It snowed here so much last night, and I was really excited!
I know, all you jealous people back in 'sconsin are probably all sick of snow, but it's a big deal for me, especially here. Today I should go take a walk through the park. Today I also need to start doing homework, since I haven't done ANY yet. Homework here will basically consist of papers to turn in periodically throughout the semester, with the first one coming up in like two weeks. Someone counted them all, and I think there are 12 or so. Piece o' cake, right?
Oh, and as a follow up to my last post, yes, Steve, I actually bought plasters (what they call band-aids here) earlier in the day, then I saw your comment. They worked wonders. I just kept wearing them and eventually the shoes broke in. They are quite cute, you would be proud :-) and don't worry, those work shoes are in a box in Wausau.
Here's a random thing: most everyone who has a laptop takes their internet through the housing here, and at some point they must have banned all youtube links, because no one can access any of it now. So I can't show anyone Cunningham Muffins, I can't watch music videos that people recommend, and worst of all I can't watch Jim's video diary! (sorry Jim) damn authoritarians
Anyways, since I haven't posted in a while, I've decided that how I'm going to do it is by topic instead of current updates on the last week or so. That way I can wrap my mind around one aspect of my trip instead of trying to write absolutely everything and then having my head explode. I have been planning for this all week, and I have it all laid out. I'm a dork, I know.
I figured I would talk about theatre first, since I have already seen 12 shows, and the theatre teacher said I should go for the record, which is forty-something, and I don't know if that's possible really, considering my financial situation. We'll see. These are in order of when I saw them.
Week One
Coram Boy This was at the National Theatre. The Nat'l is actually a collection of three different stages, all subsidized by the government, so they can afford to put on lesser known, but still good, plays. All plays have a set opening date and closing date, no matter how well they do. If they do well enough, then they often continue on the West End. This play was in the Olivier Theatre, which is the biggest. This play was amazing in all aspects. I am pretty sure I talked about this one before.
The Woman in Black at Fortune Theatre. This long-running play is called the scariest thing in theatre, and it is pretty scary, and I think the night that I saw it would have been better if the audience weren't laughing after every time they screamed in terror. There were some pretty neat tricks of the lighting and other theatrical ingenuity.
Antony and Cleopatra with Patrick Stewart (with hair!) as Antony at the Novello Theatre, as put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Everything here seems to be "royal" or "king's" or "queen's" or something.
Twelfth Night at the Old Vic, with an all-male cast. I know I've said it before, but some of these guys were quite nice to look at.
Week Two
Happy Days by Samuel Beckett. This was at the National again, this time in the Lyttleton Theatre, which is large, but not as large as the Olivier. I loved this play, especially after studying Beckett for three and a half years in one way or another, it was really good to actually see one. We saw this one for Theatre class, so others who are not as well-versed in the style of Beckett didn't appreciate it as much, but I loved it.
Peter Pan This was at the King's Head Theatre, where Laura interns, and she was able to get us comp tickets because there were producers in the audience, and they needed to fill seats. It was a fringe theatre, with maybe fifty seats in the audience. For being a kid's show, I thought it was cute. Like Laura said, however, some of the younger actors (and by younger I don't mean the kids) in the show were simply not that good, and it gives people like Laura and I hope because we know we still have a chance, haha. Oh, that's awful, i know .. but true!
Week Three
Spamalot Yes, I saw Spamalot. It was fun. It was part of a deal between Amy and I that I would go see Spamalot if she saw Avenue Q with me later. I am going to hold her to her word Monday. But we were in the highest freaking balcony and couldn't see all that well, but it was still fun.
Love Song a new play by a playwright I can't remember, but I do remember that I didn't recognize the name. John something. This was the play starring Cillian Murphy, Kristen Johnston, Michael McKean, and Neve Campbell. Neve Campbell was awful in it, but the others were really good, esp. Mr. Murphy. After the show we waited by the stage door, and all four of them came out rather quickly. Mr. McKean snuck right around the corner, but I don't think he meant to sneak away, just simply wasn't stopped. Kristen Johnston came out (she's really tall, and Amy (who is really short) went up to her, and it sort of went like this:
Amy: Is it true you're from Wisconsin?
Ms. Johnston: Yeah, I'm from Milwaukee.
Amy: We're all from Wisconsin, too!
Ms. Johnston (in the thickest Wisconsin accent possible): Oh my Gahd, no-a!
