"As if we're all immortal beings...on one big great adventure" - JB Priestley

(At Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace).

Today, was another great day. I successfully dragged two boys around London, figured out the underground system, saw play #2 and had a great time!

Class today was really discussion about A Little Night Music from last night, and then prepping us for Time and the Conways (Which was tonight), and Arcadia (Tomorrow, SOOO excited), and War Horse on Thursday. Reason we had to prep for all of those was because Paul Ready is coming tomorrow to teach us how to speak more easily in Shakespearian language. Should be Awesome! He was one of the lead characters in Time and The Conways (He played Alan), did a fabulous job, and I cannot wait to meet him tomorrow. 

After Class Kyle, Alex, Geoff, and I went to get pizza from this place that Clum recommended. They were ready made every day and completely different. I got potato and artichoke pizza, which was interesting, but very good. We ate in a park off of Gray's Inn Road, which was really nice. then we went back to Waitrose (the nicest grocery store around), and got some stuff. I got peanut butter and jelly and bread to make sandwiches for lunch instead of eating out. Then, no one really wanted to do anything, and I said, "I'm only in London one time," so I grabbed as many people as I could....Kyle and Geoff, and convinced them I knew where I was going and we hopped on an underground. We jumped off after awhile and got to Buckingham Palace and all the other stuff around there. WE just checked everything out and looked around. Then, instead of walking, we jumped back on the tube and took it over to Parliament, which brought us RIGHT NEXT to parliament. We literally walked up the stairs face to face with it. Walked around it, checking in out, and were like, well, let's just check how expensive a tour is, and the lady was like it's about a 30 minute wait, but it's free. So we jumped on that. Turns out not for a regular tour, but we went through security and waited in a couple lines and then next thing I new we were behind a glass partition watching the dudes in the House of Commons debating! They'd get all fiesty and you see them all try to interrupt each other and say "hur ha ha hur ha hura hea yeah hur" it was pretty cool! and then we went and got to see the same thing in the House of Lords. It was really cool. The last time I was in London, I don't think Congress was in session, so we go to see the rooms, but not them in action. It's weird though that not all of them have to be there though.

Then we headed over to the theater just so we knew we'd be on time. We found a sushi restaurant called Ping Pong, which was very good and interesting, but expensive (as usual). The only bad thing that happened was that when the waiter asked us if we wanted dessert, I played a trick on Kyle and asked "Hey Kyle Don't you want some expresso?" Because he had some the night before and then couldn't fall asleep until like 3 am. and he said "Oh God, no" and we think the waiter thought we meant the restaurant was bad and he didn't come back for like 30 minutes to give us our check. I felt bad and told him it was delicious, but he wouldn't look at us anymore. well...we're just stupid Americans anyway. 

Time and the Conways

The interesting mechanism in this show (A dramatic comedy, take that for an oxymoron) was family. It was amazing how much work the cast had done to get that family feel. It's extremely hard to recreate the way a family behaves around each other and no one else, the way family members look at each other like they are family, the way they move and behave because they feel at home. It's extremely difficult, and the cast of Time and The Conways was phenomenal at it! I was blown away by how they merged together, despite all of them having such interesting stories of their own and leading parts.

Rupert Goold took some huge liberties with the sci-fi, the twilight zone -esque, techniques at the end of each act, and for awhile it bothered me because it, first of all, wasn't scripted, and second-of-all, didn't really further the plot any because I already understand everything that was going on. I'm very anxious to hear Paul Ready's take on all the technological stuff because, though it was absolutely incredible, seemed oddly placed.

Act 1: 1919, Kay's 21st birthday. We get a family of six children, a single mother, and a few friends at a party, in a separate room though, dressing up for a game of charades. (I like how they say it here: "sharodds.")  They are all young, happy, bubbly, excited, dreaming and hopeful about the future, but covering themselves up with clothes they don't fit in (symbolic). Kay, a writer, sits to write in her notebook, when comes under a extreme twilight zone moment, and everything completely FROZE! With papers falling to the ground, and Carol's (well, technically Kay's b-day present) scarf stuck mid-air (that looked SO cool), and the stage rotated, with everything frozen. SO COOL.

