Tick tick tick tick ...

The end of my trip to London is fast aproaching.  I am glad.  I have become weary of seeing plays by myself.  I'm tired of trying to fill the days with juggling, walking, and this computer lab.  There are highlights; conversations with fellow students, seeing great theatre, and seeing some of the sites is good for anecdotes. 

I want to get back so I won't be spending money and actually be able to work at the restaurant to make back what I have spent.  Maybe I can get some ballet in as well.  I bought a copy of "In a Forest, Dark and Deep" to try and find audition dialogue I am doing with a ATP classmate.  So I want to get on that as well.  I have a goal too.  I want to date this summer.  That is huge for me, I'm not very experienced at dating.  Yea, I'll put it like that.  I'm trying to not be negative.  I even had my eye on someone, but I didn't ask as I was coming here.
Maybe she will still be around.  If she is I will ask her.  How's that for brave positive thinking?

It turns out they are having auditions for the show I am doing the internship for next semester; next week.  And, I'm here.  I don't know how that will affect things.  Just another tick in the "con" column, weighing weather it was a good or not-so-good idea to do this study abroad.  If someone were to ask me if they should do this, I would say if you have a good friend going with you, or you make good friends friends easily, (Good friend being someone that will do any and everything with you.  Many here have that.  Not me.) or is just fine with doing everything alone then do it.  But, if you can't do those things, you'll be lonely and it may not be worth it.

Stratford upon Avon, (or is it "on Avon")

Is a small English town, whose industry is mainly William Shakespeare.  We spent a pleasant couple days by the Avon river.  Having English breakfast then a day of touring historic sites; Shakespeare's birth place, final resting place, the cottage he courted is wife, etc.  Juggling the minutes away.  Capping it with a Royal Shakespeare Company production; a strange "Merchant of Venice"  with an un-happy ending, and an amazing "Macbeth".  The "Macbeth" had children as the witches; children that turn out to be Macduff's.  This Macduff was not exceptional , but still good.  What it did was take me back to my Macduff.  I bawled my eyes out as my family was killed, as my cousin told me the were gone, and when my wife's ghost stared directly at me.  The last night I got to talk with a couple of the RSC actors, who were very kind and sharing.  I know I can make it to their level, and do the same quality of work.  I am chewing at the bit to work.  I pray I won't lose momentum, fall into depression, and pour my time into trivial distractions.

Crash Crew

I have to write a play.  Not as in an assignment, but as a duty, or compulsion.  I talked to the professor, and he gave some good feed back on the idea.  I'm not sure if I can do it the way it needs to be done.  It is about why we serve, in the military.  I am going to use my time in the Marine Corps to do it.  Autobiographical.  I have a ton of stories, and a few ideas.  See how it goes.

National Saturday

A great Saturday.  I got out early(8:00am) and got day tickets to two plays at the National Theatre; two front and center seats.  Then back to the flat to eat and such. 

The first play was "Rocket to the Moon" on the Lyttleton stage.  When I walked into the theater to take my seat the was a wall in front of the stage, "Safety Curtain".  When it opened I saw a 1930's dentists office in New York City.  A very nice set.  The story is sad and touching.  A cliche happens, an almost 40 dentist (Ben) has an affair with the secretary, but it is so much more than that.  There are themes of getting older, male responsibility and women's roles in the depression, and of course love.  The characters were played on the surface with eruptions of depth breaching through surface.  I won't give the end away, but I would not have chosen as Ben chose.

After, I walked to The Globe and bought a ticket to "Much Ado about Nothing".  I spent the interum hours eating lunch, reading, and juggling.  There was a nice spot to juggle out front on grass like carpet next to giant grass like furniture.  When I dropped the balls they didn't roll far.  I am sure people watched, but I tried not to notice or think about it.  At one point a french man, I think a school teacher cam up to me and offered to play.  He tried to take a ball I was juggling out of the air and then put it back.  There was a little success and more laughing.  Then he showed what he could do and juggled circles.

I took a walk around the area and found a wall of poems. One really struck me. 

"Leaving and Leaving You by Sophie Hanna

When I leave you postcode and your commuting station,
When I left undone all the things we planned to do
You may feel you have been left by association
But there is leaving and leaving you.

When I leave your town and the club that you belong to,
When I leave without much warning or much regret,
Remember, there's doing wrong and there's doing wrong to
You, which I'll never do and I haven't yet,

And when I have gone, remember that in weighing
Everything up, from love to a cheaper rent,
You were all the reasons I thought of staying,
And none of the reasons why I went

And although I leave your sight and I leave your setting,
And our separation is soon to be a fact,
Though you stand beside what I'm leaving and forgetting,
I'm not leaving you, not if motive makes the act."

Upon returning I ran into the two sons of the head of the study abroad program and we chatted a bit, until the professor came.  We went to our separate plays.  I saw Chekhov's "Cherry Orchard"  it was a great production; amazing set great acting in the Oliver Theater.  Zoe Wanamaker was the mother.  I didn't know her, but she is very famous here.  The story is of irony and dashed hopes.  Things the Russians find comedic.  Chekhov's play are considered comedies.  If that's comedy the Russian tragedies must be something to behold.  I watched the play as an observer; I appreciated it, but was not moved.

