Today has proved to be one of the hardest days of my life, and the week that proceeded it a blur of colors that are only now starting to reshape themselves into actual memories.
I got my first ever LAMDA lay-in on Monday because I wasn't called for rehearsal until 1:30. Then we had back to back dress-runs and were in bright and early on Tuesday morning to warm up for the 10:30 am show (a time that should be banned for performers everywhere). Much Ado was great, and for all of the misgivings that went along with the direction and process, everyone was really good in it - regardless of the fact that we had to twirl off stage at the end. Also; the show will now forever be retitled: "Much Ado About Margaret, or, The Tragedy of Don Pedro". Way to go J.Lips.
Wednesday & Thursday started our individual tutorial sessions; which I originally thought would be pretty scary to go into but proved to be quite helpful, and reassuring. Most of the professors wrote really comprehensive reviews of our work this term in voice, movement, singing and acting, and thankfully, my cheekiness didn't get me into too much trouble.
Friday is a whirl of packing, caroling, dancing and crying. We had a late rehearsal for our carol concert which gave us the morning to get the majority of our packing done and start dismantling our teeny tiny rooms that we called home. The carol concert, a first for me, was absolutely lovely. It was one of the only times the entire school was all in one place and to look around the beautiful church, and see the candles candles burning and everyone dressed up and enjoying each others company was so wonderful. There was far more clapping at whooping than I would have anticipated in a church, but it's an absolute testament to the supportive family that LAMDA becomes, even with a Princess in the crowd (really, there was a Princess. Her name is Alexandra and I'm not sure what she does, but she's LAMDA's royal patron and it was a big deal).
After the concert was the end of the term party. LAMDA had rented out the entire bottom floor of a club in High Street Kensington and we all go to dance and hug and cry our goodbyes to the other LAMDA kids that we might not see again. The party ended with most of the semester still there, making the most of our time together, not wanting to leave.
Which brings us to today. My room is empty, my walls bare, most of my friends are on their way home and I am back in the warm embrace of Chez Mogilner, but everything feels off. It's as if there is this big empty hole in my stomach that is supposed to be filled by something, but isn't. I guess that's what you have to expect with these kinds of programs. You spend 4 months soaking up all of the people, places, memories and experiences that you possibly can, and when it's over you're bound to feel a little empty. This, as strange as it is, is exactly what I should be feeling right now; completely exhausted, sad, lonely and so grateful for every second I spent with the wonderful people in the unbelievable city that made this term so incredible. There are no words to properly thank everyone that got me here, made this time what it was, and walked away leaving impressions that have shaped who I am. I know that I will never have an experience quite like this ever again and because of that I can't help but be sad, and incredibly thankful.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow
While the weather outside isn't exactly frightful, this last week did bring London's first snow of the season, a bit early according to real Londoners, but a welcome change to the landscape. This was my last week of real classes and it started off, as it does once every month, with a tube strike. Luckily, Margy and I are magic and got on a train heading to the wrong place with the intention of getting off at a station closer to school and walking the rest of the way, but half way through the ride there was an announcement that the train was redirecting to where we needed it to go so no walking for us! It was a Monday morning miracle!
Classes this week were all so bittersweet because they were our goodbyes. We have one more week left in the program but it's mostly rehearsal for Much Ado and activities here and there, so as we wrapped up our hour and half we said goodbye to our teachers and subjects forever (just to be dramatic). In incredibly cool news, my Historical Dance teacher, Diana, is one of the most fantastic women on the planet and just happens to choreograph for little movies like Elizabeth, Sherlock Holmes and The Three Feathers, just to name a few. Well... at the end of our class on Wednesday she pulled out the crown and jewels that Cate Blanchett wore in the movie and let all of us try them on and be Queen for a day (well... for a few seconds, at least). It was lovely.
Snow on Tuesday also brought the arrival of the most fantastic Blake all the way from Paris, and my first chance to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform, doing Romeo & Juliet, no less! I had never seen it done before and while there were a few questionable directing choices, the show was fantastic and the relationship between the two lovers was convincing and sincere. It was a production where you think to yourself "ya know what? I think these two are gonna make it this time!". Also fun fact, my voice teacher is friends with the woman who played Juliet, a very convincing looking teenager - turns out she's 32. Impressive.
Thursday was my big night out with Blake so I took him back to Brick Lane for authentic London Indian food, which was also for my benefit and a good ole English pub - it was such a great night and so exciting to have him in my neck of the woods (continent) this time!
The weekend brought warmer weather, and by that I mean that it was 40 degrees instead of 30, but it did melt the snow and allowed for a beautiful day on Portobello road Saturday morning. I did some impressive haggling at one of the stands and when the guy asked me where I had learned to be so stubborn I had to give credit to every angry Israeli I had ever encountered in a shuk - it is a good life skill. That night was the last LAMDA sponsored theatre trip we had to The Old Vic again to see "A Flea in Her Ear". Aside from some issues unrelated to the show, the performance was wonderful and it was so great to see a show where I didn't have to think. Farce, gotta love it.
Today proved to be one of the best Sundays I have spent in this city so far. After a leisurly morning, Maddie, Margy & I walked over to Harrods, a mere 20 minute journey, and had our first experience with proper English High Tea. We had a 3:30 reservation at the Georgian on Harrod's top floor and all thoroughly gorged ourselves on tea, scones, finger sandwiches, pastries, and chips - which are not normally a part of traditional High Tea, but we made it work. We ended up spending about 2 hours just sitting there, drinking tea and enjoying the experience, and after making friends with the French waiter, getting the piss taken out of us for our improper American ways of speaking, and playing name that tune with the pianist playing a Broadway medley, we spent the next 30 minutes wandering around the palace that is Harrods. I think that if I was ever forced to pick one place to be stuck in for the rest of my life, Harrods would be that place. Everything about it is over the top and unnecessary, therefore, completely exciting and enjoyable.
Now it's back home tidying up my room, thinking about packing (but clearly not doing) and trying to figure out where the time went. As for a brief reflection on my classes; I don't know how I got so lucky. Yes, there were times that I never wanted our lunch break to end, or I thought that doing one more roll down would make me scream, but I am so thankful for what I've learned and how I was pushed. I will take so much away from each of those lessons, and not just about technique, but about how much I can really take and how important it is to put your all into something, because it's the only way to really make the most of it. I should probably wrap this up now that I'm starting to sound like Mr. Rogers episode.
Onto my last week at LAMDA... saddest phrase in the world.
Classes this week were all so bittersweet because they were our goodbyes. We have one more week left in the program but it's mostly rehearsal for Much Ado and activities here and there, so as we wrapped up our hour and half we said goodbye to our teachers and subjects forever (just to be dramatic). In incredibly cool news, my Historical Dance teacher, Diana, is one of the most fantastic women on the planet and just happens to choreograph for little movies like Elizabeth, Sherlock Holmes and The Three Feathers, just to name a few. Well... at the end of our class on Wednesday she pulled out the crown and jewels that Cate Blanchett wore in the movie and let all of us try them on and be Queen for a day (well... for a few seconds, at least). It was lovely.
Snow on Tuesday also brought the arrival of the most fantastic Blake all the way from Paris, and my first chance to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform, doing Romeo & Juliet, no less! I had never seen it done before and while there were a few questionable directing choices, the show was fantastic and the relationship between the two lovers was convincing and sincere. It was a production where you think to yourself "ya know what? I think these two are gonna make it this time!". Also fun fact, my voice teacher is friends with the woman who played Juliet, a very convincing looking teenager - turns out she's 32. Impressive.
Thursday was my big night out with Blake so I took him back to Brick Lane for authentic London Indian food, which was also for my benefit and a good ole English pub - it was such a great night and so exciting to have him in my neck of the woods (continent) this time!
The weekend brought warmer weather, and by that I mean that it was 40 degrees instead of 30, but it did melt the snow and allowed for a beautiful day on Portobello road Saturday morning. I did some impressive haggling at one of the stands and when the guy asked me where I had learned to be so stubborn I had to give credit to every angry Israeli I had ever encountered in a shuk - it is a good life skill. That night was the last LAMDA sponsored theatre trip we had to The Old Vic again to see "A Flea in Her Ear". Aside from some issues unrelated to the show, the performance was wonderful and it was so great to see a show where I didn't have to think. Farce, gotta love it.
Today proved to be one of the best Sundays I have spent in this city so far. After a leisurly morning, Maddie, Margy & I walked over to Harrods, a mere 20 minute journey, and had our first experience with proper English High Tea. We had a 3:30 reservation at the Georgian on Harrod's top floor and all thoroughly gorged ourselves on tea, scones, finger sandwiches, pastries, and chips - which are not normally a part of traditional High Tea, but we made it work. We ended up spending about 2 hours just sitting there, drinking tea and enjoying the experience, and after making friends with the French waiter, getting the piss taken out of us for our improper American ways of speaking, and playing name that tune with the pianist playing a Broadway medley, we spent the next 30 minutes wandering around the palace that is Harrods. I think that if I was ever forced to pick one place to be stuck in for the rest of my life, Harrods would be that place. Everything about it is over the top and unnecessary, therefore, completely exciting and enjoyable.
Now it's back home tidying up my room, thinking about packing (but clearly not doing) and trying to figure out where the time went. As for a brief reflection on my classes; I don't know how I got so lucky. Yes, there were times that I never wanted our lunch break to end, or I thought that doing one more roll down would make me scream, but I am so thankful for what I've learned and how I was pushed. I will take so much away from each of those lessons, and not just about technique, but about how much I can really take and how important it is to put your all into something, because it's the only way to really make the most of it. I should probably wrap this up now that I'm starting to sound like Mr. Rogers episode.
Onto my last week at LAMDA... saddest phrase in the world.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Running Away from the Finish
It's not so much that I'm running away from the end of my time here, I'm just trying to consciously will it away. Not that my time here in the grand ole UK ends as soon as some of the other people of my program who are leaving right away, but being here without them will be equally tough. ALRIGHT - enough of the ending stuff... what happened in my life this week you ask?
Well... Monday night Margy & I ventured over to Shoreditch, a recently-made cool area with a friend from LAMDA to see a musical that one of his mate's had directed. It was called "Bright Lights, Big City" and the best way to explain my feelings about it would be to tell you that there was a song titled "I Love Drugs" with a lyric "Drano for my brain-o". So... yeah. But it did end up being a really great night of adventures in new areas of London, and therefore, a successful evening!
Thursday marked two exciting things; not only was it Thanksgiving when I got to head back to my favorite half-American, English family, the Mogilner's, but I also had, what I think, is my favorite class at LAMDA thus far. It was my Physical Theatre Class, an hour and half that usually leaves me sweating and sore in places that I didn't know could be sore, but this class was totally different. It's going to sound very artsy and drama-schooly, but we literally spent the whole class listening to our bodies and moving in ways that made us stretch and move around space in ways that made us feel good. It was entirely about impulse and pleasure, and was just a excerisize in cutting the crap and doing whatever you want. People in my class ended up strewn over ballet bars, climbing into rafters and somersalting across the sprung floor - and none of us had any idea what was going to come next. My favorite thing was to try and let myself fall and not think about how I was going to keep myself from getting hurt. Every single time my body moved in a way that kept me from every falling to the ground or hurting myself, leading me to wonder how in the world I can be such a klutz when I'm concentrating. I know it probably sounds a bit bizarre and the fact that that is a class that I am being graded in baffles most everybody I talk to, but it was such an unreal opportunity that I have never had before, and doubt I will have again anytime soon.
Friday night brought our "Improv Party", which sounds a lot like a party with "Whose Line is it Anyway?" games, but was actually quite far from it. For the last 2 months in class we have each been keeping a character journal, inspired by a picture of a stranger. Our instructions were to find a picture of someone of our gender over the age of 40 (ideally, someone you would never be cast as) and create a character around them. This included everything from first kiss to most recent pay-check and every week my improv professor would give us a series of questions to answer as that character. Friday night we arrived at the party in full-costume and make-up according to this person that we had created, and proceeded to socialize for the next 3 HOURS a them. We were pretty uniformly terrified about keeping it going for that long, but it ended up going a lot smoother than any of us had anticipated, and it probably didn't hurt that they served alcohol as a social lubricant. At 9 o'clock when we all left the party and returned to our normal hair, makeup, clothing and age there was really nothing else to do but head to Curtain's Up, the local LAMDA pub and reminisce about just how ridiculous the last 3 hours were - and they really were.