Act 2: Almost 20 years later. 1938. We see what has become of each of these characters, how differently anyone would have expected them to be. The prettiest daughter who could get all the boys is stuck with a short and stout abusive husband, Robin (the favorite son) treats his wife and children cruelly, leaving for months at a time. Madge is completely alone, stiff, and mean (which we find out later is her mother's fault). Carol is dead (the youngest, happiest and most full of life). Kay is extremely bitter, unhappily trapped as a journalist, angry, and miserable. Alan, the oldest, seemed almost to be the least changed, though he did seem sadder and more lonely (his love was taken by Robin, who ruined her). And the mother is left broken, poor, and hating all her children. After everyone has left, Alan quotes an author to Kay who spoke of how life possesses both woe and joy and understanding that both will be existent in life, "safely through the world we go," and it seems to comfort Kay. She goes over to a mirror. and suddenly the house is broken apart, flies away, and there are seven Kays in front of seven identical mirrors copying her movmeents at different times. It was incredible. 

3rd act: Picks up in 1919 where Act 1 left off, but with a changed Kay because she realizes something has happened, but isn't sure what. When the family decides to discuss what everyone's future holds, and characters begin to speak of their dreams, Kay starts freaking out because she realizes it's not going to be anything like that and that everyone will be miserable. She turns to Alan and says "Alan, there is something you wanted to say to me. Something that would make it more bearable," but of course Alan doesn't know what she's talking about, nor has read that author yet. Everything gets all twilight zone-y and Alan finally admits he feels that one day he will have something important to say to her (safely through the world we go), and then the two are in from of a hologram machine. Each of them is moving in time, in different ways, but sometimes they are moving with each other, sometimes they're moving with their future selves. Sometimes future Alan is moving with Past Kay and vice versa. IT WAS CRAZY. Unlike anything I've ever seen before. Yet strangely, odd. 

(Sorry, I gave so much away Mom, I gotta remember somehow!)

Common themes: family. living life to the fullest. we cannot control time. time has us. 

quotes I liked:

"Kay I think you're wonderful" 

"I think life is wonderful."

"I think you both are" 

-Carol and Kay

"She said she was tired of everything"

-Hazel

"A seed is easily destroyed but it may have grown into an oak tree"

-Madge, seed destroyed by her own mother.

"As if we're all immortal beings."

"Yes, on one big great adventure."

-Kay and Alan.

"The point is to live."

-Carol

One thing that struck me was how old they all seemed in 1938. I mean they were only 20 years old, the oldest, Alan, was 44. At first this bothered me because 44 year olds don't act super old, but when I thought of the turn of events that brought them to their new prospective lives, I realized that it was those events that prematurely aged them. and so that worked.

The other thing I enjoyed was the technical side of it. They showed the same exact house twenty years later and it had different wallpaper and furniture but you could still tell it was the same house and that looked extremely cool. The girls wigs were fabulous. I had no idea they were wigs until the seven Kays came out. They each had two, and none of them looked fake. And the sci-fi stuff of course was really cool.

Something is still bothering me a little, but I cant really put my finger on what. Maybe we'll have time to discuss it more with Paul tomorrow and I'll understand. 

For now. i need bed, badly.

Tomorrow: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. I am definitely excited about this one. should be amazing.

Again I just want to reiterate how awesome London theater is. They can do whatever they want, try new things, and it can totally work. I am so thankful and blessed.

Much love,

Rebecca 

"Theater is a celebration of language." - Clum

Well, it really is, isn't it. In its simplest form, a script of a play is merely words on a page that state something or tell a story. What theater does, through a play, is glorify the words on the page, putting them in front of a willingly receptive audience, with actors moving and creating a connected picture, with lights and sounds and music added in, too. So it's just a way of taking language, words, and using them to raise big questions, ideas, and issues, generally leaving it up to the audience to decide how they feel about it, or try to answer some of the questions for themselves.  