And then Cillian Murphy (who is quite short as well) sort of snuck out behind her, and I spotted him, went up to him and said, "Hey, good job, I really enjoyed it." and he just looked back up at me (with those wonderful blue eyes) and said with his slight Irish lilt, "Thank you, thank you." and we shook hands. I don't know if he was gawking at my tallness or just surprised I didn't want his autograph, but then he went on his way. He seemed like a cool guy, just always surrounded by attention (just like I will be when I'm famous hahaha). Ask Laura if you'd like a less-happy story involoving him.
Don Juan in Soho the premiere of the new play by Patrick Marber at the Donmar Warehouse. You may know Patrick Marber best for writing the play "Closer" and the screenplay to both "Closer" and "Notes on a Scandal", for which he just got nominated an Academy Award. This play is based on Moliere's "Don Juan" and apparently closely follows the original plot, just with placing it aptly in the London district of Soho. I really enjoyed it, and there were good performances, namely Rhys Ifans as DJ and also the actors who played Stan and Louis.
Frost/Nixon the new play by Peter Morgan, who incidentally also just got nominated for writing the screenplay for "The Queen." I saw this at the Gielgud Theatre, but it was originally staged at the Donmar Warehouse, so it and Don Juan actually had the same director. The Donmar works like the National, where they typically like to put on shows by up-and-coming playwrights or new experimental work by known playwrights. Anyway, this one did well so it transfered to the Gielgud. It stars Frank Langella as Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen (who played Tony Blair in "The Queen") as David Frost, the man who got interviews with him shortly after he resigned the office because of the whole Watergate thing. It's actually a really interesting play, and I wanted to see it because of the two actors, but also because it was the second to last performance. The box office lady said they were taking the show to New York for a while, and then they're already making a movie about it, although it's still in proposal stage. I really liked this show.
Week Four - this week
Waves based on a novel by Virginia Woolf. This was a different theatre experience, in the third theatre at the National, called Cottesloe Theatre. It's basicaly a black box theatre. This play was played by using only sounds and random images up on a screen that was shot live from cameras on stage. It was a very interesting type of theatre, and overall I liked it, once you could follow the stream of consciousness type of dialogue.
The Man of Mode a restoration comedy set in modern times. This was back at the Olivier Theatre, and I liked it, we sat in the fifth row (don't ask me how I did it), there were a lot of good performances, and it's neat how well the text still stands (with a few edits) when it's set in modern time frame, even though audiences react differently nowadays.
wow, i know that's a lot, so much so that I doubt anyone will read it. anyways, i have lots more to write, so i am going to try to post more often in the future. in general, this week has been sort of crap, for different reasons, so i am looking forward to it ending and starting a new one.
Oh, and as a follow up to my last post, yes, Steve, I actually bought plasters (what they call band-aids here) earlier in the day, then I saw your comment. They worked wonders. I just kept wearing them and eventually the shoes broke in. They are quite cute, you would be proud :-) and don't worry, those work shoes are in a box in Wausau.
Here's a random thing: most everyone who has a laptop takes their internet through the housing here, and at some point they must have banned all youtube links, because no one can access any of it now. So I can't show anyone Cunningham Muffins, I can't watch music videos that people recommend, and worst of all I can't watch Jim's video diary! (sorry Jim) damn authoritarians
Anyways, since I haven't posted in a while, I've decided that how I'm going to do it is by topic instead of current updates on the last week or so. That way I can wrap my mind around one aspect of my trip instead of trying to write absolutely everything and then having my head explode. I have been planning for this all week, and I have it all laid out. I'm a dork, I know.
I figured I would talk about theatre first, since I have already seen 12 shows, and the theatre teacher said I should go for the record, which is forty-something, and I don't know if that's possible really, considering my financial situation. We'll see. These are in order of when I saw them.
Week One
Coram Boy This was at the National Theatre. The Nat'l is actually a collection of three different stages, all subsidized by the government, so they can afford to put on lesser known, but still good, plays. All plays have a set opening date and closing date, no matter how well they do. If they do well enough, then they often continue on the West End. This play was in the Olivier Theatre, which is the biggest. This play was amazing in all aspects. I am pretty sure I talked about this one before.
The Woman in Black at Fortune Theatre. This long-running play is called the scariest thing in theatre, and it is pretty scary, and I think the night that I saw it would have been better if the audience weren't laughing after every time they screamed in terror. There were some pretty neat tricks of the lighting and other theatrical ingenuity.
Antony and Cleopatra with Patrick Stewart (with hair!) as Antony at the Novello Theatre, as put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Everything here seems to be "royal" or "king's" or "queen's" or something.
Twelfth Night at the Old Vic, with an all-male cast. I know I've said it before, but some of these guys were quite nice to look at.
