Dorian Gray.
-Choreographer Matthew Bourne started off doing choreo for musicals and whatnot and then started his own company, New Adventures, which young dancers from the Royal Ballet Comapny fed into.
-Twelve years ago he did an adaptation of Swan Lake that has taken off pretty much everywhere. There was tons of Princess Diana allusions, as well as a controversial twist of having the swans be males. (lots of "Oh my goodness the lead male dancing with another lead male?"; this was funny at the Q&A session with Matthew Bourne because he was like "well, first of all, it's a male SWAN.") [see the video of four little swans from Swan Lake in the previous post.]. His swan lake was apparently on Broadway for 6 months, too.
-Other random fact: Anyone see Billy Elliott the movie?? At the end, when Billy has grown up and is a professional dancer, we watch him dance literally in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake. the part is played by Adam Cooper who actually played the swan in his Swan Lake. talk about cool.
-He's done tons of other adaptations, including Cinderella, the Nutcracker, Edward Scissorhands (looks really interesting!). He's definitely been trying to popularize dance, making it more of a modern thing that everyone can enjoy, not just dancer people.
-His Dorian Gray, obviously is an adaptations of Oscar Wilde's. Taking a contemporary approach, however, the story deals with photography rather than art.
-Quick update for those who don't remember Oscar Wilde's: 1890, Wilde was moving into a sex and drugs, etc phase, (five years later he would be imprisoned) and was completed devoted to aestheticism (beauty, artistic experience, etc) which led him to a more "living for pleasure" stance. Dorian is a wealthy young man and an artist who is in love him paints a portrait of him. Dorian starts to experience..literally everything, falls in love with a Shakespearean actress, but when she falls in love with him, she can't act as well anymore beacuse she has real emotions now, not acting, and then he pretty much shuns her because she's not a good actress anymore. (she kills herself, and he doesn't really mind it, no conscience.) Dorian never ages, but the portrait does (pretty much the inside of him. It shows him demented and ugly and going crazy from all the bad things in the world. He ends up killing the painter when the painter tries to see the portrait. he dies and everyone sees it, oh my
Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray
-First of all the theater was pretty cool, Sadler Wells. It was actually only a fifteen minute walk from Langton Close. The Old Vic theater was taken over by some lady who created the National Tehater of Great Britain company and was really trying to make more theater "for the masses" so everyone could see it. She took over Sadler Wells, which was in a really crummy area (at the time) and started a ballet company (which would become the Royal Ballet company), and an opera company (which would bcome the English National opera). Both companies moved out and in the mid90s, England had a national lottery and teh first money went to the arts. They made Sadler Wells a premiere dance theater, but they tore down the original theater and built it strictly for dance. it has 1800 seats today, but felt pretty small. Matthew Bourne's Company has been there for about 1/2 a year.
-the show was a dance drama, Dorian accidentally slips into the photography and fashion world when he is a waiter at a high class party with a photography company. He captures a photographer's eyes, who pretty mcuh becomes obsessed with and makes him famous. One of the main products he models for is a male cologne called Immortal, which they show a poster of in act 1 and then later on in act 2 which shows him all demented and torn up and the IM is torn of immortal... He falls in love with everyone, goes crazy, sex, drugs, and alcohol (all the time). Falls in love with a dancer in Romeo and Juliet (a male, but supposed to be parallel the shakespearean actress in the book), and he eventually kills himself and Dorian doesn't really do anything. He kills the photographer when he comes back, etc etc. Dancing to rock and electronic music!
-the character dorian gray, in this show, was created for Richard Windsor, who played him. He's been playing lead roles in matthew bourne's shows since he was 19 and he's 27 now.
-It was awesome!!!! Amazing dancing. and it was so cool to see a dance show that incorporated some ballet elements, but was mostly modern so it was very interesting to watch. Not to mention the guys were doing crazy acrobatic tricks and junk because they were so muscular! it was amazing
-Dorian has this doppelganger, or alter-ego, sort of evil twin that shows up and is really creepy. They had a really cool duet where they made all the same movements; it was neat to watch. The double turns out to be the calm, collected, and almost purer Dorian, whereas Dorian is slowly growing more crazy watching him follow through all of his same motions. then he kills the doppelganger and dies. heh.
-SO GOOD. and after the show Matthew Bourne the choreographer held a Q&A session that was really cool. He was really down to earth, which i sorta was expecting a "Hey, I'm Mr. Choreographer. Bow down." (sorry to be stereotypical), but he was really interesting and direct with answering his questions. Coolest things I learned is that he never pre-choreographs anything before coming to rehearsal. I don't know what I'd do if I tired to do that for a hoof n Horn rehearsal. ha!