Why is that a celebration? Well, what are we, but our connections to the world, to the people in our lives, to our beliefs, to our knowledge. How

 do we get anything across? Language. 

That is what this six week program is. A celebration.

----------------

Today, was a much better day. The bed was quite comfortable, I finally found hangers, and I got a fan. 90s in Florida is bad with AC. 80s in London with no A

C is hot as heck.

My thoughts on class are above. It was interesting.  Clum sort of gave us a history of London theater, different ideas, and talked about the show we would see that night (A Little Night Music) and some about Time and the Conways (tomorrow's show, should be fabulous). I think the general consensus of all the kids is that Clum knows everyone famous. Everyone. He knows Hugh Jackman. The Lead character in Time in the Conways is going to come teach me how to act on Wednesday and Thursday. yeah.

Random cool things I learned in class (just side stuff):

-The Office was originally started in the UK (It's pretty obvious how much experimenting Londoners do in theater; with so many subsidized theate

r institutions [man I wish our taxpayers could donate some to Hoof 'n' Horn and VHS players!], it definitely gives them a little more leeway to try things).

-Let me reiterate the arts are heavily subsidized here.  The National Theater of Great Britain is completely subsidized. Students study drama in public school starting Day 1, and have a play reading list that they must complete in order to pass their examinations. 

-I liked two metaphors Clum gave us about theater today: 1) Theater is like a church. people come together in a space to share an experience about larger questions. 2) Theater is like a courtroom, where the audience acts as the jury, judging and evaluating the characters, see their talents and where they have failed, etc.

-Revivals are really just bring the present and the past together. It's a new version of old words, and actors really have to figure out why they are reviving this in order to give it new meaning. Clum said a cool quote, "Treat a new play like it's a classic, and treat a classic like it's a new play."

-"A script is not a play, it's a blueprint." Plays are meant to be seen and heard. Not read.

-Generally, plays are the last chapter of a really long story. You find out parts of the story through exposition told by the characters. Take any play, and think about it. 

-Theater is just overall much easier to do here. People can turn a profit with a show in three weeks. In NY you couldn't do that in under a year because of labor union rules, etc. For instance, Orchestra unions have a rule that a certa

in size orchestra is necessary for a certain size theater. For instance, Mamma Mia! is/was in a theater that by the rules needed a 20 person orchestra, Mamma Mia! only needs 9 musical parts, but they are still paying 11 other parts because they have to! CRAZY. 

-etc etc etc

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After class we (Ted, Cam, Alex, Kyle, Robert, Geoff, John, and I) went to a pizzeria (there's a million everywhere.) These Italians owned it, a

nd were very nice. We split four pizzas and garlic bread (again, the food is too expensive). Their version of crushed red peppers (which, if you know me, I'm obsessed with when it comes to pizza, pasta, etc), was really weird! It was in like an olive oil jar and liquidy with the crushed red peppers on the bottom. I don't really know what it was, but it was Good!

After that we headed to a Robert (or was it michael??) Dyas and got fans and hangers, hallelujah. And I think we'll be able to return the fans so that's nice. no more wrinkly dresses either. Definitely put me in high spirits, haha.

We came right back to Langton Close and Clum picked us up for a quick tour of some stuff and then to dinner and the first show! We saw a lot of stuff. (Wow, Becca, specific). Erm. We jumped on a double decker bus (Their bus system is almost as good as their underground system, and you can use your tube card [Called an Oyster Card, now] to get on the buses, so that's nice). Went to Covent Garden, which use

d to be a food market a long time ago, but is now shops and restaurants, it was a very cool little area. And then went to the National Gallery of Blah Blah (I'm forgetting names already :( ) and saw some paintings for free (the museum was free). Went to Trafalgar Square (Hey, remember that rents??), It has the big statues of the Lions and the fountain and tons of people. Went on some bridge and looked at the London Eye, B

ig Ben, and Parliament from a far. and He pointed out to us some really expensive flats (apartments) and a really expensive hotel with tiny rooms, as well as some other theaters for future days. 