This weekend was lovely, albeit frigid, so Saturday after meandering about King's Road for the morning, I headed back to my hall to start preparing for Thanksgiving Dinner; pt.2 with all of the Americans from our program. We did it pot-luck style and called it for 4, which obviously means we didn't eat until 5:30, but it was such a wonderful time! Everybody was scrambling around the hallway from kitchen to kitchen checking on their food and tasting everyone else's. I made delicious brussel sprouts (if I do say so myself) and enjoyed a wonderfully veggie Thanksgiving of sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, corn salad, stuffing, mashed potato and LOTS of pies. We had to roll ourselves out of the common room by the end of it, but it was so nice to all be together laughing and eating on a Saturday night before people dispersed for their various shows, movies, plans, etc...
Today I woke up just as full as I was last night and somehow Maddie and I managed to get ourselves over to Brick Lane to do some Sunday afternoon shopping. They have all of these amazing vintage shops and craft tables, and there was one HUGE warehouse that was packed with rows and rows of vintage stalls, full of sequins, feathers, velvet and leather. It was such a lovely way to spend the day and we even managed to make ourselves hungry enough to both have our first experience with Burmese food from the international market. And a cupcake, from the not-so-international market :)
I am just so delighted with how I get to spend my time here. I really love everything about this city and how every part of it is different and interesting and beautiful. I keep thinking about ways to fill my days between getting back from traveling and leaving for home and keep realizing that the real problem is going to be deciding what I have to leave out. This week brings the last week of standard scheduled classes, which is just too too weird to think about, but time goes on, and to quote a true London-er singing about her city; "Sun is in the sky, oh why oh why, would I want to be anywhere else?"
Well... Monday night Margy & I ventured over to Shoreditch, a recently-made cool area with a friend from LAMDA to see a musical that one of his mate's had directed. It was called "Bright Lights, Big City" and the best way to explain my feelings about it would be to tell you that there was a song titled "I Love Drugs" with a lyric "Drano for my brain-o". So... yeah. But it did end up being a really great night of adventures in new areas of London, and therefore, a successful evening!
Thursday marked two exciting things; not only was it Thanksgiving when I got to head back to my favorite half-American, English family, the Mogilner's, but I also had, what I think, is my favorite class at LAMDA thus far. It was my Physical Theatre Class, an hour and half that usually leaves me sweating and sore in places that I didn't know could be sore, but this class was totally different. It's going to sound very artsy and drama-schooly, but we literally spent the whole class listening to our bodies and moving in ways that made us stretch and move around space in ways that made us feel good. It was entirely about impulse and pleasure, and was just a excerisize in cutting the crap and doing whatever you want. People in my class ended up strewn over ballet bars, climbing into rafters and somersalting across the sprung floor - and none of us had any idea what was going to come next. My favorite thing was to try and let myself fall and not think about how I was going to keep myself from getting hurt. Every single time my body moved in a way that kept me from every falling to the ground or hurting myself, leading me to wonder how in the world I can be such a klutz when I'm concentrating. I know it probably sounds a bit bizarre and the fact that that is a class that I am being graded in baffles most everybody I talk to, but it was such an unreal opportunity that I have never had before, and doubt I will have again anytime soon.
Friday night brought our "Improv Party", which sounds a lot like a party with "Whose Line is it Anyway?" games, but was actually quite far from it. For the last 2 months in class we have each been keeping a character journal, inspired by a picture of a stranger. Our instructions were to find a picture of someone of our gender over the age of 40 (ideally, someone you would never be cast as) and create a character around them. This included everything from first kiss to most recent pay-check and every week my improv professor would give us a series of questions to answer as that character. Friday night we arrived at the party in full-costume and make-up according to this person that we had created, and proceeded to socialize for the next 3 HOURS a them. We were pretty uniformly terrified about keeping it going for that long, but it ended up going a lot smoother than any of us had anticipated, and it probably didn't hurt that they served alcohol as a social lubricant. At 9 o'clock when we all left the party and returned to our normal hair, makeup, clothing and age there was really nothing else to do but head to Curtain's Up, the local LAMDA pub and reminisce about just how ridiculous the last 3 hours were - and they really were.
This weekend was lovely, albeit frigid, so Saturday after meandering about King's Road for the morning, I headed back to my hall to start preparing for Thanksgiving Dinner; pt.2 with all of the Americans from our program. We did it pot-luck style and called it for 4, which obviously means we didn't eat until 5:30, but it was such a wonderful time! Everybody was scrambling around the hallway from kitchen to kitchen checking on their food and tasting everyone else's. I made delicious brussel sprouts (if I do say so myself) and enjoyed a wonderfully veggie Thanksgiving of sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, corn salad, stuffing, mashed potato and LOTS of pies. We had to roll ourselves out of the common room by the end of it, but it was so nice to all be together laughing and eating on a Saturday night before people dispersed for their various shows, movies, plans, etc...
Today I woke up just as full as I was last night and somehow Maddie and I managed to get ourselves over to Brick Lane to do some Sunday afternoon shopping. They have all of these amazing vintage shops and craft tables, and there was one HUGE warehouse that was packed with rows and rows of vintage stalls, full of sequins, feathers, velvet and leather. It was such a lovely way to spend the day and we even managed to make ourselves hungry enough to both have our first experience with Burmese food from the international market. And a cupcake, from the not-so-international market :)
I am just so delighted with how I get to spend my time here. I really love everything about this city and how every part of it is different and interesting and beautiful. I keep thinking about ways to fill my days between getting back from traveling and leaving for home and keep realizing that the real problem is going to be deciding what I have to leave out. This week brings the last week of standard scheduled classes, which is just too too weird to think about, but time goes on, and to quote a true London-er singing about her city; "Sun is in the sky, oh why oh why, would I want to be anywhere else?"
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Pubs, Poetry, Potter, Passion and... Hamlet
It is becoming increasingly clear that time is winidng down. November 21st marks 1 month until my return home. A few friends and I have decided to set goals for ourselves in these last few weeks, and while it may not be very PC to say, and with the total understanding that my immediate family makes up the majority of people who read this - our goal for this week was to take advantage of our legal status every day of the week. We were successful. An added bonus to this accomplishment was that the closest pub to us, Cadogen Arms, was celebrating it's 10 year anniversary, so every night at 10 pm from 10-10:10, they had a 10 pence menu. That's like paying 15 cents for a glass of wine. It was pretty exciting.
In events that justify me being in a foreign country to study drama; Wednesday night was LAMDA's annual poetry-speaking competition where 12 students shared poems, 6 of which were original and had been narrowed down from the 20+ people that had submitted original poems and participated in the preliminary round. Among those talented 12 was our very own Maddie, who held her own as the only single-semester course student to make it to the finals with a beautiful poem entitled "Mare Serenitatis". She was unbelievable, and although she didn't win, we all agreed that it was a fabulous way to spend a night!
This weekend can be marked more-so by what I saw than what I did. For some ridiculous reason, Warner Bros didn't allow midnight premieres of Harry Potter in London (preposterous - I know), so instead we chose to see it as early as possible on Saturday morning, which was a great way to start the day (and I highly recommend Daniel Radcliff for breakfast).
Saturday night I got tickets with a friend to see Stephen Sondheim's "Passion" at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden. The tickets were standing room, which wouldn't have been so bad because of how small the theater was, but right before curtain one of the ushers asked us if we wanted to be seated downstairs to which we both responded with "uh... YES!". We ended up in the first two seats off of center in the 2nd row - not too shabby. "Passion" is not a show I knew very well, really at all, but this production, and the three leads especially, absolutely blew me away. I know what you're thinking... "Ariel liked a Sondheim musical? Shocker." but... I had always had this preconceived notion that it was a total flop, and nothing that I'd ever really be interested in, but when seats were available for £7.50, I figured - why not? And I'm so glad I did. The staging, music, lyrics, acting and what little choreography there was was utterly engaging and made the 2 hours without an intetmission seem like minutes. Two thumbs way up, Stephen.
Today was a South Bank kind of a day. We managed to get tickets to see "Hamlet" at the National early (a feat that was pretty phenomenal considering that the production sold out 1 week after going on sale), so we headed across the river for a day of Thames adventures, starting with Wagamamas for lunch. There happened to be this Christmas/Winter Time outdoor market thing happening which we perused for a bit before heading to the theatre. I guess Christmas starts early here because there's no Thanksgiving to split up the Winter, but we were happy to take in the festivities (and grab a crepe before the show). Now... I had read Hamlet countless times in school but had never had the opportunity to see it - and I am SO happy that this was my first experience seeing it performed. The guy playing Hamlet was a LAMDA grad which gave us a bit of nachus to say, not to mention how unbelievable he was in the part. He was seamless in every transition, nailed every monologue and portrayed, in my opinion, one of Shakespeare's most complicated characters with clarity and grace. There were some weak parts in the company but it was played in the same gigantic Olivier Theater where we saw Danton's Death, and still managed to be just as gripping as if it were 10 chairs in a black box. Still reeling, we left the theater to find the outdoor market still going on and the Parliament/Big Ben and The Eye all lit up for nighttime - beautiful. We made time for a quick carousel ride and hot chocolate before heading home.
So here I am, sitting at my computer putting off learning lines for Much Ado, even though I have to be off-book by tomorrow. It's unreal how quickly time is passing. I have to stop myself sometimes and remember where I am and how lucky I am to here. I guess at this point it's all or nothing and I'm ready to see where choosing "all" will get me!
In events that justify me being in a foreign country to study drama; Wednesday night was LAMDA's annual poetry-speaking competition where 12 students shared poems, 6 of which were original and had been narrowed down from the 20+ people that had submitted original poems and participated in the preliminary round. Among those talented 12 was our very own Maddie, who held her own as the only single-semester course student to make it to the finals with a beautiful poem entitled "Mare Serenitatis". She was unbelievable, and although she didn't win, we all agreed that it was a fabulous way to spend a night!
This weekend can be marked more-so by what I saw than what I did. For some ridiculous reason, Warner Bros didn't allow midnight premieres of Harry Potter in London (preposterous - I know), so instead we chose to see it as early as possible on Saturday morning, which was a great way to start the day (and I highly recommend Daniel Radcliff for breakfast).
Saturday night I got tickets with a friend to see Stephen Sondheim's "Passion" at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden. The tickets were standing room, which wouldn't have been so bad because of how small the theater was, but right before curtain one of the ushers asked us if we wanted to be seated downstairs to which we both responded with "uh... YES!". We ended up in the first two seats off of center in the 2nd row - not too shabby. "Passion" is not a show I knew very well, really at all, but this production, and the three leads especially, absolutely blew me away. I know what you're thinking... "Ariel liked a Sondheim musical? Shocker." but... I had always had this preconceived notion that it was a total flop, and nothing that I'd ever really be interested in, but when seats were available for £7.50, I figured - why not? And I'm so glad I did. The staging, music, lyrics, acting and what little choreography there was was utterly engaging and made the 2 hours without an intetmission seem like minutes. Two thumbs way up, Stephen.
Today was a South Bank kind of a day. We managed to get tickets to see "Hamlet" at the National early (a feat that was pretty phenomenal considering that the production sold out 1 week after going on sale), so we headed across the river for a day of Thames adventures, starting with Wagamamas for lunch. There happened to be this Christmas/Winter Time outdoor market thing happening which we perused for a bit before heading to the theatre. I guess Christmas starts early here because there's no Thanksgiving to split up the Winter, but we were happy to take in the festivities (and grab a crepe before the show). Now... I had read Hamlet countless times in school but had never had the opportunity to see it - and I am SO happy that this was my first experience seeing it performed. The guy playing Hamlet was a LAMDA grad which gave us a bit of nachus to say, not to mention how unbelievable he was in the part. He was seamless in every transition, nailed every monologue and portrayed, in my opinion, one of Shakespeare's most complicated characters with clarity and grace. There were some weak parts in the company but it was played in the same gigantic Olivier Theater where we saw Danton's Death, and still managed to be just as gripping as if it were 10 chairs in a black box. Still reeling, we left the theater to find the outdoor market still going on and the Parliament/Big Ben and The Eye all lit up for nighttime - beautiful. We made time for a quick carousel ride and hot chocolate before heading home.