-Anyway, after telling Neal all about the show, he said he really wanted to go and it's closing this weekend, too, so we got cheap tickets for Sunday Matinee haha, but you'll hear more about him in a sec.
After the show and the Q&A session we came back and I talked to Neal through his new phone right before his second flight took off and then Cameron and I stayed up pretty late talking about how to make Hoof n Horn better. I don't think we really came up with much, but we're both thinking about it. He said he wants to get all the Hoof n Hornies together before the programs over with Clum and talk to him about what he thinks we could do to make it better. so that was intersting
Wednesday July 15th
I had to get up early so that I could wait for Neal outside Langton Close, since he didn't have a key and I didn't know if the front office people were gonna be there. I've been reading Q&A (lol, not the session with Matthew Bourne, but the book that the movie Slumdog Millionaire is based on); it's good so far. Neal got here by a really nice taxi driver! got him all checked in and said, take a nap, we have a long day ahead! and then I went downstairs to class.
Troilus and Cressida
-Interesting fact: we're not entirely sure that Troilus and Cressida was ever actually performed during Shakespeare's time. 300 years later, the Old vic picked it up and it's been pretty popular since then, especially in war time (vietname, WWII).
-It's another "problem play." There aren't any sympathetic characters really, no one's especially likeable, many are stupid. There's tons of characters and it is especially difficult to tell how Shakespeare wants us to feel about these characters. and there's two plays going on: the trojan war, and Troilus and Cressida.
-It is generally agreed that shakespeare's plays seem so long to us because they were originally spoken much faster than we are even capable of today. back then, society was based on oral communication. That's how they got everything. It takes audiences much longer to comprehend words today. Also, there's some controversy over how much literal movement and action there was performed in his shows. Today, we typically do shakespeare over the top, lots of movement and very theatrical. Hence, we cut a lot today.
Anyway, Neal got up and i made peanut butter and nutella toast sandwiches (yuuuummm) and then we were off to Shakespeare's Globe! after getting him an Oyster Card (tube card) for the week.
Show was good. Well, I liked it. It was SO LONG though. Well acted, but i think everyone had a lot of issues with it. Which ended up being cool because in class the next day with Clum we discussed Production decisions and directorial choices and how they affect teh show and whether they work or not, and we all pretty much tore apart Troilus and Cressida. The show itself is actually only in its 2nd preview, so hopefully they'll change some of the things we discussed, ie having a little boy kill hector with a gun in a period performance??? errr....that was weird. I think Neal really struggled with those wooden benches, haha, but Clum got us seats together so that was nice.
After that we peaced and went over to Trafalgar Square just to look around and then went to the National Gallery for like half an hour because they were closing (the show ran much longer than I thought it would!). Then we decided to go out to eat, and we went to the nicest restaurant I've been to since we went out to eat with Clum: ie we went to a 8-10 pound main meal restuarant. IT WAS AMAZING. We shared chips and queso and quesadillas and I think i was the happiest I've been in awhile simply because I haven't had real food in so long seems like.
After that I took him over to Leicester Swaure for awhile just to look around at all the west end theaters and came up to the Garrick Theater, where A Little Night Music was at. I was like "Oh neal, it was SO Good." and then we saw a sign that said Closing July 25th, and i was like "mmm, what time is it?" Neal "7:18." "show starts at 7:30 p.m. you know what, i'll just go ask" I went up to the box office and was liek 'do you have two seats together anywhere." and he said 'Yeah actually I do, in row E in Stalls center." !!!!!! (stalls is the floor here). Then I said "Do you have a student rate?" "Yes. Would you like them?" "Yes please." and we went and saw it!!! SO GOOD, i love that show. Still on eof my favorites so far on teh program. Neal loved it too, but i think he was dying of exhaustion but told me he was so glad we went.
Came home, Geoff and I worked on our scene a couple times and then went to bed.
Thursday July 16th
Class - discussion
-Geoff and I work scene work for an hour.
then neal and I went over to Harrod's with some kids to look around. it was fun. Harrod's has EVERYTHING! technology, book store, kids toy store, clothes, candy, chocolate, pets, shoes, cars, vacation planners. it's gigantic! and beautiful, too. Neal and I got 6 chocolates and three mini cupcakes for desert at night. :) It was Tyler's birthday and she wanted to celebrate at Laduree. So Tyler, Chelsea, John, Eugenie, Geoff, Rachel, Neal and I (and then later Taty, Robert, and Kristina), went to Laduree and had High Tea! Just croissants, macaroons, finger sandwiches and tea, but it was SOO much fun and I think everyone had a an amazing time. It was one of teh coolest things I've done so far, High Tea in London. Lovely.