By that time, we were all pretty worn out. Most of the girls had worn heels (Not I!), and everyone was hot and thirsty. We got to the restaurant, The Forge, and they had a whole room set up for us! We got to order whatever we wanted and everyone had three courses, haha. I got linguine arrabiata (pretty much linguine with marinara sauce), Roasted chicken with potato gratin with some yummy sauce, and Banoffee Trifle. Don't ask what that dessert was, but it was AWESOME! bananas, fluffy stuff, and yummy stuff. Then I had earl grey tea, and thought of my momma. The boys pretty much all got steak

 and fries, lemon tart and expresso. haha. Clum also ordered wine for the table, too! (Don't worry, I didn't finish my glass, padres). I can't believe the drinking age is 16, though. Sounds way too young, even if it's proper here.  We pretty much were in bliss, and just listened to Clum talk really because he has so many cool stories, and of course, knows everyone that's famous. 

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A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim

Garrick Theatre (built in the 1880s, reflecting class structure, rich on first balcony, middle class in "the stalls" [best seats by today's standards, and where we sat], and 2nd and 3rd balconies. Very ornate and very old. Europe likes carving naked ladies. 

The show itself is a the 4th revival in London of a 1973 musical. It's based on a movie called Smiles of a Summer Night, which is a classical farce (pretty much like the musical, plot-wise, too), that takes place in Sweden at the turn of the century. It possesses stock characters and situations like a old man that marries a teenage, naive girl, a vain soldier acting icy and stiff, a maid who seems to always be aware of everything, but also is the typical...as Clum called it, "sexually alert," a stern young man confus

ed about the world and life and love, a woman dealing with a cheating husband (the soldier), and an actress who is adored by...everyone (by 'everyone,' I mean men, and by 'adored,' I mean a slightly more...desire). Sounds simple, truthfully. But the story handles all issues that come up in life because of such relationships in a very connective, dream-like way, which Sondheim contributed to beautifully with breathtaking musical melodies and poignant lyrics that show up again repetitively, but with newer, different meanings each time. And the director of this revival, Trevor Nunn, was wicked awesome in the way he created the picture on stage,  the blocking/movement, the lighting, everythin

g. The show itself was a comedy, but the lighting and setting was rather dark and mysterious, while being lightened up by the dresses of characters Anne (Jessie Buckley), and Fredrika (Katie Buckhholz). and everyone when they were "in the country" 

I couldnt help but take out my notebook and jot down quotes in the dark that I didn't want to forget:

"Doesn't anything begin?" - Henrik (Gabriel Vick), the guy struggling with life, is the single character that stands out the most in the c

omedy because he simply can't get himself to fit in a such a life of deceit like the others, unhappy, and yet unwilling to change anything. On top of everything, he's madly in love with Anne, who just so happens to be his 18 year old step-mother to his rather old father. So, he joins the priesthood (which everyone makes fun of him for until the very end), and struggles so much that he almost kills himself. But, yay, Anne gets there in time, and realizes how much she cares about him and they kiss and I was very happy! :) He also played the cello during the show, which was awesome

"How strange to end one's life on a bench in a garden." - Fredrik (Alexander Hanson). An man trying to "renew his unrenewable youth" w

ho has been married before and had a beautiful mistress, Desiree Armfeldt (Hannah Waddingham - phenomenal), marries Anne, knowing her when she was verrry young. Anyway he says this once he realizes that he has brought his family to the country to be close to Desiree only to lose everything (and his wife and son, since they run off together), and is sitting in a garden. It is ironic, really. Anyway, he gets Desiree back so everything turns out okay.

"I'm here at last on the ground, you're in mid-air" - EPIC song. Hannah Waddingham as Desiree in "Send in the Clowns." So pretty and so sad. She realizes that she wants Fredrik for good and tells him so, and he says he cant because 

of his wife (just before he finds out she's

 run off with his son anyway). That quote was amazing. Explaining it if you dont get it, loses something. so try hard.

