Getting a little behind...
It's been a while since I last updated...oops. So I'll pick back up on Monday July 7th...I'll try to get this caught up in the next couple days.
In the morning we had IAH and had another long discussion. Following that we had Janet Bird, the designer for Merry Wives of Windsor, came in to talk with us. I thought she was interesting even though I'm not a design student. Designers here do both set and costumes, whereas in the states they specialize in one or the other. I was down with Janet because she did a design for Rocky Horror a few years back. Sweet! Monday evening I stayed in to do some homework, knowing that later that week we'd be going off to Stratford-upon-Avon...and I didn't want to have mass amounts of work to do while I was there.
Tuesday morning was another early one...we went to the Globe for a tour and workshop, also to go through the museum there. For my theatre history class we had to pick our own topics and I decided to write about the rebuilding of Shakespeare's Globe. So going to the Globe exhibition was really important for me...I got nearly all my research done for the paper. The workshop covered some pretty basic acting exercises so that was a bit disappointing. That afternoon the history class wet back to the portrait gallery to talk about the people we were assigned to research. It didn't take too long but it gave us all a load of work for the time lines we have to write at the end of the program. That evening we took the tube out to Hammersmith (half an hour...the farthest we've gone for a show) to see kids doing circus acts. It wasn't very good because they were still young and learning, but I still tried to appreciate it. I don't know what our program director was thinking when she bought those tickets for us. Some people were really mad about going to it. Those 7 and 8 year olds could do more than I ever could, though, so I tried to enjoy it. After the show we took another early night so that we could get work done ahead of going to Stratford.
We got on the bus at 8 for Oxford and started a tour there at around 10...in the rain. It was a pretty town and it has a lot of history (as well as Harry Potter filming locations).We continued on to Stratford in the early afternoon and toured Mary Arden (Shakespeare's mum) and Anne Hathaway's (Shakespeare's wife) homes. I held a hawk at Mary Arden's. I didn't get my hand bit off so that was good. Karen told us about the bar that all the actors hang out at and recommended that we all go there for dinner. So I had my first fish and chips and a pint at the Dirty Duck pub. We saw The Merchant of Venice that night. It had potential to be a good show. I liked the story and the dramatic scenes, but the design and acting lacked clarity and cohesion. After the show we went back to the Dirty Duck for drinks. And surprisingly, Karen's tidbit about it being an actor hang out held true. All the actors were there and we ended up at the same bar down the street once the Dirty Duck closed. We talked to one of the lead actors for a while which was really interesting. He was really nice about answering our questions and discussing our methods.
Oxford's New College
More Oxford
Hawk!
Anne Hathaway's cottage
My dinner
Everyone got up and out early Thursday morning to see the other Shakespeare properties in town. We also took a trip to Holy Trinity where Shakespeare is buried. In the afternoon we went to see Taming of the Shrew...which is usually really fun. This one was very serious. I loved the design. It's a play within a play so it began in modern day and once the second play began it sprang back to Elizabethan style and slowly worked its way forward through the years and by the time the play ended it was back in the present day. VERY interesting. After the show we took the bus back to London.
We had our first voice lesson early Friday wherein I nearly fainted from the lack of breakfast in my tummy and the excessive talk of tendons and muscles and nasty things. After class Ally and I went on a shopping trip down Oxford street. We had to purchase 8 red tshirts for a certain event on Saturday (I'll get to that amazingness later) and I also found an obscenely cute dress for 17 pounds. I went back to our place and put my new dress on before going out to the National for a backstage tour and watching Revenger's Tragedy. The show was technically very cool but the acting was lacking. The music was especially cool. There was a DJ booth off to one stage and a small classical ensemble on the other...also a male tenor who could sing like a soprano. Crrrazy! Some people went out on Friday night but I was all about making Saturday the big night out...considering what we did during the day... So... to be continued!
In the morning we had IAH and had another long discussion. Following that we had Janet Bird, the designer for Merry Wives of Windsor, came in to talk with us. I thought she was interesting even though I'm not a design student. Designers here do both set and costumes, whereas in the states they specialize in one or the other. I was down with Janet because she did a design for Rocky Horror a few years back. Sweet! Monday evening I stayed in to do some homework, knowing that later that week we'd be going off to Stratford-upon-Avon...and I didn't want to have mass amounts of work to do while I was there.
Tuesday morning was another early one...we went to the Globe for a tour and workshop, also to go through the museum there. For my theatre history class we had to pick our own topics and I decided to write about the rebuilding of Shakespeare's Globe. So going to the Globe exhibition was really important for me...I got nearly all my research done for the paper. The workshop covered some pretty basic acting exercises so that was a bit disappointing. That afternoon the history class wet back to the portrait gallery to talk about the people we were assigned to research. It didn't take too long but it gave us all a load of work for the time lines we have to write at the end of the program. That evening we took the tube out to Hammersmith (half an hour...the farthest we've gone for a show) to see kids doing circus acts. It wasn't very good because they were still young and learning, but I still tried to appreciate it. I don't know what our program director was thinking when she bought those tickets for us. Some people were really mad about going to it. Those 7 and 8 year olds could do more than I ever could, though, so I tried to enjoy it. After the show we took another early night so that we could get work done ahead of going to Stratford.
We got on the bus at 8 for Oxford and started a tour there at around 10...in the rain. It was a pretty town and it has a lot of history (as well as Harry Potter filming locations).We continued on to Stratford in the early afternoon and toured Mary Arden (Shakespeare's mum) and Anne Hathaway's (Shakespeare's wife) homes. I held a hawk at Mary Arden's. I didn't get my hand bit off so that was good. Karen told us about the bar that all the actors hang out at and recommended that we all go there for dinner. So I had my first fish and chips and a pint at the Dirty Duck pub. We saw The Merchant of Venice that night. It had potential to be a good show. I liked the story and the dramatic scenes, but the design and acting lacked clarity and cohesion. After the show we went back to the Dirty Duck for drinks. And surprisingly, Karen's tidbit about it being an actor hang out held true. All the actors were there and we ended up at the same bar down the street once the Dirty Duck closed. We talked to one of the lead actors for a while which was really interesting. He was really nice about answering our questions and discussing our methods.
Oxford's New College
More Oxford
Hawk!
Anne Hathaway's cottage
My dinner
Everyone got up and out early Thursday morning to see the other Shakespeare properties in town. We also took a trip to Holy Trinity where Shakespeare is buried. In the afternoon we went to see Taming of the Shrew...which is usually really fun. This one was very serious. I loved the design. It's a play within a play so it began in modern day and once the second play began it sprang back to Elizabethan style and slowly worked its way forward through the years and by the time the play ended it was back in the present day. VERY interesting. After the show we took the bus back to London.
We had our first voice lesson early Friday wherein I nearly fainted from the lack of breakfast in my tummy and the excessive talk of tendons and muscles and nasty things. After class Ally and I went on a shopping trip down Oxford street. We had to purchase 8 red tshirts for a certain event on Saturday (I'll get to that amazingness later) and I also found an obscenely cute dress for 17 pounds. I went back to our place and put my new dress on before going out to the National for a backstage tour and watching Revenger's Tragedy. The show was technically very cool but the acting was lacking. The music was especially cool. There was a DJ booth off to one stage and a small classical ensemble on the other...also a male tenor who could sing like a soprano. Crrrazy! Some people went out on Friday night but I was all about making Saturday the big night out...considering what we did during the day... So... to be continued!