Our adventures in the town that won The Loo of the Year Award in 2011

Yesterday morning, we met at the Marylebone train station at 8:45am to hop on a 9:15 train to Stratford-upon-Avon.  The train ride was just over two hours long, and did not involve any sleeping, thanks to the abundance of small children in our train car.  Upon arrival, we made our fifteen minute walk to the hotel that we were staying at, called the Mercure Shakespeare Hotel.  The hotel didn't have our rooms ready yet, so we waited in the lobby until our tour that started at 12:30.  We took a two hour walking tour of Stratford, seeing Shakespeare's birthplace and house, his grave, the church where he was baptized and buried, as well as other unique places in Stratford.  We also saw the canal that runs through Stratford, which used to be a major trade area.  Now, it is filled with small commercial barges and boats that open for business on nice days selling food and other little trinkets.  The best part of the tour; though, was the stop at one of the public toilets which England names "Loo of the Year" in 2011. We, as Americans found this pretty funny, especially when the tour guide said, "You don't have this in America?"

As we got to the end of our tour, the rain was finally dying down and the blue sky was peeking through the clouds!  OF COURSE it was now time for us to go inside to do a workshop with one of the voice coaches of the Royal Shakespeare Company.  I guess the sun would have to wait.  The voice coach we worked with was a really young Irish guy who had the most adorable accent! (Just had to add that in there.)  He made us do a warm-up similar to what we do in George's voice sessions, but for some reason this one was more fun.  He then gave us text to work with from Titus Andronicus (which was the play we were going to see that night), but we were not allowed to look at the text until he said we could.  We then got in a circle and on his mark, we all turned our papers around and went around the circle, each person only reading one word of the text and reading it as though "it is the most exciting word in the whole entire world."  It was funny how we went through the entire text reading it like this, and when we finished, had no idea what we had just read.

He then had us walk around reading the text and every time there was any type of punctuation mark, we had to change the direction in which we were walking.  This was supposed to emphasize the separation of each phrase as having it's own meaning.  We were all familiar with this exercise, because we have done it in George's class before.   We did several more exercises, but my favorite exercise that he had us do with the text was stand in a circle, and one person starts by reading as much of the text as they want while walking across the middle of the circle to another person on the other side.  When they reach that person, they have to stop reading and give a very strong encouraging push to the person whose spot they stole in the circle.  This person is then launched into the circle, and must continue the text from where the previous person left off.  This went on and on until the whole text was read.  What was significant was how some people would run across the circle so that they would only have to read on word before pushing someone else, while other people walked very slowly and read lines and lines of the text.  The exercise not only showed how we all supported each other, but how it helped to emphasize the beginning and endings of each line and make sure that we do not slack off and become lazy while reading.

At the end of the workshop, we talked about what we had learned during the session.  What we all came away with was the fact that not once during the whole session did we do any type of discussion of what the text was actually about.  But, through all of the different types of exercises and reading the text in different ways, we all knew what it was about anyway.  It was pretty cool to think that we didn't have to sit and do a boring thorough analysis of the text to understand what it meant, and that it could just come so naturally.  Maybe George should take a cue from this voice coach, I like his methods better!

For dinner, Maggie and I went to one of the little pubs in the town called the Golden Bee.  It was so weird, being somewhere outside of London...everything was so much cheaper!  We ordered a pitcher of Pimm's Strawberry Lemonade.  Pimm's is England's signature alcoholic drink.  We aren't sure what type of alcohol it is exactly, but it is usually mixed with lemonade, sprite, and a lot of different fruits.  After dinner, we made the very short walk (this town is really tiny) to the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre to see Titus Andronicus.  Now, Maggie and I have been dreading seeing this play since basically the first full day in London, especially after Charlie told us it would be "extremely graphic."  We had googled and researched beforehand, reading things that said it is Shakespeare's most gory and disturbing work.  You could say our stomachs have been churning for weeks on end just preparing for it.  Three and a half hours later, and we survived Titus!  And, if these words are actually coming out of my mouth (or more like coming out of my fingertips), I have to say that Titus was not all that bad!  The storyline was confusing and as always I could barely follow the Shakespearean dialogue occurring without, but the plot and the acting were all so captivating that it was easy to stay awake and follow along (somewhat).  And as for the gore?  Almost every stab had absolutely no blood, or was done offstage.  Only in the final scene, was there a complete and utter bloodbath occurring before my eyes, but it happened so quickly and so randomly that by the end when there were bodies strewn everywhere, Maggie and I found ourselves laughing hysterically at just how terrible executed that whole last seen was.  It was just SO fake!  We were relieved to know that we had survived and would never have to see Titus Andronicus, or any other Shakespeare play, ever again (unless we so wanted to.)