And of course, I loved all the group numbers. "A Weekend in the Country" was fabulous, and very visually appealing. I love it when actors are onstage singing, but doing different things in their own separate bubbles. (rather incomparable example: It's Superman (Reprise) Act Two).  And the Now, Later, Soon segment at the beginning was sweet. 

So overall, Great Start!!! This show tackled some tough ideas about love and life and morality and fidelity and just beautiful. 

It is coming to New York in the winter. I'll be interested to see how well it does, simply because it was so experimental, and though it was a comedy, it held a lot of deeper meanings that I'm not sure Americans would prefer over simple-plotted shows that just have bright colors to entice (ie Hairspray.) So, we'll see.

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There you have it, I could go on and on, and I suppose this blog would get rather boring, especially without me giving a complete play synopsis in order to say anything about it, so from now on, i'll try to make these shorter. I just don't want to forget a moment of this. But, I want you guys to enjoy reading just much as I want to write down every single little thing I did, so I'll make a bit of a comprise. It's super late, I'm super exhausted, and super excited for what tomorrow will bring!

Miss you guys, and wish you all could be here seeing all this,

Becca

With tons of history comes...old buildings.

It's amazing how crazy the actual process of getting to London is. You don't even really think it. You just say: "Two planes. Gatwick Express. Taxi." Simple. 

False. I AM EXHAUSTED. And used to having to follow my parents around when we travel got me spoiled. Getting here...was intense.

The best part of the journey, however, was probably finding out I had been upgraded to first class on my flight to London Gatwick. Any other first class, not that big of a deal. But first class on an eight hour flight to London... BIG DEAL. And we regular economy class sitting citizens have no idea such things that are being hidden from us in the first class. So I will relate them to you to let it all be known:

-Chair moves every way. not just into a bed. EVERY way. move this move that, you feel like you're on a slow moving Disney ride. 

-You have two lights, one in the ceiling and an adjustable one behind your head

-Before take off you receive your choice of orange juice or champagne; I alas had neither

-you also receive a FULL size pillow and blanket, and the normal travel kit everyone else gets

-Once you are in the air you get your first hot, wet towel, to wipe your hands and face with

-you have 3.5 feet of space in front of you (thereabouts)

-You are brought not a bag of overly salted peanuts, but a glass bowl of assorted boiled nuts...warm. 

-Alcoholic beverages...lots. A luxury I could not participate in.

-Soda in glass cups (not the dumb plastic ones)

-a 3 course meal 1st course, soup, salada, shrimp cocktail with avocados, and three choices of bread, two choices of salad dressing, a TABLE CLOTH for your tray table, 2 forks, 3 knives, 1 spoon, personal salt and pepper shakers, and butter for bread

-main course, is sorta the typical

-dessert: your choice of assorted cheeses or ice cream sundae. You can probably guess what I had.

-cool tv

-we have our own private potty so dirty economy class people don't mess around in it.

-they give you Dasani water bottles every three seconds

-oh and 2nd hot, wet towel much later on in flight

Yes, that was my experience. The only downsides: Left leg was numb so I didn't sleep, food wasn't all that great, and the guy I was sitting next to slept the whole time with his chair in bed mode so I couldn't climb over him to go to the bathroom! BAD.

Blah blah, got to Victoria Station, got a nice taxi guy, and saw a whole bunch of buildings that I said to myself (I remember those PERFECTLY, but not what they are / were for) haha. hopefully we'll do some good site seeing because classes and shows. 

I miss being able to text or call people whenever I wanted. You have no idea how often you look at your cell phone, until you realize you're looking constantly at a phone you can do nothing with. not cool.

We got to Langton Close, which is our residence hall on a street off of Gray's Inn Road. It, itself, is nothing to talk about. But definitely makes my dorm room back at Duke look like the Grand Floridian Hotel. It still blows my mind how...different England is. I sorta expect them to be up to standards with us, but these buildings are SO OLD (well, our buildings can't compete with hundreds of years). It says something outside our residence hall about how it used to be a sort of hospital (just with nurses I think), I can't remember the date, I'll go look at it again.  The wall papers peeling, my closet is teeeny, and there's a sink in my room. no air conditioning. toilets down the hall you have to crank a couple times to get to flush, and no wireless internet. Definitely a reality check for how easy we have in the US. I try to not take things for granted, but even I sometimes forget. 

