London Lovin’

And here we go again with another gloriously busy week here at LDA. I’m a little behind on my blogging!

            Tuesday we had a very cool acting for film masterclass with Polly Hootkins, a casting director in London, and Chris Green, a filmmaker. It’s amazing the opportunities we are given here, as for many of us this was our first on-camera work. Here, most people teach that we should be taught in theater first and we can always dial the acting back for film work, rather than be taught film acting and have to vamp it up for the theater. That being said, it was really wonderful to get to try our hands at screen acting. I got to do a scene from Blue Valentine with Andrew and they really liked how we worked together. Just one more tool in our toolbox (or a fruit in our fruit basket as Kathy says)!

            On Wednesdays I have a half day so I volunteered for a very cool opportunity with Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business students who are also studying abroad. They have been practicing interview techniques and needed a few actors to pretend to be an interviewer for a role play. All the other students watched as one by one they got up to be “interviewed” and we would stop and talk about what impressions they were giving off and how they could improve. Most of them did really well and were very receptive to the exercise and made drastic improvements. I often forget how nerve-wracking public speaking can be for people who don’t have to do it literally every day, and some of the students told me they had never done anything like this before, so really they did a great job!

            Wednesday night we saw a production of Macbeth at The Vaults. The location was definitely what made it memorable. It was a converted subway station. So you had to walk down stairs, through a graffiti tunnel, and down a dark hallway to find the theater. During the show you could hear the trains overhead which made for a very cool effect. The Macbeth was definitely different but had an amazing soundscape. Seriously, the sounds they created out of a few synthesizers on tables in the middle of the stage were incredible. The acting was pretty good. I’m not going to lie, if we hadn’t been studying Shakespeare so closely these past couple weeks I would’ve said they were amazing, but we’ve actually analyzed some of the Macbeth speeches in class and they definitely took some interesting approaches with them that didn’t necessarily fit with the text. But, again, overall I really liked the production.

Macbeth at the Vaults. A very different set and location!

            On Thursday we saw “How to Hold Your Breath” at the Royal Court Theater and it was definitely up there for one of the best things I’ve seen since I’ve been here. The acting was stunning. The tagline of the show was “Because we live in Europe. Because nothing really bad ever happens. The worst is a bit of an inconvenience. Perhaps not such a good mini break. But really in the grand scheme of life, not so bad.” It told the story of 2 sisters, Dana and Jasmine, travelling across Europe to make it to an interview for a big job for Dana. While travelling, the banks crash and close and all the borders are shut. 2 sisters who were financially stable are suddenly thrust into destitution as Europe dissolves around them. There is also the added inconvenience that Dana slept with a demon by accident and never let the demon repay his debt to her, and an omniscient librarian keeps following her around offering How To books on dealing with the life they are currently thrown into. It explores the idea of what if Europe ended up as a third world country. At the end, the 2 sisters travel by a smuggling ship to make it to their destination and everyone in the stable Europe questions why they would take such a heavy, life-threatening risk. It really made the audience think about those living in such destitution every day that no one even thinks about, but without driving the idea into our heads. It was very powerful and extremely well-acted.

            On Friday, for something completely different, our dramatic criticism teacher Christopher got us 15 pound tickets to see La Traviata at the English National Opera and a talkback before the show hosted by him. It was a lovely performance and definitely an interesting version of the opera. They set it in Paris and it was completely in English (as all productions at the ENO are) and it was cut down significantly. I know nothing about La Traviata, but this production was definitely not what you would expect of a Verdi opera. The characters were in modern dress and with it being in English it was much easier to understand. It was a little long (it had no interval) and there was some strange metaphorical work with the curtains that they would like open and close them very slowly all throughout their arias that none of us really understood but it was a great production in a crazy amazing venue. Our favorite characters were the chorus. They were hilarious and only showed up a few times, but we all agreed we wanted to be in the chorus.