Today, we had a free day to wander around Stratford.  Maggie and I checked out of the hotel and made our way to one of the bakeries, where I got a banana and chocolate pasty.  A pasty is a very traditional English food that is a pastry that can be filled with meats, cheeses, or in this case...sweets!  It was delicious, and I felt like I was just eating a banana drenched in Nutella.  After a yummy breakfast, we weaved in and out of all of the little shops of Stratford where I got the majority of my souvenir shopping done!  Yay!  Sadly, the size of Stratford in proportion to the strides that Maggie and I take is very small, and in under two hours we had made it through the whole town.  We still had five hours to waste before getting on the train back to London.  You could say that we wasted our time well, sitting in the sun by the canal and browsing a little street market that was happening.  We then finally found an outdoor beer garden (something we have wanted to do all month) and ordered ourselves drinks while we sat outside in the sun.  I had a delicious Strawberry and Lime cider, and sat on a bench outside for over an hour trying to learn my sonnet for George's class.  Thankfully, I got the sonnet down and finally had some quality sun time...apparently my shoulders even burned a little! (This is a good thing.) After our beer garden beverages and sonnet studying, we grabbed some lunch and made our way to the train station.  I didn't realize how exhausted I actually was until I got back to our room at Hampden House and sat down on my bed!  What a relief!

I can't believe that tomorrow marks one week until I head back home to Boston/New York.  It is extremely bittersweet, but I am ready to make the best of the next week and then I am most definitely ready to head home and see my family.

Tomorrow we only have class in the morning, and then Maggie and I have a reservation for a traditional Afternoon Tea!  Yay!

Weather forecasts are bright for this week...we may be blessed with a very warm and sunny final week in Londontown which is a dream come true.

Until next time!!

-5 degrees celsius is 23 degrees fahrenheit...brr!

It has been a rather quiet two days in London!

After having such a beautiful bank holiday, it would only be fitting that we would wake up to a cold and rainy class day on Tuesday.  It only fed into everyone's already present misery of being in class.

For the past two days in George's voice class, we have been working on a new poem called "The Highwayman."  Each person has gotten the chance to read a paragraph of the poem, and then get personal critique from George on how to make their voices and the presentation of that paragraph sound better.  George used different techniques on each person to show how different things work for different people.  When it was my turn, I read a paragraph in the poem that was more solemn and depressing.  George made me first rock back and forth while seated and reread the paragraph as to add a more comforting feel to the words.  It is pretty weird how I may not feel like anything I've said has changed, but meanwhile a subconscious switch has gone off and the words have taken on new meaning.  George then had me stand up and choose one person in the room to read the paragraph to.  I had to take it off the page (memorize it) line by line and then look the person in the eye as I said it.  This was in an effort to put drive and force behind the words, and to give myself a target which helps with putting meaning behind the paragraph.