After that we headed out to the show (Apologia by Alexi Caye Campbell) because it was in Zone two. Turns out it's on top of this pub and called Bush Theater, which is apparently a really prestigious fringe (over a pub) theater. We walked in and were like "WHOA, there's no room in here." it was 100 seats arranged in three rows in a theater-in-the-round. and the stage was a kitchen table and kitchen on the back wall. We were pretty sitting in the kitchen. We WERE sitting in the kitchen.
Apologia
-pronounced Ap-oh-low-jah ( I think??), this is Campbell's 2nd play! His first was a really big sucess, so crazy to just write a play and then have it get taken off like that!
-Apologia -type of literature that people write to justify or explain their lives, it's done by some releigious writers to explain why they should go to heaven or well and it's kinda like self-defense, stream of consciousness writing
-the play itself is about a mother who is an art historian who was a big political protester int he 60s whatnot, and has just finished her "Memoirs" which is an autobiography of herself, but leaves on two major details: Her two sons. The play centers around a family gathering for the mother's birthday and the two sons are angry and bitter about their mother failing to mention their existence in her entire life memoirs. At the same time, we find out through the play how difficult their childhood was and that she pretty much abandoned them anyway and that's why she couldnt talk about them in her book, she just couldnt. there are a couple other characters too, the mother's friend from teh 60s, one son's fiancee and the other's gf (ex by the end of the play)
-It was...amazing. i know my blogs are full of overused adjectives, but I run out of words when trying to explain how much I liked something. It was fantastic. The focus the intensity. by the end of the play I really felt like we as the audience had journeyed with them through all of that. They were so dedicated, and into and all really good actors (minus one girls attempt at an American accent, oh boy. We all talked about at intermission how we couldnt tell where seh was from because she was trying to combine every american accent - southern, Boston, New York, we were like, Who are you??) haha, but she was still great, hard part to play.
-Neal loved it, too!
-afterwards we got to talk to the playwright and he signed all of our programs. We also talked to the lady who played the mother but she was kinda in a hurry. The playwright, Alexi Caye Campbell, was very nice, though Clum says he's being pretty show-offy about getting famous so fast, I thought he was really nice and really down to earth (I say those two words a lot now too huh)
After the show we came back and Geoff and I worked our scene for awhile and then I talked to Sarah. i miss her a lot. i wish I coulda been in Richmond last night.
Friday, July 17th
(this might be getting shorter and shorter...I'm exhausted)
-Geoffa nd I woke up early and rehearsed our scene
-Geoff and I performed our scene before everyone. it went really well. and I'm proud of him more than anything because for having never really done this before, he worked his butt off to get to the level he was at today. It was really nice to have a guy who was really dedicated on doing well too. Anyway, we did great. Will and Paul said my intensity and emotions were great, they could really tell how in it I was, and they said to consider taking more risks and to watch the end of each line so that I dont drop anything. Good criticisms. All the other scenes went really well, too. i was proud of our group. Special shout-outs to Chelsea's Spaniel impression, Ted's awesomeness, Alex's falling in love with Helena, and Taty's attitude. they were all great. I'm excited to start working on some contemporary scenes after the break though. Shakespeare, you are so difficult. I overheard the new Duke Theater dept lady telling Clum though that "I guess we're going to have to start doing some more Shakespeare..." ....oh boy.
-Yay, excitement, break. It was a little bittersweet. We're halfway done and everyone was leaving to go to different places. Some to Amsterdam, Some to Barcelona, Some to Paris and some staying here. So it was sad. Not to mention, no shows for five days. :( yuck. Except Neal and I get to see Dorian Gray on Sunday!
-I made Neal lunch and then we headed over to the tourist-y area, and after a while of searching for the door, we found the entrance to the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. We both loved it. It came with a free audio guide tour, and I think we both learned a lot. It was crazy to think they used some of those rooms during WWII right when they were being bombed, the rooms were so tiny and gross, but it was very interesting, and lovely to go to a museum that I would have done with my parents if they had been here. Cool history, educational stuff...Even if it costs 10 pounds, oh my. It was well worth it, too.
