"Dahdday, Aye Wahnt to go to Brighton!"

Ok, so the three day weekend began slow. Friday I stayed in my apartment pretty much the whole day (except for sneaking out once to buy a hair straightener). I caught up on my Theatre History journal, emails, and booked hostels for our trip to Greece and Italy with the girls. We are staying in a convent for one night when we go to Rome, which should be a really interesting experience (Isa really, really wanted to). I also re-read "Tis Pity She's a Whore" by John Ford, which I am writing my paper on. It is a very interesting play about the incestual relationship of Giovanni and his sister Annabella. In the end, everyone ends up dying, but it is quite surprising who kills who. Giovanni stabs Annabella and then comes out with her heart on a dagger (great stuff, right?).

Saturday Jesse, Katie, Ashley, Isa, Hil, Cori, and I went to Brighton on the train. We got there at about 1:30pm, and had a "pasty" for lunch (pronounced "pahst-ee" not "paste-y"--it's like a pot pie, with cheese and veggies). We went to a lot of outdoor markets, antique stores, and book shops. We also went to the Brighton pier to ride the carousel! We had fun walking along the water, although it was pretty cold! The odd thing is that although it is a beach town, there was no sand! Only rocks! We got dinner at an Italian restaurant, and stayed there for like three hours! We all got drinks, appetizers, dinner, and dessert! When we were sufficiently stuffed, we went to some of the clubs in Brighton. Brighton is famous for its night life, and we experienced it to the full. We went to three different clubs, and danced the night away! We came back very early in the morning (via two coaches and a train--don't ask), and then I went right to sleep and slept for all of eternity.

On Sunday, Candace and I met up for tea and scones at Harrods. It was so fantastic to see Candace and to catch up! We talked the talk about the London scene, and swapped stories of BADA and RADA. We talked about the shows that we have seen, and surprisingly we have seen many of the same ones!

On Tuesday, we went to the Old Vic Theatre to see Inherit the Wind with Kevin Spacey! Oh man, was he fantastic! He played an old, pragmatic lawyer who was called the devil on earth by this one small, religious town. The play is based off of the Scopes-Monkey Trials. There was even a little monkey in the show who was adorable! After the show, three of my friends had drinks with Kevin Spacey at a bar close to the theatre! And to think...I was writing my paper! Ugh!

Two weeks to catch you up on!

Week 5 of BADA was a loong one. We had two makeup classes on Friday: a Shakespeare class with Ian and a Movement class with Jackie. We didn't see a show this week since we saw A Winter's Tale at Stratford. This week it was announced that one of the shows that we are doing will be Widows, by Ariel Dorfman, and directed by Jacob Murray. Murray is a Chilean playwright, and collaborated on Widows with Tony Kushner. It looks like a great play, with lots of female parts!

We played a game called "Mafia" in Movement class, where there is one person who sits outside the circle and picks two people to be in the mafia, one policeman, and one body guard. Then it is up to everyone in the circle, the townspeople, to determine who is in the mafia, and vote on people to die. It was confusing at first, but I finally got into it, and was even the policeman once.

We read All for Love in Theatre History, which was an adaptation on Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. The play was really enjoyable, since I am familiar with Antony and Cleopatra.

This week we began mask work in Modern Physical, and I am finding it very difficult! It is hard not to pre-plan characters and ideas, and just let the mask inspire you, but I am working on it.

In our Friday make-up movement class, we did some intense center work which was very similar to dance and yoga. It felt really good to move and stretch all of our sore muscles, and it helped me focus my mind for the weekend.

That weekend I went to see As You Like It at The Globe, which was wonderful. It was great to go back to The Globe when I didn't have to stand and wasn't injured, and therefore enjoyed the show immensely. Touchstone, the fool, was hilarious and had this little miniature doll that looked like him that he frequently talked to. Orlando was very relaxed and natural on stage, not to mention his rugged good looks.

We also went to Borough Market before the show, where I got a delicious organic veggie burger and some chocolates. We also got to try pistachio Turkish Delight!

On Sunday, I took a ballet class at DanceWorks, near The Landward (the apartment complex where our flat is). It was a really challenging class, since I haven't taken ballet in about 2 years! I was not very good, but I got a good stretch out of it, and worked really hard. I could pretty much follow the barre exercises at the beginning, which I was very proud of.

Week 6 of BADA flew by so quickly. On Monday, Ian announced the show that he will be directing: The Arsonists by Max Frisch in a new translation by Alistair Beaton. I haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet, but I am excited for the show nonetheless.

In Monday's movement class we did deep tissue massages, which were heavenly. I also learned that our teacher, Jackie Snow, has had Ewan McGregor, Orlandon Bloom, and Daniel Craig as her students!! They all attended Guildhall, a prestigious acting school where Jackie continues to teach. She keeps in touch with "Orlando" and "Orlando's mum" and she told us all about how she at one time had a huge stack of Orlando's signature!!! Eeek! I am also such a huge fan of Ewan McGregor, and am told that I need to see the film "Trainspotting," because I hear that he is brilliant in it.