In Charlie's class, we have been doing some weird skits that play on different types of relationships.  Today, we had to present our skits in class that we have been memorizing with our scene partners.  With our scene partner in our free time, we had to make up six "choreographed" poses to perform while we recited our lines.  First, Charlie had us move into a pose and say the line in our pose, and then switch to the next pose.  After this sequence, he then had us be silent in the poses, and say our lines while we transitioned to the next pose.  The third and final sequence, we had to connect the whole thing seamlessly; pausing when we wanted to, rushing in other areas, saying lines in transitions and in poses.  This exercise was in an effort to silently communicate with our scene partner and to see if we could truly listen to each other.  It was more complicated than I had imagined it to be!  It's funny how there comes a point, usually right in the middle of one of the sequences, where you suddenly just stop trying and the rest comes effortlessly.  And that's something Charlie has been trying to teach us.  Acting is something that doesn't need effort.  If you "try" to act, you can't act.  It needs no effort whatsoever.

On Tuesday, Maggie and I went to dinner at Hummus Bros which is basically a restaurant that only serves hummus dishes.  It was to die for.  I wish I could eat there every day, no joke.  I ordered a vegetable salad hummus with chicken so it was this huge bowl of hummus with the middle emptied out and filled with a greek salad and chicken.  And then you get these huge pieces of warm pita bread to dip in the hummus.  I could have actually eaten the whole plate if I didn't get so full!  I am determined to go back before we go home next week.

Today, we organized with a bunch of people on the Dialogue a trip to Ice Bar.  Ice Bar is based on IceHotel which is apparently a hotel in like Sweden or Norway or something that is made out of all ice. So basically at Ice Bar, you are draped in this huge comfy quilted poncho with attached gloves and pushed through the sliding doors into a glowing ice wonderland.  They change the theme every six months and redesign the ice, but right now it was galaxy and outerpace themed.  It was incredible.  The tables and even the glasses were all made out of ice!  We each got one complimentary cocktail that kept to the galaxy theme, so I tried an Apollo 11 and a Mercury Rising.  They were so delicious it basically tasted like tropical fruit juice!  Luckily, you only stay in Ice Bar for 40 minute sessions because it gets absolutely FREEZING.  At the ten minute countdown, my hands were numb and I was just about ready to leave.  But, it is awesome to say that I went to the Ice Bar in London and had a fantastic time!

I have to wake up around 7 tomorrow to get to the train station for our trip to Stratford-upon-Avon which is apparently the birthplace of Shakespeare.  I would say I'm excited, but that would be lying.  More updates to come on that escapade when I return!

Until then!!

That one time when we got to meet Giraffes...

I could not be happier about the Bank Holiday weekend that I had!

Yesterday (Sunday), Maggie and I walked over to Regent's Park which is only a few blocks away from where we live.  It is an absolutely beautiful park with all of these gardens and fountains.  So many people were outside for the beautiful weather walking their dogs, laying in the grass, or pushing their kids in strollers.  I think this Sunday was THE most beautiful day in London thus far.  Slight breeze, clear blue skies, and sun sun sun.  We went to one of the little cafes situated in the park and got breakfast (more like dessert).  We then made our way to the opposite side of the park where the London Zoo is situated.  We made our way through the zoo seeing the monkeys, the gorillas, the penguins, etc. FINALLY, around 1:30 we made our way over to the Giraffes.  There were three giraffes there; Maggie, Molly, and Alicia.  A little after 2, the zookeeper came and led us up to the enclosed platform where we would 'meet' the giraffes.  Once up there, he handed us each handfuls of carrot sticks and those giraffes knew it was time for lunch!  I couldn't believe how eager they were, they just stuck their heads right over the rail and practically put their faces into your lap!  It was fun to tease them just a little bit and see their long, purple tongues come out in an effort to get that carrot in their mouth.  After finishing up the whole entire bucket of carrots, the zookeeper then tied huge tree branches to the viewing platform for the giraffes to eat the leaves and gnaw on the bark.  While they gnawed, he told us some interesting giraffe facts.  Like, did you know that giraffes have four stomachs and that females can grow up to fifteen feet tall?  The average giraffe lives to about twenty, but the London Zoo had one that lived until 32!  The funniest fact he said was how giraffes days are usually eating, standing around to digest, and then eating again.  I laughed pretty hard at that; thinking how it is just another thing that adds to the list of why I am like a giraffe.