-Then we went to the Tate Britain, which has artwork from 1500 to present. Some stuff was really interesting, but I think I like the National Gallery better. It was kinda in the middle of nowhere so I'm glad we took care of that so i don't have to go back, heh.
-I showed him the National Theater and then for dinner we went to a cheap italian chain I've been wanting to try, Strada, and shared bread and pizza, and that was yummy. It started raining and got really cold though.
-We walked around this bookstore for awhile to kill time because it was FREEZING outside and then we finally went over and got our tickets for London Eye. and did the Eye at night!. Well, it's still evening light at 9:30 pm but it got a little darker as we did it, SOOOO pretty, and very nice. Our ...train, chair, ....thing, only had one other couple in it too so I was gald we didn't have to deal with any other people. i was pretty impressed with my ability to point things out, but I still couldn't figure out a couple things. We had a really nice time, despite how frigid we were.
Overall, the past three days have been just awesome. And their sheer awesomeness has caused me to not be able to write for awhile, sorry about that. Looks like the next four days are going to be completely jam packed anyway.
Tomorrow, Boat Ride down the Thames (Shhhhhh! Neal still doesnt know yet!), and then we're doing St. Paul's Cathedral, Tower of London, London Bridge, maybe Imperial war museum, dinner somewhere, and then we're doing the Jack the Ripper Tour tomorrow night! So excited, I think we'll both wear jeans and hoodies tomorrow though.
Gotta get up early!
much love,
becca
p.s. Neal's in charge of pictures this weekend and forgot to bring his camera cord so I'm going to be seriously lacking on pictures for awhile. Here's one i took of him at Trafalgar Square with Big Ben in the back!
So Neal definitely looks like an American in Paris (Only in London!!). So alot going on. Glad your scene went so well and your partner came through..I knew he was trying.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the head of the Duke Theatre Dept doing there? And does she have a name??
Churchill's War Rooms...so glad you got to go there, you know how we wanted to!!
Shows sound very interesting...do you think I would have liked them? They sound sooo different.
Opps forgot to let you know..Quglino's is 16 Bury St In Mayfair, I believe.
So now you get to be a real tourist and be the tour guide..hope you get a good beefeater! Forget what exhibit you told me was going to be there?? Have a feeling the next 4 days are going to go very fast!! Please try to fill us in as much as poss.
Lauderee...oh for a macaroon!!! Or a dozen!
I'm hoping Sarah will be able to come home before you go back to school or maybe she can visit you if she drives back to Richmond from the Mtns...we haven't figured out any of the plans. I miss her as well, haven't really seen her for a good visit since Christmas!
Daddy & I are at the beach for the weekend...really makes no matter for you where we are right now.
Have a blast with Neal and showing him London. If you have a moment to chat let us know!
xoxoxo, Your Mama
You might be interested to know that many if not most of the stories which inspired Shakespeare's plays had been around in one form or another for hundreds and hundreds of years. Shakepeare's History Plays are obvious examples, but not so obvious to us are the origins of the other plays. However, the better-educated members (literate members) of the audience would easily have recognized and have bveen quite familiar with the stories and the plots because of their extensive education in classical literature, including Greek and Roman classics and mythology.
ReplyDeleteThe story of Troilus and Cressida had been around in one form or another for a very long time. "Troilus and Criseyde" was a poem written by Geoffrey Chaucer (later of Canterbury Tales fame). It was written in Middle English, not Modern English, and would require some translation for us to understand. (In high school, we were required to memorize the Prologue to Canterbury Tales in Middle English, and I can still recount a lot of it.) In turn, Chaucer and Shakespeare were probably inspired by the works of the Roman poet Ovid, whose own epic poetry was filled with references to figures in Roman mythology, or their "religion," as they would have considered it.
The love story of Pyramus and Thisbe was told by Ovid in "The Metamorphoses," and was probably the basis for "Romeo and Juliet," and was probably spoofed in "Midsummer Night's Dream," also.
The educated members of Shakepeare's audience would all have been well-aware of these allusions, and probably much more than we don't even know about, because of our lack of education in "The Classics."
Even The Beatles had fun with Pyramus and Thisbe. They made a video spoofing it, in which Paul McCartney played Pyramus and John Lennon played Thisbe. It may be on YouTube (I havn't looked, but it might be fun to watch).
Finally, when I read Troilus and Cressida in college, I had a great deal of diffiulty following it. I remember wondering if the problem was mine, or if Shakespeare was new at this and just couldn't get it all quite together. Being a freshman, I gave Shakepeare the benefit of the doubt.