Our view for La Traviata

Man on a chariot pulled by lions….causal

Ceiling of the lobby of the Coliseum where La Traviata was

            On Saturday, Jackie, Tori, Tori’s high school friend Erin, and I visited the Tower of London! We spent 4 and a half hours there; there was just so much to see. Of course the crown jewels were a highlight, and it was fun to learn about all the torture and beheading that went on there especially since we were visiting on Valentine’s Day. We took a tour with a Beefeater (fun fact: no one knows why they’re called that) and he was hilarious. All in all, a very cool day.

The crown jewels! There was no photography allowed so I had to sneak this quickly

Henry VIII’s armour? Or Shrek’s?

Man your battle stations!

Tower bridge from the outer wall

The tower

            That night we threw a party in our flat for all of LDA. Only Fordham kids live in our building, and mostly only LDA kids, so we could get pretty loud with the music (and 28 people packed into one room) and no one bothered us. It was a potluck so there was a ton of food and now our flat has great heart decorations everywhere to brighten it up!

            On Sunday, Jackie and I went to The Muffin Man which is a tea room down the street from school. It was adorable and we got traditional English breakfast which was delicious!

            This week is another jam-packed week. I didn’t realize when I bought my tickets I would be seeing 4 shows this week. Oops. Oh well, that’s why we’re here! And this weekend: PARIS! I’m so excited!! I’ve wanted to go my entire life, so this is literally a dream come true. I’ve been studying my French on Duolingo for the past couple weeks now. I’ve forgotten a lot since I took it in high school which makes me sad but I think I know enough to navigate us around! So until next time, au revoir!

AmsterDAYUM (week of 2/1-2/8)

Greetings! Another insane week, as if any of us are surprised!
On Monday a lot of us went to see “The Nether.” Unfortunately the group I was travelling with got a little lost so we arrived about 15 minutes late, but we still picked up on the story. It was set in the future, and this pedophile had created this world in “the Nether” which is the future’s version of the internet, so that he could exercise his pedophilic tendencies in this virtual realm and not in real life. The question is though, is he still hurting people if the girl he interacts with, “Iris,” isn’t really a girl but a 60-something man? Or are the images so real and lifelike (in his world you could use all 5 senses to explore it) that it is still a crime? It was a very interesting concept and the special effects and projections were unlike any I’ve ever seen; they were incredible. However, we all agreed the acting left a lot to be desired. It was also funny because they were British actors doing American accents and you could clearly hear the accents come through at very specific places.