So here I am, sitting at my computer putting off learning lines for Much Ado, even though I have to be off-book by tomorrow. It's unreal how quickly time is passing. I have to stop myself sometimes and remember where I am and how lucky I am to here. I guess at this point it's all or nothing and I'm ready to see where choosing "all" will get me!
Monday, November 15, 2010
An American in Paris
Since elementary school I was told that my writing was always "too wordy", and this, I assure you, will be no exception.
While it would be impossible to do justice in writing to my weekend in Paris, I'm going to try my hardest to make it work. I left for the train station right from school on Friday and, with one minor delay, got into Gare du Nord train station in Paris at 10:30 with my darling friend Blake waiting for me at the gate. We took a bus back to his flat for my initial introduction to Paris, and in true European fashion went out that night to a bar called WAGG which was having it's carwash themed night, meaning a lot of Motown - not exactly Parisian, but a lot of fun.
Saturday morning began my whirlwind adventure, not only in Paris, the place, but Paris, the food. We had (delicious) croissants and orange juice on our walk over to the Catacombs, which turned out to be a bit of failure when the line reached right around the entire perimeter of the gate. Onward to the Eiffel tower! Not only was the view from the top unbelievable, the lines to get tickets proved equally entertaining. First, we planned on walking up, only to realize once we got to the front of the line, that we had been standing in the elevator line. Then, in line for security, a woman lost control of her purple umbrella and it went flying into the crowd of innocent bystanders waiting for their tickets - thank goodness Blake was there to save the day and return the umbrella to said woman. Lastly - in line for the elevator, we were separated from the other lines by a clear-plastic wall, which a little girl (about 3 or 4) proceeded to walk up to, isnpect, kiss, lick, walk away from, and then return to lick one more time. Blake and I were in tears laughing so hard as the girl's mother continued her conversation only to look over in horror at her daughter getting to first base with a window. Then it was a beautiful trip to the top with plenty of pictures to be taken.
From the Eiffel tower we did the walk over to Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs-Elysees where we stopped at Laduree and I had my first experience with French macaroons, which are perhaps the most delicious things on the face of the earth. With treats in hand we got on the metro towards Le Marais, which quickly became my favorite place in Paris. Blake took me there with the intention of eating a kosher deli sandwich, only for us to realize once we got there that anything kosher would be closed on Shabbas... oops. But the crisis was averted when we found a lovely cafe where I got to have my first authentic French baguette and another wonderful meal with my wonderful guy.
Next stop; Notre Dame (just the outside), across the Seine and over this quaint little bridge covered in locks, left there by couples who lock them together and throw the key into the Seine. It's romantic, and a bit odd, but the bridge was pretty. We headed back towards Blake's apartment where he took me to his to major landmarks, The Pantheon, and Picard, a store that sell only frozen items (including sushi... ew). Dinner that night was another metro ride up to a fondue restaurant where they give you wine to drink out of baby bottles. Not just small bottles - but actual baby bottles. Needless to say it was very weird, but the restaurant was right by Montmarte so we walked up to the Sacre-Coeur at night and saw the entire city lit up (insert cheesy line here; "you know... it is called the 'city of lights'!"). Also - because it was nearly 9 we stayed up there and watched the Eiffel tower sparkle on the hour before walking down to see the Moulin Rouge where Blake and I proceeded to dance for long enough to have our picture taken.
The next morning we were up and eating again, this time outside (thanks to a heating lamp) at a cafe right across from Luxembourg Garden, where we walked to after finishing our cafe au lait and pain chocolat (again... delicious). Blake took me over to the neighborhood where his school is, SciencesPo, and we walked around all of the (closed) designer stores before stopping for another meal at Le Duex Magots, one of the 2 famous cafes next to each other on Boulevard Saint-Germaine. Cue the Camembert on baguette sandwich. Delicious.
To walk off some of our meal we headed towards the Saine and walked along parallel to the Louvre, stopping at Musee d'Orsay just to see that the line for the catacombs had apparently moved there for the moment, so we continued on towards the obelisk and eventually to plaza outside the Louvre with the glass pyramids... it was all very Dan Brown, but better. We opted not to go into the Louvre because we didn't have 3 weeks to get it all done, and instead enjoyed a lovely sit to people watch the tourists that flocked to the museum.
From there is was a short walk to the Opera House and Galleries Lafayette where the Christmas windows were up and Judy Garland wad blaring from the speakers allowing Blake and I to take part in a rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for a group of unsuspecting bystanders. Blake, since I had gotten there, had been telling me about "the fanciest Starbucks in the world" right by the Opera House and while he built it up quite a lot, and I did not train into Paris just to go Starbucks, we did end up going. He was right. It was the fanciest Starbucks in THE WORLD. It didn't just have tile floors and extended seating with plush couches and chairs, it had chandeliers - emphasis on the 's' for multiple chandeliers. It was absurd. But well worth the entire trip to Paris.
After leaving what is sure to become one of Paris' most sought-after attractions, I got Blake to take me back to Le Marais where we wandered around again, into furniture stores, little museums and thrift shops that all seemed to be more adorable than the last. Last stop in Le Marais was to get me an honest-to-goodness crepe from one of the guys with an outdoor stand - because that's clearly far more legitimate - and it really was. We walked back along the Seine as it got dark and passed Notre Dame again, this time lit up, and saw beautiful views from the bridge of Paris (insert cheesy line here; "no wonder it's the 'city of lights'!"). Last stop was a very hip bar right by Blake's flat for one final hoorah and then it was back to Gare du Nord and bye bye Louve, hello London.
I cannot believe how much we got done in one weekend, and just how wonderful that weekend was. My dad said that he knew it was a good trip because I didn't mention the fact that it rained the whole time until the very end - and he's right! Even with rain and overcast skies, Paris is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and I'm so glad that I now fall among the ranks of people who can legitimately say that. Now it's back to school for the last 4 weeks (gulp) of the program. It's hard to think about how quickly time passes, but now that I can say that I got to do Paris while passing the time, I think it's safe to say that I've done pretty well for myself.
While it would be impossible to do justice in writing to my weekend in Paris, I'm going to try my hardest to make it work. I left for the train station right from school on Friday and, with one minor delay, got into Gare du Nord train station in Paris at 10:30 with my darling friend Blake waiting for me at the gate. We took a bus back to his flat for my initial introduction to Paris, and in true European fashion went out that night to a bar called WAGG which was having it's carwash themed night, meaning a lot of Motown - not exactly Parisian, but a lot of fun.
Saturday morning began my whirlwind adventure, not only in Paris, the place, but Paris, the food. We had (delicious) croissants and orange juice on our walk over to the Catacombs, which turned out to be a bit of failure when the line reached right around the entire perimeter of the gate. Onward to the Eiffel tower! Not only was the view from the top unbelievable, the lines to get tickets proved equally entertaining. First, we planned on walking up, only to realize once we got to the front of the line, that we had been standing in the elevator line. Then, in line for security, a woman lost control of her purple umbrella and it went flying into the crowd of innocent bystanders waiting for their tickets - thank goodness Blake was there to save the day and return the umbrella to said woman. Lastly - in line for the elevator, we were separated from the other lines by a clear-plastic wall, which a little girl (about 3 or 4) proceeded to walk up to, isnpect, kiss, lick, walk away from, and then return to lick one more time. Blake and I were in tears laughing so hard as the girl's mother continued her conversation only to look over in horror at her daughter getting to first base with a window. Then it was a beautiful trip to the top with plenty of pictures to be taken.
From the Eiffel tower we did the walk over to Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs-Elysees where we stopped at Laduree and I had my first experience with French macaroons, which are perhaps the most delicious things on the face of the earth. With treats in hand we got on the metro towards Le Marais, which quickly became my favorite place in Paris. Blake took me there with the intention of eating a kosher deli sandwich, only for us to realize once we got there that anything kosher would be closed on Shabbas... oops. But the crisis was averted when we found a lovely cafe where I got to have my first authentic French baguette and another wonderful meal with my wonderful guy.
Next stop; Notre Dame (just the outside), across the Seine and over this quaint little bridge covered in locks, left there by couples who lock them together and throw the key into the Seine. It's romantic, and a bit odd, but the bridge was pretty. We headed back towards Blake's apartment where he took me to his to major landmarks, The Pantheon, and Picard, a store that sell only frozen items (including sushi... ew). Dinner that night was another metro ride up to a fondue restaurant where they give you wine to drink out of baby bottles. Not just small bottles - but actual baby bottles. Needless to say it was very weird, but the restaurant was right by Montmarte so we walked up to the Sacre-Coeur at night and saw the entire city lit up (insert cheesy line here; "you know... it is called the 'city of lights'!"). Also - because it was nearly 9 we stayed up there and watched the Eiffel tower sparkle on the hour before walking down to see the Moulin Rouge where Blake and I proceeded to dance for long enough to have our picture taken.
The next morning we were up and eating again, this time outside (thanks to a heating lamp) at a cafe right across from Luxembourg Garden, where we walked to after finishing our cafe au lait and pain chocolat (again... delicious). Blake took me over to the neighborhood where his school is, SciencesPo, and we walked around all of the (closed) designer stores before stopping for another meal at Le Duex Magots, one of the 2 famous cafes next to each other on Boulevard Saint-Germaine. Cue the Camembert on baguette sandwich. Delicious.
To walk off some of our meal we headed towards the Saine and walked along parallel to the Louvre, stopping at Musee d'Orsay just to see that the line for the catacombs had apparently moved there for the moment, so we continued on towards the obelisk and eventually to plaza outside the Louvre with the glass pyramids... it was all very Dan Brown, but better. We opted not to go into the Louvre because we didn't have 3 weeks to get it all done, and instead enjoyed a lovely sit to people watch the tourists that flocked to the museum.
From there is was a short walk to the Opera House and Galleries Lafayette where the Christmas windows were up and Judy Garland wad blaring from the speakers allowing Blake and I to take part in a rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for a group of unsuspecting bystanders. Blake, since I had gotten there, had been telling me about "the fanciest Starbucks in the world" right by the Opera House and while he built it up quite a lot, and I did not train into Paris just to go Starbucks, we did end up going. He was right. It was the fanciest Starbucks in THE WORLD. It didn't just have tile floors and extended seating with plush couches and chairs, it had chandeliers - emphasis on the 's' for multiple chandeliers. It was absurd. But well worth the entire trip to Paris.
After leaving what is sure to become one of Paris' most sought-after attractions, I got Blake to take me back to Le Marais where we wandered around again, into furniture stores, little museums and thrift shops that all seemed to be more adorable than the last. Last stop in Le Marais was to get me an honest-to-goodness crepe from one of the guys with an outdoor stand - because that's clearly far more legitimate - and it really was. We walked back along the Seine as it got dark and passed Notre Dame again, this time lit up, and saw beautiful views from the bridge of Paris (insert cheesy line here; "no wonder it's the 'city of lights'!"). Last stop was a very hip bar right by Blake's flat for one final hoorah and then it was back to Gare du Nord and bye bye Louve, hello London.
I cannot believe how much we got done in one weekend, and just how wonderful that weekend was. My dad said that he knew it was a good trip because I didn't mention the fact that it rained the whole time until the very end - and he's right! Even with rain and overcast skies, Paris is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and I'm so glad that I now fall among the ranks of people who can legitimately say that. Now it's back to school for the last 4 weeks (gulp) of the program. It's hard to think about how quickly time passes, but now that I can say that I got to do Paris while passing the time, I think it's safe to say that I've done pretty well for myself.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Just Keep Swimming
After commending myself last week for my relative promptness in posting to this thing, I have clearly dropped the ball again. Oops. Last week just wasn't all that exciting, so it didn't inspire much in the way of sharing, but I guess there were some highlights to be noted.
We got cast in Much Ado About Nothing - I'm playing Margaret. Not only is she written for a girl, but she's written for a sassy girl - so I'm pretty excited. The other fun fact about Much Ado is that my director has cut every Dogberry/Verges scene, claiming that "they're just not that funny" and also ONLY refers to them as Dogberry scenes. Much Ado: Part 2.
