center of Cardiff, discussing our options of what to do next. As we got off the bus, the rain started falling very, very hard with no sign of it stopping anytime soon. Since it wasn’t quite time for dinner, we opted for some warm coffee and (arguably more important) a warm coffee shop. We were quite chilly and sitting for a little while and warming up was the perfect idea. At this point, we all agreed that it might have been a little over-ambitious to think we would need to stay in Cardiff until 2:45am. However, upon trying to change our bus to one departing sooner, we found out it would cost nearly £25 to do so. 100% not worth it so we started planning the remainder of our evening.
That day, Wales had played Ireland in rugby and Cardiff had a football match against Swansea City. We decided going to a local pub might be fun, in light of those two big sporting events going on. We were right. We found a great place with delicious food and a fun atmosphere. Half the fun of this trip was the group of people I was with. We sat in this pub for probably 2 and a half hours and, despite being pretty tired, there wasn’t a moment of silence nor a moment when we stopped laughing. It was lovely.
Since we still had a while until our bus, we decided to go see a movie. Indoors, warm, entertaining, and how many people can say they’ve seen a movie in Wales? We ended up seeing Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Certainly not the best movie ever made but entertaining and fun to see. Plus, who doesn’t love Chris Pine? Or, for that matter, Kenneth Branagh?
After the movie, we headed back to the center of Cardiff to kill about an hour before our bus. The pubs had just kicked all the drunk rugby/football fans out and the entire city was a mess. It was actually pretty gross… Hannah and I remarked that it looked like the entire city had been turned into one enormous fraternity house. Ah well… the Welsh and their sports teams.
It was finally time to board our bus and we fell asleep almost before we could sit down. The drive wasn’t nearly as fun in the dark, no pretty landscapes to see! But we made it back to London and I was in bed by 6:45am. I slept for a while and now I’m preparing to do some homework and prepare for the week ahead. As always, it promises to be a good one. We start working on a Restoration comedy this week with a new director and Emma arrives in London on Friday. I’m looking forward to it.
Until next time!
Cheers : )