Don't get me wrong though, it's fine for a bunch of college kids. But it definitely made me miss my bedroom. still does. the bed is clean at least. 

Charles Dickens lived in a flat not too far from here, I dunno how long ago though. I'll try to go back over there too.

I talked to a girl from Italy today! She's staying at Langton Close and taking class to learn how to speak English, because no one she knows in Italy knows how to speak it. It was really cool! She talked to me, and sometimes used a dictionary and we talked for awhile waiting for the guy who could let us into our rooms to show up. She's working on a film critic magazine that's going to be presented at some festival in the fall in Italy; she showed me some of the stuff she'd been working on, was frustrated I didn't know any of these amazing producers she talked about in some of the articles, and we had a good time just talking. The other kids just talked to each other while we waited, but she was all alone, so I was glad I tried to talk to her. It's so interesting to hear how different people's lives can be just because they were born in a different country. 

We walked to this pretty cool shopping center, with shops, a grocery store, a cosmetics store, and a bunch of restaurants, starbucks, too (theyre everywhere [starbucks], and Pret a Manger). It's a pretty cool little area, I wish I could go shopping there. All these little boutiques with cute clothes; maybe my one item will come from there. 

And even though right now it's 1 pound is a 1.68 dollars; their prices are still exactly what they would be in dollars in the US! it makes me so mad! I got a smoothie for 3.45 pounds at a cute little restaurant we wen to for lunch called Giraffe, and was like dude, this is what I would pay in the US ($3.45). ...frustrating. food is very expensive.

I got from the grocery store waters, chips and salsa, granola bars, and carrots. sounds like a good diet, huh. It's close though so I can go back whenever. It's just hard to pick out food without having all your favorite brands right there; hard to know which is the best brand that everyone buys. I need hangers. 

I'm SO TIRED. 

Tomorrow, I start class at 10:45. Professor Clum is taking us on a tour of the "center of London" he said, and then we're seeing "A Little Night Music" by Stephen Sondheim.

It was, overall, a pretty rough first day, but I'm excited to get this show on the road (buh dun ch) tomorrow. 

More when I can...

Love

Becca

"I have sailed the world, beheld its wonders...

...but there's no place like... London."

(Sweeney Todd)

I'm off to the UK tomorrow (Saturday June 27, 2009) to study theater (all types) for the rest of the summer.  I'll be taking two theater courses (acting, reading  and studying theater), and will be seeing shows on average 5 nights a week. ...I'm VERY excited, to say the least!

To get in touch with me:

-Read and Comment this, I would love to hear from everyone!

-Email me: rebecca.stone@duke.edu

-Text me: send a text to 011447766665082 

-Call and leave me a voicemail: Dial my usual number (352)266-5104 . This will be the most unreliable because it'll cost me around $2.00/min to talk on the phone.

OKAY!

The purpose of this blog is two-fold. First, I want to be able to keep in touch with friends and family (ie. YOU!) and let all of you know what I'm doing/up to. Second, this is for me.  Spending six weeks in a theater-packed region is going to be incredible, and I don't want to forget a moment. I'll be learning about all different types of acting/performing, and styles of playwriting (dramas, musicals, operas, ballets), and I'll also be working with a lot of experienced directors/producers on vocal/shakespeare/acting/etc performance.   This is the best place I can think of to document all of that. I hope to be able to keep up with this often so I remember each  play we study and what I learn from it and in London.

Finally, I am SO grateful to be able to spend this time studying, traveling, and learning. I hope I come out a person that has become more culturally aware and more passionate and educated about an ancient old art form: el teatro. 

With Love,

Becca

"Every exit is an entry somewhere else."

-Tom Stoppard (author of Arcadia, and more)