Look at these projections….seriously

On Wednesday we saw “The Changeling” at the Globe in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse because the Globe Theatre proper is closed in the winter months (no one wants to see theatre outdoors in England during the winter….shocking). We were all very excited for our first experience at the Globe, but unfortunately it was a bit of a disappointment. For one thing, we had the standing room tickets up on the very top balcony. For a 3 hour show, that’s not fun, especially when you only have view of 1/3 of the stage, so you miss a lot of the action. Of course, during Shakespeare’s time they went to hear a play not see it (that’s why all the descriptive language in Shakespeare, so people who couldn’t see knew what the heck was going on) so we were accepting of that and were excited to try to hear the play. Unfortunately, the actors were well trained but the direction was all over the place. The play made zero sense in the way it was told and the actors just weren’t listening to each other. Kathy Pogson was displeased. It was funnier to watch her reactions during the show than the show itself (which is a tragedy but I didn’t know that until someone told me because there were an awful lot of laughs to be had). What was amazing was the venue. The entire theater was lit by only candlelight giving it a very period feel and the theater itself is absolutely stunning with a thrust stage and a balcony. I just wish it had been a cleaner production.
Then on Friday night we began our crazy weekend in Amsterdam! We took a bus. I know your next question is, “a bus…from an island country….” and I thought the same thing! Well, it was a 12 hour bus ride. On the way there we had quite a few breaks, and then to cross the English channel our bus parked on this huge ferry that we rode on (slept on…it was like 2am) for 2 hours. Then we drove through France, Belgium, and then made it to Amsterdam. So I can officially say I’ve been through Belgium. All in all, the trip wasn’t too bad because we had wifi and power plugs and the seats were very comfortable! And it was really cheap!
We decided not to stay in a hostel because we found an even cheaper apartment on Air BnB (thanks Rhiannon for telling me about that website) owned by this guy named Dragan. The apartment was amazing and it was so much nicer than staying in a hostel because we could drop our bags off before going to the city and leave them there all Sunday during the day. On Saturday we got into the city and found an adorable café to eat in, then spur of the moment took a tour of the Royal Palace Amsterdam which was beautiful. I took more pictures than a normal human should. After that, we had ordered tickets to the Anne Frank House weeks in advance. That was an incredibly moving tour. No pictures were allowed in there, but I can honestly say it was incredible. It was very quiet in there, with everyone being very respectful of the place we were in. The rooms of the actual annex where the family hid are actually empty because the Nazis had cleared out the furniture and when Otto Frank opened the museum he wanted it to remain empty to symbolize all the people who never came home. One thing that still remained was the original newspaper clippings of movie stars Anne had hung on her bedroom walls, left just as they were when she was taken. It was truly chilling. Afterward we had to try bitterballen which is apparently a delicacy. It’s basically fried dough balls that were delicious so I highly recommend. Those and stroop waffles. So good. That night after having travelled forever on a bus, we were tired so we turned in early with wine, Domino’s pizza, and “The Proposal” in our lovely apartment.

I thought it was hilarious how lovely the execution room was

The ceiling

So many palace pics

Canals at night

So. Much. Cheese.

Hey Atlas

I’m obsessed with the pickett fence on this houseboat

Chilling on the S

Sunday we had tickets for the Van Gogh museum I’m not going to lie, it was a strange museum. A lot of the signs were mis-translated into very strange English and some of his pictures were displayed sideways and upside down with no explanation as to why. It was cool, but not my favorite. After that, we decided to take a canal tour which was beautiful. Again, took way more pictures than necessary. Then we started our 12 hour bus ride home which sucked. The bus was half the size, there was no wifi or power plugs, the seats were literally plastic, and instead of a ferry our bus drove onto a freight train so we sat in the bus on a freight train that went under the English channel. No. Plus, we had to go through 2 border controls, one out of France and one into England. In the one out of France they brought out the drug dogs and several people got detained. There was a lot of yelling and it was about 2:30 AM at this point. We were not happy.
All in all though, Amsterdam was absolutely lovely. It was unlike any city I’ve ever seen. It has such random little quirks. Like we knew that everyone rode bikes but we didn’t really realize EVERYONE rides bikes. There is not a single spare railing without bikes locked to it in the whole town. Also, people park right on the edge of all the canals and apparently one car a week rolls into the canals. Lastly, and probably most importantly, coffee shops do NOT sell coffee. Luckily someone had looked this up before we went because Lord knows I didn’t know, and I kept forgetting when we were looking for somewhere to eat. Oops. I’m stupid. I’m just gonna leave that as that.
This week should be crazy as well! We have 3 shows to see, and this weekend we’re planning a visit to the Tower of London! Only 2 more weekends before spring break and the weekend after this I will be in Paris! I’m loving every second of these adventures!

Posh Enough?

So every Sunday I sit down to write these (and then don’t post them until days later but what can you do) and think “next week it will have calmed down a bit.” It hasn’t. And I’m so glad it hasn’t. Another crazy, amazing week!