In the world of theatre, I have seen 2 musicals in the last week that could NOT be more different from one another. Last Tuesday I went to see Les Miserables, which was... Les Mis. Not much you can do with that one to liven it up, but Norm Lewis was in it as Javert and that was pretty breathtaking. Plus, our seats were first-row mezzanine, so no big loss. Last night though, I FINALLY made it to see "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" at the Palace Theatre. Priscilla is a movie that my parents were wonderful enough to let me watch at, probably, too early of an age, but because of that - it has always been one of my favorite movies of all time. There is really no way to describe the show other than informing you that there were men dressed as cupcakes, a pink bus on-stage, and more sequins used than in the entirety of La Cage, even if you add up every one of the revivals. It was non-stop fun, and non-stop camp, and the audience was so visibly and audibly into the production that it added a whole new dimension to the experiences. It is, by no means, a "serious piece of theatre" - but that suited me just fine!
Last weekend was great; nothing too out of the ordinary but a really great weekend to chill out and prepare for the week ahead. I saw "The Social Network", which I really enjoyed, especially because I think there is nothing more ironic than the inventor of Facebook being one of the most socially awkward human beings on the planet. There was a trip to Chelsea market, a head-shot session in the midst of terrible public transportation problems, and a lovely late tea at the Mogilners. All in all - not too shabby.
This week is just kind of dragging along because I'm going to Paris this weekend and clearly the universe wants to make it the longest wait of my life. Still - first time in France, to see my best friend, and eat brie and baguettes in the right way... I'll wait it out!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
My Whirlwind World
I've prided myself on being pretty consistent about my once-a-week responsibilities to this public journal of my life, but I'm going to go ahead a cut myself some slack for my recent negligence. The last 2 weeks have been nothing less than the most overwhelmingly amazing and exhaustingly wonderful of my life.
The excitement started 2 Mondays ago, when I, very skillfully, found free tickets to see "Hay Fever" by Noel Coward. In my excitement, I neglected (a theme of my last few weeks) to notice that the theater was located in Kingston, a 40 minute tube+20 minute bus ride away. Did we let that stop us? Never. We hurried there after school and made it in plenty of time to see the show, which, while not amazing, didn't cost us a penny - so it was pretty darn good. We even got out in enough time to cross the street to Wagamamas and have a delicious 10pm dinner - very European of us, if I might say so myself. Classes went along as usual Tuesday and Wendesday, and then it was time to start my jet-setting adventure back to the US to celebrate the Bat Mitzvah of my beautiful baby sister, who, as far as I'm concerned, will never be older than 8 years old.
There had been so much anticipation leading up to this weekend, starting over a year ago when we realized that the Bat Mitzvah would coinside beautifully with my semester across-the-ocean. All of my hesitations, fears and jokes that I wouldn't be attending ended up being totally moot when the time came to be home and celebrate - and it was quite the celebration. Rather than go on in boring detail about the festivities of the weekend, I'll just say that there would be no better reason to do the 7 hour flight (with a broken video set...) than to surround myself with my wonderful friends and family and beam over how grown-up my little 8 year old really is. Mazel Tov again, Mira T - you really blew me away.
ANYWAY... I got back into Heathrow at 630 am with just enough time to tube back to my dorm, drop off my bags and get back on the tube to make my 10 am class. My body was less than thrilled with me that day, and while fighting back fits of narcolepsy during classes, I managed to not only survive, but get my grocery shopping and laundry done too! This week was also tough because we had the end of our Jacobean unit presentations of Friday, where my group performed The Changeling and got to see what the other class had been up to with their production of Tis Pity She's A Whore. While the shows both came together in the end, and it was great to finally see the other class' work, it was definitely a trying experience for me. As a wise woman said to me "learn from your experience" and "Move on - it's what you do, it's something to learn from." She's a pretty smart lady and, in this case, she was very right. Theatre doesn't click for every person every time, but it most certainly always teaches you something new, and I'm okay with that.
This weekend has also been quite lovely with my friend Laura coming in from Amsterdam to visit and finally making my way to the Victoria & Albert museum with her. We also got to celebrate Halloween a bit early leaving me with Sunday to readjust, recenter and refocus for the next chapter of my LAMDA career. We're moving onto Shakespearean comedies tomorrow and, wouldn't you know it, my class is doing Much Ado About Nothing, a play I hold quite near and dear to my heart already. Now it's time to gear up for something new and keep the momentum up... we're all a bit tired and a bit over-worked, but I can't wait to see what happens this time, an experience I've named "Much Ado: Part Two" I'll keep you posted!
The excitement started 2 Mondays ago, when I, very skillfully, found free tickets to see "Hay Fever" by Noel Coward. In my excitement, I neglected (a theme of my last few weeks) to notice that the theater was located in Kingston, a 40 minute tube+20 minute bus ride away. Did we let that stop us? Never. We hurried there after school and made it in plenty of time to see the show, which, while not amazing, didn't cost us a penny - so it was pretty darn good. We even got out in enough time to cross the street to Wagamamas and have a delicious 10pm dinner - very European of us, if I might say so myself. Classes went along as usual Tuesday and Wendesday, and then it was time to start my jet-setting adventure back to the US to celebrate the Bat Mitzvah of my beautiful baby sister, who, as far as I'm concerned, will never be older than 8 years old.
There had been so much anticipation leading up to this weekend, starting over a year ago when we realized that the Bat Mitzvah would coinside beautifully with my semester across-the-ocean. All of my hesitations, fears and jokes that I wouldn't be attending ended up being totally moot when the time came to be home and celebrate - and it was quite the celebration. Rather than go on in boring detail about the festivities of the weekend, I'll just say that there would be no better reason to do the 7 hour flight (with a broken video set...) than to surround myself with my wonderful friends and family and beam over how grown-up my little 8 year old really is. Mazel Tov again, Mira T - you really blew me away.
ANYWAY... I got back into Heathrow at 630 am with just enough time to tube back to my dorm, drop off my bags and get back on the tube to make my 10 am class. My body was less than thrilled with me that day, and while fighting back fits of narcolepsy during classes, I managed to not only survive, but get my grocery shopping and laundry done too! This week was also tough because we had the end of our Jacobean unit presentations of Friday, where my group performed The Changeling and got to see what the other class had been up to with their production of Tis Pity She's A Whore. While the shows both came together in the end, and it was great to finally see the other class' work, it was definitely a trying experience for me. As a wise woman said to me "learn from your experience" and "Move on - it's what you do, it's something to learn from." She's a pretty smart lady and, in this case, she was very right. Theatre doesn't click for every person every time, but it most certainly always teaches you something new, and I'm okay with that.
This weekend has also been quite lovely with my friend Laura coming in from Amsterdam to visit and finally making my way to the Victoria & Albert museum with her. We also got to celebrate Halloween a bit early leaving me with Sunday to readjust, recenter and refocus for the next chapter of my LAMDA career. We're moving onto Shakespearean comedies tomorrow and, wouldn't you know it, my class is doing Much Ado About Nothing, a play I hold quite near and dear to my heart already. Now it's time to gear up for something new and keep the momentum up... we're all a bit tired and a bit over-worked, but I can't wait to see what happens this time, an experience I've named "Much Ado: Part Two" I'll keep you posted!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
I'm Auditioning for the Role of Tarzan
So... what new London experiences did I have this past week? Well, I got to see Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 at the Globe, attended the closing-night cast party afterwards, met famous English actor David Suchet, and got to spend 4.5 hours in a London A&E.
An A&E is like the ER, only it is called "Accidents & Emergencies" - which, in my opinion, is probably a much better title. It all started about 2 weeks ago, at this point, when I started having this really terrible pain in the ball of my left foot. I ignored it for the first week, which turned out to be a terrible idea because it only started hurting more, so last Saturday my wonderful family-away-from-family, The Mogilner's, picked me up from my dorm and took to me the hospital to get it checked out. Turns out, it's a stress fracture of the first metatarsal, but on that day I felt as if I had been told that I was going to have to have my foot amputated. Was it me being overly dramatic...? What else is new? Regardless, I walked (hobbled) away with a tubie sock (much like an ace bandage) and orders to take paracetemol and rest. Not my favorite way to spend a weekend.
But now - 1 full week after dealing with it, things are going a lot better. I've had to sit out of my movement classes, which is a bummer, but it turns out that ignoring a problem isn't actually the best way to make it go away. I'm confident that I won't be out of commission for as long as was originally anticipated and I will make damn sure that I don't get left behind because of it - so I'm going to be fine.
We went to a show on Monday at the National Theatre called "Danton's Death", which seemed to me a lot like Les Mis without singing and a rotating stage. The theater, however, was a spectacle in and of itself because of its size. It felt like a Roman amphitheater and fit, what had to be, at least 1,000 people. There performance was not without its high points, including the end where the made decapitations by guillotine look creepily real. It was also a chance for us to scope out the production of Hamlet that is happening at the National and figure out how to get tickets - so not a total loss.
This weekend has been about as unproductive as the week, but yesterday morning I decided to go on an adventure to the Saatchi Gallery, because it is only a 10 minute walk from my dorm and there's no excuse for why I hadn't gone yet. It's a really wonderful museum and I had a lovely time just meandering around the 13 galleries - especially gallery 5, which had a hot pink screen print of Cher as Che Guevara - a total win for the day. There is also this really great food market right outside of the entrance and it has vendors with cookies, cheeses, pastas, meats, cupcakes, pasties and much more, so I met up with a few people for lunch there - which was really nice until London decided to perpetuate its stereotype of bipolar weather and it began pouring. Good thing I could spend the rest of my day indoors before venturing out to Brick Lane for dinner and finding the yummiest Indian food I have found in London so far! Very successful day.
Not sure exactly what's on the roster for today, but it looks beautiful outside at the moment so it's probably best to capitalize on that. This coming week is going to be crazy because I'm flying home Thursday for Mira's Bat Mitzvah, and back again on Monday morning right before class, which will be crazy/hectic/exhausting/wonderful!
So all in all, with foot pains, massive theaters, outdoor markets and lots of rain - I'm still loving this city as much as I ever have. I've learned how easy it is to get caught up in things very quickly, and in some cases that could be a bad thing, but as far as milking London for all it's worth - I'll take being caught-up over left-out every time!
An A&E is like the ER, only it is called "Accidents & Emergencies" - which, in my opinion, is probably a much better title. It all started about 2 weeks ago, at this point, when I started having this really terrible pain in the ball of my left foot. I ignored it for the first week, which turned out to be a terrible idea because it only started hurting more, so last Saturday my wonderful family-away-from-family, The Mogilner's, picked me up from my dorm and took to me the hospital to get it checked out. Turns out, it's a stress fracture of the first metatarsal, but on that day I felt as if I had been told that I was going to have to have my foot amputated. Was it me being overly dramatic...? What else is new? Regardless, I walked (hobbled) away with a tubie sock (much like an ace bandage) and orders to take paracetemol and rest. Not my favorite way to spend a weekend.
But now - 1 full week after dealing with it, things are going a lot better. I've had to sit out of my movement classes, which is a bummer, but it turns out that ignoring a problem isn't actually the best way to make it go away. I'm confident that I won't be out of commission for as long as was originally anticipated and I will make damn sure that I don't get left behind because of it - so I'm going to be fine.
We went to a show on Monday at the National Theatre called "Danton's Death", which seemed to me a lot like Les Mis without singing and a rotating stage. The theater, however, was a spectacle in and of itself because of its size. It felt like a Roman amphitheater and fit, what had to be, at least 1,000 people. There performance was not without its high points, including the end where the made decapitations by guillotine look creepily real. It was also a chance for us to scope out the production of Hamlet that is happening at the National and figure out how to get tickets - so not a total loss.
This weekend has been about as unproductive as the week, but yesterday morning I decided to go on an adventure to the Saatchi Gallery, because it is only a 10 minute walk from my dorm and there's no excuse for why I hadn't gone yet. It's a really wonderful museum and I had a lovely time just meandering around the 13 galleries - especially gallery 5, which had a hot pink screen print of Cher as Che Guevara - a total win for the day. There is also this really great food market right outside of the entrance and it has vendors with cookies, cheeses, pastas, meats, cupcakes, pasties and much more, so I met up with a few people for lunch there - which was really nice until London decided to perpetuate its stereotype of bipolar weather and it began pouring. Good thing I could spend the rest of my day indoors before venturing out to Brick Lane for dinner and finding the yummiest Indian food I have found in London so far! Very successful day.
