School, Shows, and Scones

I have discovered a pattern to my blog posts: they are usually spaced about three weeks apart, and every one starts with a little apology for being so lackadaisical in keeping my family and friends updated. This is no exception. But I suppose it’s a good sign that I rarely post – it means that I’m keeping very very busy here. But we have today off from school since our Shakespeare professor, Ian, has jetted off to California to audition our successors, so I figured I should post a little update.

First off, I’ve put up photos on Picasa! Joy! You can find them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/isaisastc

BADA is keeping me very busy and very scheduled. I generally have classes from 9-6, with close to an hour walk to and from school (I’m essentially going from Hyde Park to the other side of Regent’s Park), and I go to at least one show each week. So there’s not a lot of breathing room. But I love everything I’m doing, so I don’t mind so much.

Classes are going well, and are actually almost over! At the end of October we have a week long break, during which I’m going to Greece and Italy, and when we return we change over from having classes to doing shows. Auditions are coming up in two weeks, and everyone’s getting a little nervous (I’m doing a scene from Mary Stuart with another Schiller devotee. Should be fun!). So I’m trying to make the most of my classes while I still have them.

- In Shakespeare I have been working on three scenes: Juliet in the balcony scene, Cassius in the tent scene in Julius Caesar, and Mistress Ford in the letter scene in The Merry Wives of Windsor. I picked the last two, and have been having a great time working on them, especially since they are so diverse.

- High Comedy is definitely my biggest challenge so far, since the style is so very specific and so far from what I’m used to doing. But the play is so ridiculous that it’s impossible not to laugh and have a good time. It’s a stretch, but I’m hoping that I’ll really get a hold of the style in the next two weeks.

- Theatre History and Dramatic Criticism are still some of my favorites, mostly because I’ll always be an incorrigible academic, even outside of Swarthmore. I’ve discovered that one can voice even the most outrageous opinion, but if you do it confidently most of the class tends to nod in affirmation. Handy little trick, this. If I believed in emoticons, I would definitely put a little winky-face here to indicate that I’m not really serious.

- Stage Combat has been tons of fun. We’ve covered the basic slaps and punches, but also kicks, contact work, and falls.

- In Modern Physical we’ve done some chorus and tensions work, and have recently been working intensively on masks. Really the only way to succeed in this class is to stop caring if you look like an idiot or not and just throw yourself at the work and see what happens. Either you’ll fail spectacularly or do pretty well, and both are kind of cool to see.

Outside of school, I’ve been keeping very busy as well. I’ve seen about 800 shows since coming to London and have reviewed them all. I wish I had the energy/time to post the reviews, but I doubt I’ll ever do that. Since my last post I’ve seen 8 shows. They’re getting bullet points because there are just too many.

- All’s Well that Ends Well at the National Theatre was a bizarre postmodern fairytale, rather overdesigned and scattered, but interesting.

- As soon as I heard someone was doing Caryl Churchill in London I ran to the Union Theatre (a wonderfully tiny space) to see Cloud Nine, which had a remarkably strong cast and pulled off the show very well.

- I also saw Judgement Day at the Almeida Theatre, which was an odd, moralizing, German play, very much “of it’s time.” I think if Wedekind and Buchner had an illegitimate love child it may have written this play. Ultimately it wasn’t really my style, but it certainly succeeded at what it was trying to do.

- My first opera was Le Grand Macabre at the English National Opera, which was… wonderfully amorphous and intangible. I’m still not sure what exactly went on, but the set was a giant naked woman from whose orifices the characters emerged (The New York Times has a good slideshow of it: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/04/07/arts/20090407-iht-loomis-slideshow_index.html).

- This was followed by Vanya by Sam Holcroft at the Gate Theatre, a great space for emerging work. This is the single best play I’ve seen in years, and I feel privileged to have seen its world premiere. It is a gorgeous adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya that captured the isolation of character and language in Chekhov beautifully. Vanya did not feel like an adaption of or a “take” on Uncle Vanya; rather, it felt like what Chekhov would have written were he a contemporary playwright. Also, the four actors are some of the most talented performers I’ve ever seen. A large packing box, which isturned to be seen from all angles, makes up the entire set. It was simply beautiful. The script is still unpublished, but I will be very surprised if Vanya doesn’t become a very popular show. The Gate Theatre has a slideshow of this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gatetheatre/sets/72157622158801704/

- All the students of BADA went to Stratford-upon-Avon to see The Winter’s Tale done by the Royal Shakespeare Company. This was a wonderful example of a well-funded and very professional theatre can pull off. The show was phenomenal, and the acting was unilaterally excellent. There was a spectacular moment after the trial scene, when two enormous bookcases collapse and all their books come crashing to the ground (a little frightening when you’re in the front row). The rest of the show was built into this chaos and destruction and worked beautifully to explore the theme of rebirth that is so strong in this play.

- I saw a second show at the Globe: Love’s Labours Lost. I was really excited to see this performed, since it’s such an odd play, but I was highly disappointed. It was so slow-moving I actually almost fell asleep.

- Lucy Prebble’s Enron at the Royal Court was a remarkable piece about… you guessed it, the Enron scandal. I think it is very difficult to take something so contemporary and make it theatrical, but this show succeeded very well in this. The play essentially eviscerated the amoral capitalist attitudes of business since the ‘80s, which is particularly timely, considering global economics. This was very different from anything else I’ve seen, but was a great success. The show is moving to the West End and aiming for Broadway, so keep an eye out for it.

See? That’s why I never post! So much stuff to do! In other news, I’ve bought myself a ukulele and play it all the time. And I’m baking copious amounts of scones. But that’s the life here: school, shows, scones. It’s a nice semester abroad.