On Monday we saw James McAvoy in “The Ruling Class” at Trafalgar Studios. It was my favorite thing we’ve seen so far (until Thursday…) James McAvoy absolutely carried the show. His energy was UN. REAL. He started the show as an insane schitzophrenic who thought he was God and throughout the show he had to mount a cross, ride a unicycle, fight a swamp monster…we were all exhausted watching him. It was a very surreal play (if you couldn’t tell by the whole fighting a swamp monster thing) but it had some awesome acting and awesome effects. They had these sunflowers grow out of the ground and lots of amazing layers to the sets that would fly out when he was having schitzophrenic episodes. And tickets are going for about 90 pounds so we were very lucky we got to see it with our school.

On Wednesday we had a special event. A man named Mr. Loschert is an alum and donor of Fordham and he has a flat in London he opens up to students each semester for a night of wine and finger food. His flat (which can you call it that if it has 2 floors?) was incredible. He collects a lot of art and some of the highlights were an 11^th century bible, some jugs made in like 400 BC, and 3 original Matisses. Casual. The wine he offered was also so good. I got to talk to him a bit and he was such a generous and kind man. He said he wanted to die a pauper because he wanted to give his money to us so we could use it. There was no point in him keeping it when he was old. We were all very grateful!

The queens of flat 10

The queens obviously

On Thursday we had another show to see with school. This one was called “Bull” at the Young Vic Theater. This was my favorite thing I’ve seen so far. It was only 55 minutes so we were all kind of concerned it would be weird but it was absolutely incredible. The whole theater was set up like a boxing ring with some audience members in seats and some standing, and it was just 55 minutes of a pure verbal boxing match. It was about bullying in the workplace and basically how some people get ahead and it was way too real and hit very close to home for a lot of us. Three people wanted to move ahead on a project and only two were going to be chosen, so the two “attractive” people ganged up on the nice, less attractive guy and twisted all of his words around to make it seem like he was simply taking everything they said too personally while they were merely being professional. Thank God it was only 55 minutes because we all agreed we couldn’t take much more of it. The female character had the most biting, cold monologue at the end that all the girls want to use now. It was amazing. If it was any indication of how good it was apparently David Tennant was in the audience and I didn’t even notice because I was so in shock of what was going on onstage.

Bull set up like a boxing match

On Friday we couldn’t find a theater with cheap enough tickets so we saw “The Theory of Everything!” I highly recommend it! Eddie Redmayne gives an amazing performance and so does Felictiy Jones.

On Saturday I decided to have a day to myself get up and rush “Matilda” on the West End because they release 5 pound tickets every morning at 10. I was lucky enough to get one of the last few for the evening show. After I rushed, I went to the British Museum which was overwhelming. I’ve never seen so much stuff crammed into so many little nooks and crannies, and rooms filled with huge statues, and walls covered in different pictures and whatnot so I googled the top 10 things to see and I think I saw 8. I saw the Rosetta Stone which was cool! And also a lot of Egyptian statues and mummies which I think are so interesting. I’ll definitely have to go back though. Then I saw “Matilda!” It was so much fun. I would love to be in that show and I’ll hopefully see it again! You can’t beat 5 pound tickets!

My Matilda view!

Taking myself to the British Museum

Then on Sunday we all wanted to see Westminster Abbey but it costs money for tickets UNLESS you go for mass so we all got up and went to the Matins ceremony. It was beautiful. The boy’s and men’s choir combined sang and the selections were wonderful, plus the church is obviously gorgeous. You’re not allowed to take pictures but we snuck a few of the courtyard. Afterward a few of us went to the Tate Modern museum. I like modern art for the most part, but it got progressively weirder until we all decided we had had enough. But I’m glad we went.

BE the art

I got a blank space….I hate that song

Definitely looks like Hogwarts but it’s Westminster Abbey!

Westminster Abbey courtyard through the iron work

Next weekend I’ll be travelling to Amsterdam with some people! I can’t wait to start seeing other parts of Europe! We’ll be taking a bus for 10-12 hours (the bus gets on a ferry) so we’ll see how that goes since we’ll be getting back around 6am Monday morning and going straight to classes. It should be exciting! I’ll keep you posted!