On Tuesday in Stage Fighting, we learned how to do falls. We did falls backwards, forwards, and sideways faints. It looks really cool, and it is actually really easy to do! The one down side is that on Wednesday we were all so intensely sore from squatting down that it was difficult to move.

On Tuesday night, we went to go see Enron at the Royal Court Theatre, which was about the the Texas oil company's corporate scandal and eventual downfall of Jeffrey Skilling. It was an interesting play, even though I wasn't very interested in the economic or business side of what happened. It was still entertaining, because they had a lot of visual pop culture references, such as raptors from Jurassic Park and lightsabers from Star Wars. The actors, who were all British, had nearly flawless American accents, and it was interesting to see an entirely British cast and writer portraying America. The show also utilized mulitmedia, showing powerpoints and clips of commercials and political statements.

This weekend we have a three day weekend. Hooray!! So I am excited to get a lot of stuff done and to continue to see the sights and see shows!

Photos from Bath and Stratford

Outside of Holy Trinity Church, where William Shakespeare is buried

Shakespeare's tomb with the famous inscription

Trying on a corset and skirt at the Bath Fashion Museum

William Shakepeare's Birthplace in Stratford-Upon-Avon

Bath and Stratford-Upon-Avon

My trip to Bath was wonderful! I went with my friends Isa, Meghan, Ashley, and Katie. We went to the Jane Austen Centre for tea and scones, which were deliciously delectable as was the jam and butter. We saw the Pulteney Bridge, the Fashion Museum, the Roman Baths, and the Bath Abbey. The highlight for me was the Fashion Museum: we saw authentic gloves, shoes, and clothes, and got to try on corsets and hoop skirts. The Roman Baths were interesting, but got a little bit repetitive. It also didn't seem like they were preserved very well. It was more of a tourist attraction, but it was still informative. We saw a lot of the infrastructure of the houses, and how the drainage worked. We also learned that the audio tour was narrated by one of our professors at BADA, Christopher Cook, who teaches Theatre History and Dramatic Criticism! We missed out on it, but still it is so cool to know that he did the narration!

On Monday we saw Judgment Day at the Almeida Theatre, which was in this quaint, beautiful neighborhood. The show was fantastic and thrilling. I got chills, which is always a good sign that the show is good. This I think is one of my favorite plays because it deals with justice and redemption...two of my favorite topics. It was about a train station master who "has always done his duty" who misses a train signal because of a woman, and the train crashes because of his mistake, killing 18 people. He and the woman lie about his mistake, and the entire town treats him like an innocent victim, but eventually the guilt of lying catches up to him, and he slowly decays and goes mad as he deals with his mistakes. The execution of the show was brilliant: there were smoke, lighting, and sound effects to simulate that a train was going by, which worked quite effectively. The actors were very seasoned, and enjoyable to watch even when there was silence on the stage.

Classes this week were also good. I performed my emotionally charged Romeo & Juliet scene with Cori on Friday, which went really well.

I learned that my High Comedy teacher, Annabel, is friends with Tim Curry and Hugh Laurie! That's pretty crazy. She was in the Rocky Horror Picture Show movie too! She is such an amazing woman, and has really high expectations for her actors.

We also had an amazing home-cooked meal on Friday from Laura, the BADA canteen chef. She made us heaps and heaps of Columbian food, which was so delicious. She is the sweetest lady, and we all call her our "BADA mom."

On Friday, we went to see "Vanya" at the Gate Theatre, which was this really small, intimate theatre. The show had only 4 actors, each very talented. This show was a new adaptation of Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya." This was another psychological show, which I am discovering to be my favorite! Afterwards, I got a copy of the script, since it is a brand new play, so I am seeing a future directing project for myself perhaps!

On Saturday, we went to Stratford-Upon-Avon (about 2-2 1/2 hours North of London), where William Shakespeare was born. We saw the house that he was born in. We even saw the room where he was born! We also saw his tomb, which is inside of the beautiful Holy Trinity Church. The entire city of Stratford is very commercialized, but it is still a beautiful, quaint city of shops and memorials. We saw a print of the new painting of William Shakespeare that was recently discovered and donated to the museum.

That evening, we went to The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon to see The Winter's Tale. The show was SO FREAKIN' AWESOME! This is the play with the famous stage directions of "exit pursued by a bear," so everyone was wondering how they were going to pull that off, but they did it splendidly! The bear was this gigantic puppet engineered by two or three men, and the puppet was made out of pages of a book. The show was put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company, so they were some of the finest actors that I have ever seen. It was interesting because the production that we saw was the closing performance in a span that lasted months and months. All of the actors still had amazing energy, and gave it their all for the last time! What an amazing show! Greg Hicks who played the lead male Leontes, and Kelly Hunter, who played the lead female Hermione are coming to do a master class at BADA in a few weeks!! I am so excited!

That's all for now, folks! :-)