Week Two
Happy Days by Samuel Beckett. This was at the National again, this time in the Lyttleton Theatre, which is large, but not as large as the Olivier. I loved this play, especially after studying Beckett for three and a half years in one way or another, it was really good to actually see one. We saw this one for Theatre class, so others who are not as well-versed in the style of Beckett didn't appreciate it as much, but I loved it.
Peter Pan This was at the King's Head Theatre, where Laura interns, and she was able to get us comp tickets because there were producers in the audience, and they needed to fill seats. It was a fringe theatre, with maybe fifty seats in the audience. For being a kid's show, I thought it was cute. Like Laura said, however, some of the younger actors (and by younger I don't mean the kids) in the show were simply not that good, and it gives people like Laura and I hope because we know we still have a chance, haha. Oh, that's awful, i know .. but true!
Week Three
Spamalot Yes, I saw Spamalot. It was fun. It was part of a deal between Amy and I that I would go see Spamalot if she saw Avenue Q with me later. I am going to hold her to her word Monday. But we were in the highest freaking balcony and couldn't see all that well, but it was still fun.
Love Song a new play by a playwright I can't remember, but I do remember that I didn't recognize the name. John something. This was the play starring Cillian Murphy, Kristen Johnston, Michael McKean, and Neve Campbell. Neve Campbell was awful in it, but the others were really good, esp. Mr. Murphy. After the show we waited by the stage door, and all four of them came out rather quickly. Mr. McKean snuck right around the corner, but I don't think he meant to sneak away, just simply wasn't stopped. Kristen Johnston came out (she's really tall, and Amy (who is really short) went up to her, and it sort of went like this:
Amy: Is it true you're from Wisconsin?
Ms. Johnston: Yeah, I'm from Milwaukee.
Amy: We're all from Wisconsin, too!
Ms. Johnston (in the thickest Wisconsin accent possible): Oh my Gahd, no-a!
And then Cillian Murphy (who is quite short as well) sort of snuck out behind her, and I spotted him, went up to him and said, "Hey, good job, I really enjoyed it." and he just looked back up at me (with those wonderful blue eyes) and said with his slight Irish lilt, "Thank you, thank you." and we shook hands. I don't know if he was gawking at my tallness or just surprised I didn't want his autograph, but then he went on his way. He seemed like a cool guy, just always surrounded by attention (just like I will be when I'm famous hahaha). Ask Laura if you'd like a less-happy story involoving him.
Don Juan in Soho the premiere of the new play by Patrick Marber at the Donmar Warehouse. You may know Patrick Marber best for writing the play "Closer" and the screenplay to both "Closer" and "Notes on a Scandal", for which he just got nominated an Academy Award. This play is based on Moliere's "Don Juan" and apparently closely follows the original plot, just with placing it aptly in the London district of Soho. I really enjoyed it, and there were good performances, namely Rhys Ifans as DJ and also the actors who played Stan and Louis.
Frost/Nixon the new play by Peter Morgan, who incidentally also just got nominated for writing the screenplay for "The Queen." I saw this at the Gielgud Theatre, but it was originally staged at the Donmar Warehouse, so it and Don Juan actually had the same director. The Donmar works like the National, where they typically like to put on shows by up-and-coming playwrights or new experimental work by known playwrights. Anyway, this one did well so it transfered to the Gielgud. It stars Frank Langella as Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen (who played Tony Blair in "The Queen") as David Frost, the man who got interviews with him shortly after he resigned the office because of the whole Watergate thing. It's actually a really interesting play, and I wanted to see it because of the two actors, but also because it was the second to last performance. The box office lady said they were taking the show to New York for a while, and then they're already making a movie about it, although it's still in proposal stage. I really liked this show.
Week Four - this week
Waves based on a novel by Virginia Woolf. This was a different theatre experience, in the third theatre at the National, called Cottesloe Theatre. It's basicaly a black box theatre. This play was played by using only sounds and random images up on a screen that was shot live from cameras on stage. It was a very interesting type of theatre, and overall I liked it, once you could follow the stream of consciousness type of dialogue.
The Man of Mode a restoration comedy set in modern times. This was back at the Olivier Theatre, and I liked it, we sat in the fifth row (don't ask me how I did it), there were a lot of good performances, and it's neat how well the text still stands (with a few edits) when it's set in modern time frame, even though audiences react differently nowadays.
wow, i know that's a lot, so much so that I doubt anyone will read it. anyways, i have lots more to write, so i am going to try to post more often in the future. in general, this week has been sort of crap, for different reasons, so i am looking forward to it ending and starting a new one.