Not sure exactly what's on the roster for today, but it looks beautiful outside at the moment so it's probably best to capitalize on that. This coming week is going to be crazy because I'm flying home Thursday for Mira's Bat Mitzvah, and back again on Monday morning right before class, which will be crazy/hectic/exhausting/wonderful!
So all in all, with foot pains, massive theaters, outdoor markets and lots of rain - I'm still loving this city as much as I ever have. I've learned how easy it is to get caught up in things very quickly, and in some cases that could be a bad thing, but as far as milking London for all it's worth - I'll take being caught-up over left-out every time!
Friday, October 8, 2010
Uncle Bill
Stratford-Upon-Avon was home to William Shakespeare. And that's about it. It's funny to think about what the town would be like without the Twelfth Night Cafe or Desdemona Diamonds, but thankfully for them, they'll never have to know. Regardless of how tiny the town is, we actually had a great time just being together, and goodness knows I love being in a hotel.
When we got off of the bus after riding 2 hours through the beautiful English countryside we had a few hours to explore the city and check into Ye Olde Holiday Inn before a drama workshop scheduled at a church on the other side of town. Little did we know it would only take 15 minutes to get to the other side of town, so we had plenty of time to take in the streets an then some. The workshop was our only scheduled activity on Wednesday so left to our own devices we wandered around a bit more before stumbling on Hathaway's Tea Room for traditional afternoon tea and scones. Had we known the buffet that we would be treated to for the next two nights and mornings we may have skipped out on the scones, but it didn't stop us from eating like it had been months since we had last seen food. We ended the night in a good ole English pub with every person in the group, plus our 2 chaperons and professor that came with us. It's a good thing that the entire population of Strtford is over the age of 86, so there wasn't anyone else around to bother.
The next day was all-tours, all the time. We started out at Anne Hathaway's house about 3 miles outside of the town, followed by a very modern new audio/visual museum at Shakespeare's birthplace. We really lucked out with beautiful weather on our trip, so after we finished the tour of the house we sat in the courtyard and 2 actresses, dressed in Elizabethan clothes performed 3 scenes from shows that we randomly called out. These women could literally pull out a scene from any show we called out (they struggled a bit with Cymbaline, so we moved onto Midsummer - it was very kind of us), we were all so jealous of how much they knew that we had to leave before we all started feeling bad about our inability to learn our scenes in less than a week.
The last two stops of the day were the original sight of Shakespeare's house, which had actually been leveled, so it's just an archelogical dig of sorts, and finally, Shakespeare's gravesite. It was a lot of Bard but when we made our way back to the hotel we had an hour and a half before dinner and somehow managed to find the latest episodes of Modern Family among the 8 channels we had at our disposal - the happiness I felt was almost comparable to how I felt the first time I stepped into the Globe. Almost. The night went off without any major events and the next morning we packed our bags, hoarded what we could from the breakfast buffet and headed back to good old London Town.
We're scheduled to meet David Suchet in an hour and then off to the Globe again for Henry IV: Part 1. It's been a long couple of days and the thought of standing outside for 3 hours tonight is a bit unnerving, but to be honest, I really can't complain.
When we got off of the bus after riding 2 hours through the beautiful English countryside we had a few hours to explore the city and check into Ye Olde Holiday Inn before a drama workshop scheduled at a church on the other side of town. Little did we know it would only take 15 minutes to get to the other side of town, so we had plenty of time to take in the streets an then some. The workshop was our only scheduled activity on Wednesday so left to our own devices we wandered around a bit more before stumbling on Hathaway's Tea Room for traditional afternoon tea and scones. Had we known the buffet that we would be treated to for the next two nights and mornings we may have skipped out on the scones, but it didn't stop us from eating like it had been months since we had last seen food. We ended the night in a good ole English pub with every person in the group, plus our 2 chaperons and professor that came with us. It's a good thing that the entire population of Strtford is over the age of 86, so there wasn't anyone else around to bother.
The next day was all-tours, all the time. We started out at Anne Hathaway's house about 3 miles outside of the town, followed by a very modern new audio/visual museum at Shakespeare's birthplace. We really lucked out with beautiful weather on our trip, so after we finished the tour of the house we sat in the courtyard and 2 actresses, dressed in Elizabethan clothes performed 3 scenes from shows that we randomly called out. These women could literally pull out a scene from any show we called out (they struggled a bit with Cymbaline, so we moved onto Midsummer - it was very kind of us), we were all so jealous of how much they knew that we had to leave before we all started feeling bad about our inability to learn our scenes in less than a week.
The last two stops of the day were the original sight of Shakespeare's house, which had actually been leveled, so it's just an archelogical dig of sorts, and finally, Shakespeare's gravesite. It was a lot of Bard but when we made our way back to the hotel we had an hour and a half before dinner and somehow managed to find the latest episodes of Modern Family among the 8 channels we had at our disposal - the happiness I felt was almost comparable to how I felt the first time I stepped into the Globe. Almost. The night went off without any major events and the next morning we packed our bags, hoarded what we could from the breakfast buffet and headed back to good old London Town.
We're scheduled to meet David Suchet in an hour and then off to the Globe again for Henry IV: Part 1. It's been a long couple of days and the thought of standing outside for 3 hours tonight is a bit unnerving, but to be honest, I really can't complain.
Monday, October 4, 2010
How Time Flies
Another week, another post. I have officially made it through a month of drama school and I feel crazier already.
We started our Jacobean unit on Monday and found out that our class would be performing "The Changeling" by Thomas Middleton. It took 7 days and countless readings, but we finally got cast, and wouldn't you know it - I'm playing a boy! And not only that, the comic relief! You can take the girl out of comedies... But it's great. My part is Jasperino, the silly servant who saves the day (not actually, but that's how I'd like to think of him), and the play is totally new to me and a really good dramatic piece. It's nice to start working on something a bit more concrete now that we're seemingly past our introduction stage. Who knows what I'll be saying in a week when It's time to be off-book, but for now, it's good.
Another busy week of school and such, but Wednesday brought an unexpected early end to my school day (by that, I mean, I expected to get out at 9pm but instead I got out at 5:30pm), so a few of us rushed over to Covent Garden and bought tickets to see "Krapp's Last Tape" by Samuel Beckett. It's a one-man show starring Michael Gambon (of Dumbeldore #2 fame) and it was possibly one of the most riveting pieces of the theatre that I have ever been able to see. Granted, it was Beckett, so there was a lot of silence and a lot of repetition, but for 50 minutes I was able to do nothing else but stare at this man on stage, eagerly awaiting his next move. I couldn't believe how into it I was and how quickly it was over, but it totally convinced me that strong theatre does not necessarily mean long theatre.
The next night was another theatre extravaganza as we headed back to The Globe to see "The Merry Wives of Windsor". It was a play that I wasn't very familiar with going into, but the cast was great, the story accessible and I am so pleased with the tradition of ending every show at the Globe with a full-cast song and dance number! We alll left with huge smiles on our faces and, for me, it was really amazing to see a Shakespeare play in the Globe for the first time.
My friend from GW was in this weekend to visit around London and it was a great excuse to go and do all of the touristy things that I have been wanting to do for a while but that most of my friends have been to before. On Saturday we headed to Russel Square to the British Museum and it was quite interesting until the fire alarm went off and we were kindly escorted out of the building. From there we headed, in very overcast rainy weather, to Tower Bridge and did the walk across, only to walk back and hop on the tube towards Mansion House, i.e. The Globe and the Tate Modern. I have been talking about going to the Tate Modern pretty much since I arrived and am very glad I can finally say I went inside! It's really overwhelming based on just how much there is to see, but I got to spend a solid hour in 1 exhibit before we headed over to meet friends for dinner at Wagamamas, a VERY yummy noodle place that has yet to make it over to the States. I will begin writing letters to the company immediately to correct this.
To continue our whirlwind London experience, the next day we went to Trafalgar Square and The National Gallery, and perused most of the 17th and 18th centuries, in art-form, of course. It's a huge museum and nearly impossible to take-in in just one day, but I thought we did pretty well, and we rewarded ourselves by walking over to Covent Garden Markets. We intended to find crepes, what we had been craving pretty much all day, but were totally side-tracked by a street performer who was fully equipped with a mic-pack and a 6-foot unicycle. Needless to say, we stuck around for the end of his show and rewarded ourselves with crepes afterwards. It was a great weekend.
And now I'm back to school, only an abridged version because we have our trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon this Wednesday to Friday, which should be really fun. It will be a nice chance to all be together in a more relaxed environment, and even though the Royal Shakespeare Theatre is closed (tear, tear), I'm sure it will be a fabulous trip for us, an a needed break from our 50+ hour weeks.
In the wake of the 1 month mark and my dash home drawing nearer, I constantly have to remind myself that this is really my life. Sometimes it feels like everything is a blurred montage of classes, shows and food with sleep showing up wherever it can squeeze itself in. That's not a totally terrible thing, just a reality check. There are plenty of times when I'd like nothing more than to wave the white flag and tell the world that I can't do one more sit up, or roll-up or anything-up, but then I remember that this crazy thing is actually what I want to be doing. I was hoping to use this trip as a guide in order to know whether or not I am really ready to relinquish any sense of stability in my life and give into the insanity that is being in this theatre-world. It may be a bit early to say that I've made any final decisions, but, I'm getting pretty close - and it feels good.
We started our Jacobean unit on Monday and found out that our class would be performing "The Changeling" by Thomas Middleton. It took 7 days and countless readings, but we finally got cast, and wouldn't you know it - I'm playing a boy! And not only that, the comic relief! You can take the girl out of comedies... But it's great. My part is Jasperino, the silly servant who saves the day (not actually, but that's how I'd like to think of him), and the play is totally new to me and a really good dramatic piece. It's nice to start working on something a bit more concrete now that we're seemingly past our introduction stage. Who knows what I'll be saying in a week when It's time to be off-book, but for now, it's good.
Another busy week of school and such, but Wednesday brought an unexpected early end to my school day (by that, I mean, I expected to get out at 9pm but instead I got out at 5:30pm), so a few of us rushed over to Covent Garden and bought tickets to see "Krapp's Last Tape" by Samuel Beckett. It's a one-man show starring Michael Gambon (of Dumbeldore #2 fame) and it was possibly one of the most riveting pieces of the theatre that I have ever been able to see. Granted, it was Beckett, so there was a lot of silence and a lot of repetition, but for 50 minutes I was able to do nothing else but stare at this man on stage, eagerly awaiting his next move. I couldn't believe how into it I was and how quickly it was over, but it totally convinced me that strong theatre does not necessarily mean long theatre.
The next night was another theatre extravaganza as we headed back to The Globe to see "The Merry Wives of Windsor". It was a play that I wasn't very familiar with going into, but the cast was great, the story accessible and I am so pleased with the tradition of ending every show at the Globe with a full-cast song and dance number! We alll left with huge smiles on our faces and, for me, it was really amazing to see a Shakespeare play in the Globe for the first time.
My friend from GW was in this weekend to visit around London and it was a great excuse to go and do all of the touristy things that I have been wanting to do for a while but that most of my friends have been to before. On Saturday we headed to Russel Square to the British Museum and it was quite interesting until the fire alarm went off and we were kindly escorted out of the building. From there we headed, in very overcast rainy weather, to Tower Bridge and did the walk across, only to walk back and hop on the tube towards Mansion House, i.e. The Globe and the Tate Modern. I have been talking about going to the Tate Modern pretty much since I arrived and am very glad I can finally say I went inside! It's really overwhelming based on just how much there is to see, but I got to spend a solid hour in 1 exhibit before we headed over to meet friends for dinner at Wagamamas, a VERY yummy noodle place that has yet to make it over to the States. I will begin writing letters to the company immediately to correct this.
To continue our whirlwind London experience, the next day we went to Trafalgar Square and The National Gallery, and perused most of the 17th and 18th centuries, in art-form, of course. It's a huge museum and nearly impossible to take-in in just one day, but I thought we did pretty well, and we rewarded ourselves by walking over to Covent Garden Markets. We intended to find crepes, what we had been craving pretty much all day, but were totally side-tracked by a street performer who was fully equipped with a mic-pack and a 6-foot unicycle. Needless to say, we stuck around for the end of his show and rewarded ourselves with crepes afterwards. It was a great weekend.
