Hey everyone!
Once again, my weekly blog update! I know it's the Super Bowl or something back in America but in London, one tends to forget about that. All I will say is, GO 49ers!!!!!!
Anyway, I had another full week of classes and such is my life. Monday as always was a very full day, more exhausting then usual. In Voice class, I finally got to read my poem which was nice and got the note I always get which is to Breathe! Then in Movement, we did our usual torture session of intense ab work, handstands, push-ups, chanting "nostrils in the knees" and the like. That class is still entertaining but sometimes it sucks to be bested by a sixty-four year old woman. Then in Stage Combat, we finally got to use swords! It was a bit frustrating though because in my life, I have worked with three different fight directors who all do the same moves slightly differently which makes it difficult to relearn moves in a different way. I was frustrated at the end of that class. Then in Period Dance, we finished up learning the Almain and then moved on to the Quadrille. The day was over at five and I felt like I had been slammed into a brick wall.
Tuesday started at a reasonable time with Acting. We were discussing our pictures that we had to bring in for our characters. The picture I brought was just not right and I was frustrated because I still have no idea what my character is all about. That's the problem with a monologue, there is no context. Then we moved on to using our animals as a character study. I had chose the Black Faced Ibis as mine and soon realized after a minute of acting it out that squatting was not a wise choice. Kathy liked what I did for my animal but thought maybe I could look at another one for characterization. That afternoon, we had Space Place and Text in which we were talking about Macbeth, my all time favorite play. I also got to act out the scene I just directed in Eleanor's class last semester which was strange but also awesome to do because I knew everything that was going on. After class, I rehearsed my audition speech and was totally thrilled with how it turned out. I returned later that night to work on my other speech from The Merchant of Venice and was happy with how much I actually knew.
Wednesday was a nice day because we had Physical Theatre for the first time in a few weeks. We were all together as a group and worked on the various elements of earth, water, and fire. Fire was the most exhausting because it was literally us spazzing around the room. After this class, we had our first ever Shakespeare class! I was excited to start and our group got thrown in the deep end with our professor whose name is Leo. He had us throwing a ball around the room and say our name both backwards and forwards. Anytime we hesitated he would yell "Don't Think! Just Do!" This man has one of the most ridiculous laughs ever and calls everyone in the class "My babies"said as one word. He also always demands that we "unwrap" which means we are not allowed to cross our legs or arms. He is very strict about no laughing and no food and no thinking, just impulses. He then sat us down in a circle and had us introduce ourselves and do a bit of Shakespeare. He then intensely worked on them with us, touching on different things for us all to work on. He just got to me at the end of class and didn't have time to work on it at all with me. After a long break, I had my audition class with Ros and finally finished working on Joan and am now moving on to Lady Wishfort from The Way Of The World, which is a Restoration Comedy. I then had to stay to talk about a project with someone and made it home at five pm.
Thursday we had Shakespeare in the morning for two and a half hours. Leo started the class by working with me and gave me the note that I needed to relax my jaw though I have a very beautiful speaking voice. I did some exercises and said one line that he loved and I was done. He then finished up with everyone which ranged from half an hour sessions to five minutes. We then began to look at Measure for Measure in minute detail and soon class was over. Right after this class, I had my second Alexander session which was so relaxing that I almost fell asleep. I could feel after that my standing was remarkably different. Then we had Voice and Dialects which was very entertaining because we were working on RP, which is the standard British speaking voice. It was a tad difficult but since no one knew what they were doing, it made it entertaining. Then the day was done. We had a rehearsal that night for the tea in acting the next day in which our group had to sing the Gilbert and Sullivan patter song, John Wellington Wells. I realized I knew a lot more of the song then I thought I did and had a fun time.
Friday started with our Dramatic Criticism class which we had also not had for about two weeks. We had a discussion about The Master and Margarita and really had to dig back in the recesses of my brain in order to remember the book and play. Then we had the reckoning day, it was the tea in Acting. It ended up being a great time with presentations of everything from social class to London Life (my subject) in the 1960s. There was even a rap created about the British rock and roll in 1960s. Then Kathy analyzed our items brought for tea which she described as random. It was true, there was an extremely random collection of things from scones cut the wrong way to Kit Kat Bars. She then taught us the proper way to make tea which is exactly the way my family does it. Then we sang our songs and my group had much more energy though maybe was a bit all over the place. That ended our day. That night, Summer and Laura and I went over to Oxford Circus and went to a pub called The Green Man and met a guy there named Gus who, when he found out we were studying theatre, told us he was an amateur screenwriter. We made it home at a resonable hour and went to bed.
Saturday morning, the three of us woke up at Five Forty Five am so that we could be out of the dorm by six thirty. We had plans to go get five pound tickets for Matilda The Musical. We arrived at the theatre over in Covent Garden at six fifty am and waited for three hours for tickets which we luckily got. I made friends with the coffee lady at Cafe Nero and also managed to finish reading one of the three plays I had to read for the next week, The Duchess of Malfi. We then came back to the dorm to relax and thaw out before the show at two thirty. It was an amazing musical and I loved it even though the talent of the eight year old leading characters was a bit intimidating. I layed low that night and went to sleep by one am (which is early for me).
Today, I woke up at twelve thirty (oops) and went shopping with Laura at Primark which I had been wanting to go to for a little bit. Never again. The store was super large and overwhelming and though I managed to get a bunch of basics for no money at all, the overall experience was not worth the prices. We then went to Eat and got food and then returned home. Then we had a rehearsal for period dance and stage combat at about nine pm. There is a super bowl party now and I will not be attending.
Anyway, that has been my week. I hope yours has been good.
Bye-Bye!
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