After I returned to the flat.

A week of Plays.

I have seen several plays in the last week.  Here is a run down.

"Holy Rosenbergs" by Ryan Craig; Story of a Jewish family in London.  A son died fighting in the Gaza Strip.  A daughter is working on a U.N. report on human rights violations in the Palestine/Israel conflict.  Another son is trying to deal with failing to measure up to expectations.  A father is trying to get the family business back on its feet.  A mother trying to keep it all together.  An excellent production.  I was told some of the actors are world class, but I do not recognize them.  I was an engaging story, well written script with real characters with strengths and flaws.  The set was a dining room in a very intimate theatre.

"And I and Silence" was in a theatre above a wine/tea/coffee shop; very small, 50 seats.  The story is of two women, one white one black, who meet in prison in the USA then live and work together after they are released.  It is a sad tale.  It bounces back and forth from their meeting and forming a friendship to after their release 7 years later.  It was played by two sets of actors.  The production was not as polished as other plays I've seen here.  One of the actors had an affected almost caricatured voice.  The others were very believable.

"As You Like It" by Shakespeare.  A delightful show at the New Globe.  The players are a traveling company of eight.  They had great energy and it looked as though they have worked together for a long time, and those relationships helped them in the play.  The performance gave me ideas of how the plays were performed originally; in the same space, the same time of day, minimal set, sound, and lighting.  I was moved as much by the story, a comedy, as by the actors working so well.

"Hamlet" by Shakespeare.  "Gaaaaa..." is what I wrote in my notebook.  Very tedious.  The actor who played Hamlet did everything I have been training not to do.  He just said the words, very very fast, with nothing behind them.  He did not relate to other actors.  He had his monologues planned out.  At times involuntarily vocalized my disbelief at his changes in mood.  If I ever act like that, please put me out of my misery.  The other actors were passable.  Palonious I did not understand.  Horatio and Claudius were good.

"Proof" by David Auburn.  I saw it in Greenwich (That's the Greenwich as in "Greenwich Mean Time") at Greenwich Playhouse which is above a pub.  It was a small theatre, 80 seats.  There were great characters all around and it is a great story.  I had a couple classmates play the last scene, so it was nice to see the entirety.  The actor that played the sister at one time I though had a great sense and physicality of a hangover, but then she did the same stuff the next scene, so not so good.  A fun time, I am going to see another play there next week.  I had a thought during the play, since I am versed in Mathematics and Science.  Will my various experiences help me in acting as far as just the knowledge goes?

I am still hitting the play circuit hard, more to come.

Exestention. (Is that a word?)

Watching all these plays makes me want to work.  I want to act and do it ... more than well, excellently.  But, not just for other's approval.  Granted that is a big part; it is my nature to seek approval.  I love things about my self.  I love the way I hear music, the way I dance, the way I see the world, the way I love.  I want to love the way I take a character and tell the story.  I am not there yet.  I still have fear and uncertainty.  That is why I want to go to grad school.  I feel like I have only warmed up, and there is much more to learn.  I don't think I can learn it, or get where I want to be, on my own.  I was looking at "The Actors Studio" and from what I have heard from a friend it might be a good place.  They focus on Stanislavsky, lots of movement, and work on new stuff.  Draw backs; odds of getting in a very slim, $100,000 tuition (yikes), and living in NYC.  I need to find a back up I think.  I need to ask anther friend about his program at University of Missouri.  He just got in, but I think it is an every other year program.  So that is what I am looking for; a  masters acting program, with strong movement, Stanislavsky, and new works.   There is a ton of information out there. I'm not sure how to sort through it.

Arggg... I don't know what I'm doing.

On Wednesday I took the first ballet class since Macbeth rehearsals started, which has been several months.  It was at a place called "The Place".  It's a nice place...  Tough class on many levels.  It is humid which makes the floor very sticky for my new shoes.  I am very out of shape in ballet terms.  Picking up choreography is not my forte and the instructor had a French/British accent.  It was OK, I am going to take African dance class there on Monday.

Tonight I went to see "A Delicate Balance" by Edward Albee, the same guy who wrote "Who's afraid of Virginia Wolf", at the Almeida Theatre.  It was a wonderful production.  A Gorgeous set full of burgundy, red and browns.  Richly decorated with lots of alcohol, a constant theme, and many seats.  A lovely playground for the actors.  The script is more verbose and wordy than Virgina Wolf, but the actors were so good that I was never bored or off on a day dream.  The accents were good too.  One actor's Northeastern American might have held some British, but not bad.  The youngest actor however had a very confused muddled accent, parts were sort of NYC, and others I could not tell from where.  The play may have had some symbolism outside of its reality, but I did not pick up on it.  There was something ominous and bigger than the events going on.  Not sure what.  I met a couple English gents, sitting next to me,Michael and Ian.  We chatted about plays and royalty.  Makes me wonder, I seem to get on great with older people, my young school mates I seem to have trouble relating with.