And now I'm back to school, only an abridged version because we have our trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon this Wednesday to Friday, which should be really fun. It will be a nice chance to all be together in a more relaxed environment, and even though the Royal Shakespeare Theatre is closed (tear, tear), I'm sure it will be a fabulous trip for us, an a needed break from our 50+ hour weeks.
In the wake of the 1 month mark and my dash home drawing nearer, I constantly have to remind myself that this is really my life. Sometimes it feels like everything is a blurred montage of classes, shows and food with sleep showing up wherever it can squeeze itself in. That's not a totally terrible thing, just a reality check. There are plenty of times when I'd like nothing more than to wave the white flag and tell the world that I can't do one more sit up, or roll-up or anything-up, but then I remember that this crazy thing is actually what I want to be doing. I was hoping to use this trip as a guide in order to know whether or not I am really ready to relinquish any sense of stability in my life and give into the insanity that is being in this theatre-world. It may be a bit early to say that I've made any final decisions, but, I'm getting pretty close - and it feels good.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
7 Days and 2 Plays Later
It's hard to believe that I have just finished my 3rd full week, when it feels like I arrived yesterday and have lived here forever.
This was one of those weeks that I actually spent more time at LAMDA than I did at home (but it's becoming clear to me that all of my weeks will probably be like that.) After classes on Monday, school had booked us tickets to go see "All My Sons" by Arthur Miller at the Apollo Theater. Two friends and I decided to run to a hole-in-the-wall vegetarian restaurant in Covent Garden beforehand, and to say that the food was just good would seriously understate the fact that, if it were socially acceptable, the three of us would have been licking our plates clean by the end of the meal. With our bellies (thanks mommy) full we hurried over to Picadilly Circus, the "Times Square" of London, as my professor calls it, but, thankfully, all of the bright lights and big city fanfare outside did not interfere with the brilliant simplicity of the play inside the theater. Our tickets were all the way up in 1st Mezzanine, but the raked stage and stadium seating made it feel as if we were all sitting in the front yard with the actors, watching their lives unravel around them. The play was riveting, and I found myself so grateful that I had not read it beforehand, because of how real and authentic it all felt as it was unfolding. Granted, we were all so emotionally drained by the end of the play, all we could do was herd ourselves home and try desperately to remember our lines for our scene presentations the next day.
Tuesday and Wednesday were both 12-hour days at school, which for me, has become a mathematical equation of sorts;
Wake Up + Dress + Walk to Tube + Tube + Walk to School + Make Tea + Class #1 + 15 minutes for more tea + Class #2 + Lunch, brought from home, that includes another cup of tea + Class #3 + Break, with tea + Continue Class #3 + Dinner - from home, more tea + Either more Class #3 or Mask = 1 (EXHAUSTING) wonderful day at school.
The observant reader among you will notice that I am downing about 5 cups of tea per day, not counting the 1 before and after school. This gross increase in number is due to the fact that I have been graced with the presence of acute Bronchitis in my chest. In the wise words of my mother, "I guess this is what people without tonsils get!". Regardless, it has been a pain in the butt and daily intakes of Robitussin, echinacea, and, of course, tea have become my go-to. I guess that being in another country doesn't really change the fact that my immune systems likes to remind me who's the boss every now and again.
Regardless, the rest of the week was easy, and Friday night LAMDA's Student Council set-up a "Getting to Know You" Party where all of the classes got to mingle and, hopefully, eliminate some of the segregation of the common-room at break times. It is things like that that remind me that this isn't just a mythical drama-school in the sky, but a real place for students who are just like me, but with more patience.
The weekends have become "squeeze as much of London into 2 days as you possible can" days, and I'm totally okay with that. Yesterday we went to Camden Markets, and specifically, the Stable markets, a converted horse hospital that now holds shops in every one of the old horse stalls. There were so many people there but it was so exciting and I even had my first authentic English Fish'n'Chips. At some point during the day we made the spur of the moment decision to look into theatre tickets for that night and so we ended our day in Picadilly again, this time going to see "Deathrap" a thriller by Ira Levin that just happens to feature Jonathan Groff as one of the actors. Not only was the play amazingly scary and well-thought out, we were total groupies afterward and hung out at the stage door waiting for him after the show. Our unexpected star-sighting was seeing Michael Kors, the fashion designer, walk out of the stage door before any of the performers, everyone felt a bit shell-shocked by his presence there and didn't really register it until he had power-walked far away from where we were. Eventually, we met Jonathan Groff, who asked us what we were doing in London and how long we were there. When we realized that we were there for a similar amount of time someone suggested "Hey - we should hang out!". Well, we weren't necessarily blown off, but his adorable little smile and chortle at our suggestion made it seem like we probably need to work a bit harder next time...
So that's that so far. Today's plan is to get to the Rose Garden before it gets too cold out and then head over to the Tate Modern for an afternoon of art. I guess I have to accept that the formula for these posts is going to be; experience a week, try to recall what you did, then spew it out in one excessively long blog-post, hoping that people don't get too bored to stop before the end.
I guess what I really want to say, not so much about this week, but about this trip, is that, no matter how nervous I was, or how many times I doubted that I should be pushing myself to these extremes, there is not 1 day that I am not so grateful for being here, and, in the words of Uncle Steve Sondheim "that's what it's really about, isn't it?"
This was one of those weeks that I actually spent more time at LAMDA than I did at home (but it's becoming clear to me that all of my weeks will probably be like that.) After classes on Monday, school had booked us tickets to go see "All My Sons" by Arthur Miller at the Apollo Theater. Two friends and I decided to run to a hole-in-the-wall vegetarian restaurant in Covent Garden beforehand, and to say that the food was just good would seriously understate the fact that, if it were socially acceptable, the three of us would have been licking our plates clean by the end of the meal. With our bellies (thanks mommy) full we hurried over to Picadilly Circus, the "Times Square" of London, as my professor calls it, but, thankfully, all of the bright lights and big city fanfare outside did not interfere with the brilliant simplicity of the play inside the theater. Our tickets were all the way up in 1st Mezzanine, but the raked stage and stadium seating made it feel as if we were all sitting in the front yard with the actors, watching their lives unravel around them. The play was riveting, and I found myself so grateful that I had not read it beforehand, because of how real and authentic it all felt as it was unfolding. Granted, we were all so emotionally drained by the end of the play, all we could do was herd ourselves home and try desperately to remember our lines for our scene presentations the next day.
Tuesday and Wednesday were both 12-hour days at school, which for me, has become a mathematical equation of sorts;
Wake Up + Dress + Walk to Tube + Tube + Walk to School + Make Tea + Class #1 + 15 minutes for more tea + Class #2 + Lunch, brought from home, that includes another cup of tea + Class #3 + Break, with tea + Continue Class #3 + Dinner - from home, more tea + Either more Class #3 or Mask = 1 (EXHAUSTING) wonderful day at school.
The observant reader among you will notice that I am downing about 5 cups of tea per day, not counting the 1 before and after school. This gross increase in number is due to the fact that I have been graced with the presence of acute Bronchitis in my chest. In the wise words of my mother, "I guess this is what people without tonsils get!". Regardless, it has been a pain in the butt and daily intakes of Robitussin, echinacea, and, of course, tea have become my go-to. I guess that being in another country doesn't really change the fact that my immune systems likes to remind me who's the boss every now and again.
Regardless, the rest of the week was easy, and Friday night LAMDA's Student Council set-up a "Getting to Know You" Party where all of the classes got to mingle and, hopefully, eliminate some of the segregation of the common-room at break times. It is things like that that remind me that this isn't just a mythical drama-school in the sky, but a real place for students who are just like me, but with more patience.
The weekends have become "squeeze as much of London into 2 days as you possible can" days, and I'm totally okay with that. Yesterday we went to Camden Markets, and specifically, the Stable markets, a converted horse hospital that now holds shops in every one of the old horse stalls. There were so many people there but it was so exciting and I even had my first authentic English Fish'n'Chips. At some point during the day we made the spur of the moment decision to look into theatre tickets for that night and so we ended our day in Picadilly again, this time going to see "Deathrap" a thriller by Ira Levin that just happens to feature Jonathan Groff as one of the actors. Not only was the play amazingly scary and well-thought out, we were total groupies afterward and hung out at the stage door waiting for him after the show. Our unexpected star-sighting was seeing Michael Kors, the fashion designer, walk out of the stage door before any of the performers, everyone felt a bit shell-shocked by his presence there and didn't really register it until he had power-walked far away from where we were. Eventually, we met Jonathan Groff, who asked us what we were doing in London and how long we were there. When we realized that we were there for a similar amount of time someone suggested "Hey - we should hang out!". Well, we weren't necessarily blown off, but his adorable little smile and chortle at our suggestion made it seem like we probably need to work a bit harder next time...
So that's that so far. Today's plan is to get to the Rose Garden before it gets too cold out and then head over to the Tate Modern for an afternoon of art. I guess I have to accept that the formula for these posts is going to be; experience a week, try to recall what you did, then spew it out in one excessively long blog-post, hoping that people don't get too bored to stop before the end.
I guess what I really want to say, not so much about this week, but about this trip, is that, no matter how nervous I was, or how many times I doubted that I should be pushing myself to these extremes, there is not 1 day that I am not so grateful for being here, and, in the words of Uncle Steve Sondheim "that's what it's really about, isn't it?"
Sunday, September 19, 2010
A Week In Review
It's been another full week since my last post and in that time I have
- Turned the big 2-0
- Had my first full-week of classes
- Seen my first show at The Globe
and
- Fasted in a far-away land
all of which were great, and I will elaborate on, for anyone remotely interested.
My actual birthday was fabulous. Being the girl who counts down the days until her birthday starting out at 364, I always have pretty high expectations, and this year did not disappoint. Saturday night a big group of us went out on King's Road - the street that seems to go on forever and has everything from a movie-theater to a cell phone store, and a coffee shop on every corner. It's a great location to have access to, and even though everything is about £10 more expensive here than most other parts of London, it's pretty darn handy to have within walking distance.
Sunday morning we explored the neighborhood and had an interesting brunch at a cafe near the tube station. At some point during the meal we realized that what the food lacked in quality, the experience made up for in great stories to tell when we got home - so in the end, being watched like hawks by the 6 Eastern-European waitresses made up for cream cheese and lox on white bread (seriously... there is a reason England is known for fish'n'chips).
The first week of classes was, in one word, exhausting, but in multiple words, a totally exhilarating opportunity to immerse myself 100% in theatre. I have begun eating, sleeping and breathing my classes, and even though we have now discussed "finding neutral" in 4 separate ways, standing during Kol Nidre turned out to be a fantastic opportunity to practice my new skills! Tuesday and Wednesday were 10am - 9pm days which are a lot easier to get through than they sound because a majority of them are spent doing private rehearsals, laying on the floor, and running around on sprung-floors playing games. We also had our first Mask and Stage Combat classes this week which were SO MUCH FUN and I cannot wait to see what they actually entail (aka - how badly they can really kick my butt).
Thursday could technically be considered a 10am-10pm day, but in all honesty, if that's what I get to do on 12 hour days, I'd pick them every week. We had a bunch of voice classes in the morning, an hour for lunch and movement in the afternoon, but at 530 we all left LAMDA in pursuit of our 1st scheduled trip to The Globe. Mind you - these classes have been working us all pretty hard, to the point that we are waking up pretty much every morning with sore thighs, tight backs and severe blisters, but that didn't stop school from booking us Groundling tickets for that night. None of us knew much about the show, and the elements that we were excited about seeing were slowly being weighed down by the reality that we would be on our feet for the next 2.5+ hours. How wrong we were to be nervous! The show was extraordinary (not to mention, historical - it is the first show written by a woman to ever be put up in The Globe) - the story line was thoughtful, the characters compelling and the singing and dancing created an effervescent atmosphere around a show that mainly dealt with the shady-doings of a mental hospital in 17th century London. Not to mention, 2 of the show's stars were graduates of LAMDA and every one of us left the theatre invigorated and ready to get back to work the next day, sore knees and all.
Yom Kippur was Yom Kippur. I went to shul with family friends, fasted and got grumpy sometime around 5pm. I broke tradition by breaking the fast with Chinese food, and not only with Chinese food, but Chinese food at a restaurant! Now, not having bagels with cream cheese and lox is a tradition that was unthinkable to break to this East Coast girl who eats about 3 bagels within 15 minutes of the Shofar being blown - but all-in-all, not a bad experience!
Now it's Sunday and I get to do all the fun things that this day of the week brings - like grocery shopping, doing laundry, and learning lines for class. It is a constant cycle, but it's one that I'm not too upset about.
The other day someone in class asked me how I was doing and in the brilliant words of my Grandpa Bernie I replied "I make a living" - leaving my classmate with puzzled smile on his face. From retelling that immortal punchline of the "story" I've heard from my Grampa since I was old enough to understand it, I realized that there is so much to be said about making it on your own, especially in a different country. Transportation is long, classes are longer and finding down-time is nearly impossible - but hey, I'm making it work. I know that I've not been great about keeping this thing up-to-date, but since this is as much for posterity as it is for letting those of you who care to, live vicariously though my travels abroad - I hope that it's a good sign that I'm writing so infrequently! It means I'm doing things and not thinking about them, and if things carry on the way they have been, the next 4 months are going to be unbelievable.
Oh - and if someone's reading this to you, P-Pop, rest assured that I'm making a living.
- Turned the big 2-0
- Had my first full-week of classes
- Seen my first show at The Globe
and
- Fasted in a far-away land
all of which were great, and I will elaborate on, for anyone remotely interested.
My actual birthday was fabulous. Being the girl who counts down the days until her birthday starting out at 364, I always have pretty high expectations, and this year did not disappoint. Saturday night a big group of us went out on King's Road - the street that seems to go on forever and has everything from a movie-theater to a cell phone store, and a coffee shop on every corner. It's a great location to have access to, and even though everything is about £10 more expensive here than most other parts of London, it's pretty darn handy to have within walking distance.
Sunday morning we explored the neighborhood and had an interesting brunch at a cafe near the tube station. At some point during the meal we realized that what the food lacked in quality, the experience made up for in great stories to tell when we got home - so in the end, being watched like hawks by the 6 Eastern-European waitresses made up for cream cheese and lox on white bread (seriously... there is a reason England is known for fish'n'chips).
The first week of classes was, in one word, exhausting, but in multiple words, a totally exhilarating opportunity to immerse myself 100% in theatre. I have begun eating, sleeping and breathing my classes, and even though we have now discussed "finding neutral" in 4 separate ways, standing during Kol Nidre turned out to be a fantastic opportunity to practice my new skills! Tuesday and Wednesday were 10am - 9pm days which are a lot easier to get through than they sound because a majority of them are spent doing private rehearsals, laying on the floor, and running around on sprung-floors playing games. We also had our first Mask and Stage Combat classes this week which were SO MUCH FUN and I cannot wait to see what they actually entail (aka - how badly they can really kick my butt).
Thursday could technically be considered a 10am-10pm day, but in all honesty, if that's what I get to do on 12 hour days, I'd pick them every week. We had a bunch of voice classes in the morning, an hour for lunch and movement in the afternoon, but at 530 we all left LAMDA in pursuit of our 1st scheduled trip to The Globe. Mind you - these classes have been working us all pretty hard, to the point that we are waking up pretty much every morning with sore thighs, tight backs and severe blisters, but that didn't stop school from booking us Groundling tickets for that night. None of us knew much about the show, and the elements that we were excited about seeing were slowly being weighed down by the reality that we would be on our feet for the next 2.5+ hours. How wrong we were to be nervous! The show was extraordinary (not to mention, historical - it is the first show written by a woman to ever be put up in The Globe) - the story line was thoughtful, the characters compelling and the singing and dancing created an effervescent atmosphere around a show that mainly dealt with the shady-doings of a mental hospital in 17th century London. Not to mention, 2 of the show's stars were graduates of LAMDA and every one of us left the theatre invigorated and ready to get back to work the next day, sore knees and all.
Yom Kippur was Yom Kippur. I went to shul with family friends, fasted and got grumpy sometime around 5pm. I broke tradition by breaking the fast with Chinese food, and not only with Chinese food, but Chinese food at a restaurant! Now, not having bagels with cream cheese and lox is a tradition that was unthinkable to break to this East Coast girl who eats about 3 bagels within 15 minutes of the Shofar being blown - but all-in-all, not a bad experience!
Now it's Sunday and I get to do all the fun things that this day of the week brings - like grocery shopping, doing laundry, and learning lines for class. It is a constant cycle, but it's one that I'm not too upset about.
The other day someone in class asked me how I was doing and in the brilliant words of my Grandpa Bernie I replied "I make a living" - leaving my classmate with puzzled smile on his face. From retelling that immortal punchline of the "story" I've heard from my Grampa since I was old enough to understand it, I realized that there is so much to be said about making it on your own, especially in a different country. Transportation is long, classes are longer and finding down-time is nearly impossible - but hey, I'm making it work. I know that I've not been great about keeping this thing up-to-date, but since this is as much for posterity as it is for letting those of you who care to, live vicariously though my travels abroad - I hope that it's a good sign that I'm writing so infrequently! It means I'm doing things and not thinking about them, and if things carry on the way they have been, the next 4 months are going to be unbelievable.
Oh - and if someone's reading this to you, P-Pop, rest assured that I'm making a living.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Palaces and Plays and Portobello, Oh My.
I don't know if it will be possible to articulate the whirlwind of events that have gone on in the last 5 days or so, but I will do my best to relay the adventures that have already found me here in Londontown.
On Tuesday we met up at school to board a bus to Hampton Court - the palace where Henry VIII lived when he was busy marrying, divorcing and killing his wives. It was a beautiful place and really nice touristy introduction to London. After taking the tour, seeing the gardens and walking around Hampton town, we proceeded to get on a ferry down the Themes for 3 HOURS. The tube ride from start to finish would have been about 20 minutes... still not sure what the point was, but the sights and company were lovely.
My first day of real day of classes was Wednesday and, naturally, lasted from 10 am until 9pm... Happy Rosh Hashanah to me. It's very different being in theatre classes all day because they're so active. There is almost no sitting around and taking notes (except, because it was a day of meeting new teachers, we literally went around the room saying our names, home-towns, colleges and ages about seventeen times each).
The run-down of the classes I've had so far is;
(a) Historic Dance - which was closer to "historic walking in a pattern" than "dance".
(b) Singing, in which I've been informed that I'll be performing an Italian aria... Altos are always especially good at those :-/
(c) Romances; this is a 3 week study of Shakespeare's Romance plays, so in the first 2 classes we've read the entirety of Winter's Tale and Pericles, picked scene partners and scenes, and an off-book date. Intense.
(d) Voice - about the speaking voice, not the singing voice, but at this point, there's no hope for mine ever sounding main-stream, and thank goodeness for that!
(e) Alexander Technique - this one is easier if you just look it up. I was instructed to lay down on a mat with my head on a pile of books and my eyes closed for 30 minutes. Guess who fell asleep? To be fair - so did the other 8 people in my class :)
(f) Improv - simply amazing. That's all.
(g) Acting, which sounds kind of general in comparison to all of the other classes I'm taking, but still just as interesting.
Those are all I've had so far - next week I'll have a mask class and in a few more, Shakespearean Romances will be put aside in favor of Jacobean texts, so things will never get boring. Or easy. But that's what I signed up for! And I made it to second night of Rosh Hashana dinner on Thursday - life is truly a balancing act!
Friday night I went to see a play at LAMDA with a few other people in my class, and in order to kill time between class and finding out if we were getting in off of the wait-list we meandered to Hammersmith to see what we could find. There were two major successes of that night; discovering PoundLand (similar to a dollar store, but it would have to be called a dollar fifty-five store in the US) and how unbelievable the performance was. It was Tennessee Williams' "Summer and Smoke" and I am not exaggerating when I say that it was one of the most beautifully done plays I have ever seen. I had never read it before and it was a free performance so we decided to try, and thank goodness we did. It left the 5 of us in tears, completely emotionally exhausted and totally in awe of the power that great theatre really has on people. A very reassuring feeling for week 1 of theatre training.
In a move very unlike me, I woke up at 8am on a Saturday to go to Portabello road with a few people before our scheduled show. It felt like a much bigger, MUCH cooler version of Eastern Market in DC and I spent far more time people-watching than actually shopping. After spending hours on our feet walking past jewelery, leather bags, antiques, street performers and lots of food, we hopped on the tube and went to see "Shakespeare: The Man from Stratford", Simon Callow's one man show about the life and times of William Shakespeare. It was the first of 5 or 6 tickets given to us by LAMDA and aside from the interesting nature of the performance, Callow is coming to our class to talk about his work and experience as an actor in a few weeks, so it really is a rare opportunity to see him perform and then hear him talk about it.
So now I'm home and taking a breather before my birthday festivities begin. I spent a lot of time worrying, as I often do, that I would have zero friends on my birthday and I would be eating pasta by myself in the kitchen and listening to "It's My Party". Thankfully - that is not the case. I'm really happy with the people I've met here, and while I wish that I had everyone from home here to celebrate with me, it seems rather appropriate to transition into a new decade of my life in a very new place. I think it's going to be a great start to my 20s!
On Tuesday we met up at school to board a bus to Hampton Court - the palace where Henry VIII lived when he was busy marrying, divorcing and killing his wives. It was a beautiful place and really nice touristy introduction to London. After taking the tour, seeing the gardens and walking around Hampton town, we proceeded to get on a ferry down the Themes for 3 HOURS. The tube ride from start to finish would have been about 20 minutes... still not sure what the point was, but the sights and company were lovely.
My first day of real day of classes was Wednesday and, naturally, lasted from 10 am until 9pm... Happy Rosh Hashanah to me. It's very different being in theatre classes all day because they're so active. There is almost no sitting around and taking notes (except, because it was a day of meeting new teachers, we literally went around the room saying our names, home-towns, colleges and ages about seventeen times each).
The run-down of the classes I've had so far is;
(a) Historic Dance - which was closer to "historic walking in a pattern" than "dance".
(b) Singing, in which I've been informed that I'll be performing an Italian aria... Altos are always especially good at those :-/
(c) Romances; this is a 3 week study of Shakespeare's Romance plays, so in the first 2 classes we've read the entirety of Winter's Tale and Pericles, picked scene partners and scenes, and an off-book date. Intense.
(d) Voice - about the speaking voice, not the singing voice, but at this point, there's no hope for mine ever sounding main-stream, and thank goodeness for that!
(e) Alexander Technique - this one is easier if you just look it up. I was instructed to lay down on a mat with my head on a pile of books and my eyes closed for 30 minutes. Guess who fell asleep? To be fair - so did the other 8 people in my class :)
(f) Improv - simply amazing. That's all.
(g) Acting, which sounds kind of general in comparison to all of the other classes I'm taking, but still just as interesting.
Those are all I've had so far - next week I'll have a mask class and in a few more, Shakespearean Romances will be put aside in favor of Jacobean texts, so things will never get boring. Or easy. But that's what I signed up for! And I made it to second night of Rosh Hashana dinner on Thursday - life is truly a balancing act!
Friday night I went to see a play at LAMDA with a few other people in my class, and in order to kill time between class and finding out if we were getting in off of the wait-list we meandered to Hammersmith to see what we could find. There were two major successes of that night; discovering PoundLand (similar to a dollar store, but it would have to be called a dollar fifty-five store in the US) and how unbelievable the performance was. It was Tennessee Williams' "Summer and Smoke" and I am not exaggerating when I say that it was one of the most beautifully done plays I have ever seen. I had never read it before and it was a free performance so we decided to try, and thank goodness we did. It left the 5 of us in tears, completely emotionally exhausted and totally in awe of the power that great theatre really has on people. A very reassuring feeling for week 1 of theatre training.
In a move very unlike me, I woke up at 8am on a Saturday to go to Portabello road with a few people before our scheduled show. It felt like a much bigger, MUCH cooler version of Eastern Market in DC and I spent far more time people-watching than actually shopping. After spending hours on our feet walking past jewelery, leather bags, antiques, street performers and lots of food, we hopped on the tube and went to see "Shakespeare: The Man from Stratford", Simon Callow's one man show about the life and times of William Shakespeare. It was the first of 5 or 6 tickets given to us by LAMDA and aside from the interesting nature of the performance, Callow is coming to our class to talk about his work and experience as an actor in a few weeks, so it really is a rare opportunity to see him perform and then hear him talk about it.
So now I'm home and taking a breather before my birthday festivities begin. I spent a lot of time worrying, as I often do, that I would have zero friends on my birthday and I would be eating pasta by myself in the kitchen and listening to "It's My Party". Thankfully - that is not the case. I'm really happy with the people I've met here, and while I wish that I had everyone from home here to celebrate with me, it seems rather appropriate to transition into a new decade of my life in a very new place. I think it's going to be a great start to my 20s!
Monday, September 6, 2010
It's Transition Time
So... London is phenomenal. It is quickly becoming one of those places that I'm shocked hasn't been an essential part of my life for years. So much has happened in the last few days that it's almost impossible to think about all at once, but I'll try for nostalgia sake.
Saturday was my last full day at Chez Mogilner - the wonderful house I'd been staying at since my arrival. We started the day off in Richmond, another town in the west of London (in fact, the most west stop on the blue District Tube line - In case anyone was wondering...) There was a lot of drama with getting my American phone to work with and English SIM card and so that was the place to work it all out, and also for another Boots run (like CVS, but better - I know, SUCH a shonda to say so, but it's true). Post Richmond, their youngest daughter Daniella took me for my first tube ride to South Kensington station, where we checked out my dorm in the very posh neighborhood of Chelsea, and then got on the top layer of a double decker bus to head home- it was a very British way to travel. That night for dinner we went to a Mexican place in the West End, and on the way, they gave me the car tour of London in the day time, and on the way back - the same thing, but lit up! It was BEAUTIFUL and they dutifully pointed out all of the obvious tourist attractions for me (Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace - the queen was even in!). I was drooling all over myself to start exploring, but I had one more night before I really started out on my own.
Flash forward to Saturday; move-in to IES London Residence Hall on Manresa Road. There is literally nothing else on Manresa but us, so there isn't even a number to the address - just the street. It is in the heart of Chelsea, right off of King's Road, and I could not have asked for a better location, even if I had the slightest clue about London geography! Anything I could possibly want is no more than a 15 minute walk - including the tube, which will take me anywhere else I'd ever want to go! A bit of grocery shopping, a bit of shmoozing with the people on my floor from my program, and a lot of unpacking!
Cut to today (or, I guess, yesterday at this point) - Intro to LAMDA. It was an easy tube ride and we went with a pretty big group so we didn't run the risk of losing someone along the way. We got there 15 minutes early and were showed into a big common room with every other student having their first day today - regardless of which program they were on. It was quite possibly one of the most intimidating crowds I had ever been in. There were artsy scarves, black panty-hose, and leather boots everywhere I looked, and when I checked the clock and realize that I still had 14 minutes I knew that I was in for an interesting morning.
By the end of our day at 6pm, all of my artsy-fartsy fears had been releived. The 3o people in my program all seem SO wonderful and the crude language of every professor that introduced him/herself today was one of the more entertaining moments I've ever had in a "professional" setting. After our day of introductions, actor name dropping and improv games (I know at this point some of you are probably wondering why I loved it so much) - they held a party for us in a room they affectionately call "Hogwarts". I died. Harry Potter references in a theatre school in London? There was nothing that could be better! Except, of course, heading home in the midst of a tube strike and realizing that our line was still running for a few more hours and we got to avoid a 45 minute walk home in the rain!
Well - that's all of my ranting for now. I could not have asked for a better intrdocution day, and to my (and many of your) surprise - my transition hasn't been all that bad! I'm starting to see myself here for the next 4 moths and all I can do is quote a pivotal movie of my yester-years and say "bring it on!"
Saturday was my last full day at Chez Mogilner - the wonderful house I'd been staying at since my arrival. We started the day off in Richmond, another town in the west of London (in fact, the most west stop on the blue District Tube line - In case anyone was wondering...) There was a lot of drama with getting my American phone to work with and English SIM card and so that was the place to work it all out, and also for another Boots run (like CVS, but better - I know, SUCH a shonda to say so, but it's true). Post Richmond, their youngest daughter Daniella took me for my first tube ride to South Kensington station, where we checked out my dorm in the very posh neighborhood of Chelsea, and then got on the top layer of a double decker bus to head home- it was a very British way to travel. That night for dinner we went to a Mexican place in the West End, and on the way, they gave me the car tour of London in the day time, and on the way back - the same thing, but lit up! It was BEAUTIFUL and they dutifully pointed out all of the obvious tourist attractions for me (Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace - the queen was even in!). I was drooling all over myself to start exploring, but I had one more night before I really started out on my own.
Flash forward to Saturday; move-in to IES London Residence Hall on Manresa Road. There is literally nothing else on Manresa but us, so there isn't even a number to the address - just the street. It is in the heart of Chelsea, right off of King's Road, and I could not have asked for a better location, even if I had the slightest clue about London geography! Anything I could possibly want is no more than a 15 minute walk - including the tube, which will take me anywhere else I'd ever want to go! A bit of grocery shopping, a bit of shmoozing with the people on my floor from my program, and a lot of unpacking!
Cut to today (or, I guess, yesterday at this point) - Intro to LAMDA. It was an easy tube ride and we went with a pretty big group so we didn't run the risk of losing someone along the way. We got there 15 minutes early and were showed into a big common room with every other student having their first day today - regardless of which program they were on. It was quite possibly one of the most intimidating crowds I had ever been in. There were artsy scarves, black panty-hose, and leather boots everywhere I looked, and when I checked the clock and realize that I still had 14 minutes I knew that I was in for an interesting morning.
By the end of our day at 6pm, all of my artsy-fartsy fears had been releived. The 3o people in my program all seem SO wonderful and the crude language of every professor that introduced him/herself today was one of the more entertaining moments I've ever had in a "professional" setting. After our day of introductions, actor name dropping and improv games (I know at this point some of you are probably wondering why I loved it so much) - they held a party for us in a room they affectionately call "Hogwarts". I died. Harry Potter references in a theatre school in London? There was nothing that could be better! Except, of course, heading home in the midst of a tube strike and realizing that our line was still running for a few more hours and we got to avoid a 45 minute walk home in the rain!
Well - that's all of my ranting for now. I could not have asked for a better intrdocution day, and to my (and many of your) surprise - my transition hasn't been all that bad! I'm starting to see myself here for the next 4 moths and all I can do is quote a pivotal movie of my yester-years and say "bring it on!"
Friday, September 3, 2010
Greetings from London!
So... I made it. My first official post in London (aka - the first time it's legitimate blogging about my "experience") The plane ride was relatively painless, minus the fact that I didn't sleep at all, probably because I had the world's loudest snorer in the row in front of me and a crying baby to my left, I was like Lindsay Lohan in that movie "just my luck".
Arrival was easy but the lady at the immigration desk was not very nice and seemed to seriously doubt everything that I told her, leading me believe that I am a much more suspicious-looking person than I had originally thought. My friend Naomi was there waiting outside customs when I got out and I had my first taste of a London motor way as we drove from Heathrow to their beautiful house in Kew, an area in West London. I did okay with the jet-lag for a while but after 32+ hours of not sleeping I began dozing off in every room of the house, so I allowed myself a 1 hour "snooze" and then kept myself up until 10 pm - not too shabby!
As for my excitement today - we went to a delicious hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant in South Hall and ate until I thought I would explode. There was all of this authentic Indian music on and then all of the sudden "Solo" came on, which I found hilarious, but everyone else was totally unfazed, making me the one stupid American laughing uncontrollably in the restaurant... way to go, Ariel.
So now it's real. I've seen the double decker buses, red pay phone booths, people driving on the wrong side of the road and lots of man-capris - I'm definitely in London. I can't wait to move into my dorm on Sunday and start exploring this place on my own, maybe then it'll feel more real and less like a holiday away. Regardless, from seeing the people here and experiencing the little I have so far, the one thing that is certain is, I have to start dressing better.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Packing is a Personal Problem
I had been thinking that beginning my foray into the blog-o-sphere more than a week before my departure may have been a bit premature, but it has proven to be an excellent base-line for my growing insanity. The realization that I leave in 3 days (technically a full 3, because my flight isn't until 9:30 pm on Wednesday) has only helped to quicken my heart palpitations, increase my caffeine intake and solidify the fact that I am, have been and always will be, a terrible packer.
The symptoms of incompetent-packer-itis first presented themselves about a week ago, when I took the initiative to start organizing the most important part of my wardrobe. In a bout of insomnia I had neatly laid out all 26 pairs of shoes that I believed were vital to my trip. Imagine my surprise when my mom walked in the next day and, rather than praising my early packing triumph, simply asked, "So, which of those are you actually bringing?" Apparently, "All of them" was not an appropriate response.
Since that day the disease has manifested itself in dresses, jeans, t-shirts, pajamas and even headbands. Now that I have all of 3 days to stop "organizing" and start physically moving items into bags, it has become clear to me that I need to stop arguing about what I MUST have and figure out what I actually need, items that I was just recently made aware, are not the same. I know that I am going to London, not Burundi, but it doesn't keep me from feeling like anything I leave behind will somehow become the one article of clothing that I will actually need (for example: of course I need a black sparkly sequined vest! What will I wear if we get invited to tea with Madonna?)
Needless to say, with the days dwindling and the luggage just as empty as ever, I can't help but hear the twinge of skepticism in people's voices when they assure me, "it'll all get done".
The symptoms of incompetent-packer-itis first presented themselves about a week ago, when I took the initiative to start organizing the most important part of my wardrobe. In a bout of insomnia I had neatly laid out all 26 pairs of shoes that I believed were vital to my trip. Imagine my surprise when my mom walked in the next day and, rather than praising my early packing triumph, simply asked, "So, which of those are you actually bringing?" Apparently, "All of them" was not an appropriate response.
Since that day the disease has manifested itself in dresses, jeans, t-shirts, pajamas and even headbands. Now that I have all of 3 days to stop "organizing" and start physically moving items into bags, it has become clear to me that I need to stop arguing about what I MUST have and figure out what I actually need, items that I was just recently made aware, are not the same. I know that I am going to London, not Burundi, but it doesn't keep me from feeling like anything I leave behind will somehow become the one article of clothing that I will actually need (for example: of course I need a black sparkly sequined vest! What will I wear if we get invited to tea with Madonna?)
Needless to say, with the days dwindling and the luggage just as empty as ever, I can't help but hear the twinge of skepticism in people's voices when they assure me, "it'll all get done".
Monday, August 23, 2010
So I guess I'm gonna blog
I leave for London in a little over a week and in an effort to feel that I am mildly prepared, I made a list of things that I still need to do. In order to be able to cross something off of that list I put "make a blog" at the bottom, created said blog, and subsequently, crossed that off of my list. I guess it's a start.
So this is really happening. Not just the blog, the actual London part too. As the days make their way into single digits the more excited, and consequently, more aware I become of how little I have actually accomplished. I guess I could give myself credit for getting into the program, but that seems so banal compared to all of the shoes I feel are necessary for my trip. It has become a constant battle in my head between feeling like I'm ready to leave tonight and remembering that that would put me across the Atlantic with nothing more than a pair of jeans, flip-flops, a t-shirt and a vest (which, thinking about it, I could probably make work...)
Regardless of the waging war in my brain, the reality is that I do still have time and with the list made, the passport valid and the shopping commenced, I'm sure the rest of the bullet-points will all fall away in good time. At least I hope so.
So this is really happening. Not just the blog, the actual London part too. As the days make their way into single digits the more excited, and consequently, more aware I become of how little I have actually accomplished. I guess I could give myself credit for getting into the program, but that seems so banal compared to all of the shoes I feel are necessary for my trip. It has become a constant battle in my head between feeling like I'm ready to leave tonight and remembering that that would put me across the Atlantic with nothing more than a pair of jeans, flip-flops, a t-shirt and a vest (which, thinking about it, I could probably make work...)
Regardless of the waging war in my brain, the reality is that I do still have time and with the list made, the passport valid and the shopping commenced, I'm sure the rest of the bullet-points will all fall away in good time. At least I hope so.
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