After getting our fill of giraffes, we made our way out of Regent's Park and hopped onto the tube to head over to Shoreditch and Spitalfields Market.  Spitalfields Market is just one of London's many famous street markets with many independent vendors selling food, jewlery, clothing, and crafts.  We took our time winding in and out of the different tents and tables, enjoying the sun and the peculiar things that people were selling.  We were pretty hungry after all of that visual shopping, so we stopped at a cute little Patisserie and got some sandwiches and smoothies for dinner which were delicious!  We made it home at about 5:45, only to get a text asking if we wanted to go see Abbey Road.  Knowing that we didn't have class the next day, and although we were exhausted, we knew it would be worth the trip.  So, no sooner than taking off our shoes were we putting them back on and hopping onto another bus to head to Abbey Road!  Abbey Road is a peculiar thing.  Abbey Road studios looks like any other recording studio building, besides the loads and loads of graffiti that have been painted on its fences and sidewalk.  The Abbey Road crosswalk itself is just that: a crosswalk.  It is still open to traffic, so it is pretty entertaining to stand there and watch chunks of people try to do the famous Beatles walk across the crosswalk without pissing off too many London drivers.  Of course, we got our little taste of fame as well when it was our turn to walk across.  It was the perfect way to end such an exciting day.

Today was another beautiful day.  I woke up to more sun and blue skies!  Maggie and I had planned to go to the Olympic Parks today before finding out that they are not open to the public.  A lot of people on our Dialogue took day tripes to Oxford, Stonhendge, and Bath, but we figured today would be a great day to just take in parts of the city that we didn't get a chance to truly appreciate.  We started with breakfast at Garfunkel's, which I think is supposed to be an American-style diner.  I got a Belgian waffle with ice cream because, hey, you only London once!  After yummy breakfast, we took the bus over to Camden Town to see the famous Camden Markets.  This was probably one of the coolest things ever.  Camden Market stretched on for blocks and blocks and had all these separate little areas like the horse stables, the lock market, etc.  Right in the middle of the market was an old-fashioned canal; one where people had to actively move the gates open and shut to let boats through.  It was really cool to watch in action!  A little deeper into Camden Market, we discovered the food area.  It was a bittersweet idea walking through that food area.  We regretted so badly just eating breakfast at a dinky little diner because the food at this market looked absolutely incredible!  Chocolate covered bananas, crepes, falafel, burgers, smoothies...basically anything you could dream of was there for you to eat!  I enjoyed just inhaling the delicious scents of all of the foods, and decided that we must return another day to give it a taste.

After Camden Market, we made our way to the South Bank near the London Eye to check out yet another food festival!  Sadly, this one wasn't as impressive as the one in Camden, so we just grabbed a beer and joined the throngs of people laying out in the grass taking in the sun with the beautiful view of the London Eye.  We took our time crossing over Westminster Bridge to get awesome views of The Eye, The River Thames, as well as Big Ben and Parliament.  It was a completely different perspective seeing Big Ben and Parliament today, than our first rainy day in Londontown. We trekked through Parliament Square, up to Trafalgar Square, through Trafalgar Square to Leicester Square, through to Oxford Street to Picadilly Circus, to Regent Street, and FINALLY about three hours later we made it back to Hampden House.  So, if anyone was wondering, it IS possible to walk almost all of London as long as the weather is cooperative and you have a lot of patience for the annoying pedestrians you have to deal with along your way.

Tomorrow it is back to class much to my disappointment, but this week is a short one!  Only two full days of class and then we will be off to Stratford-upon-Avon!

Until next time!!

Shoot me down, but I won't fall, I am TITANIUM.

Apologies for taking so long to blog again!

Yesterday was a very dreary early morning.  We woke up around 7 to the lovely weather forecast of rain all day and temperatures only getting up to a measly 50 degrees.  This would be semi-tolerable if it was a normal day of class, but no.  Today we were getting a tour of Shakespeare's Globe.  At this point, it is obvious that every time I mention Shakespeare's Globe it is just going to bring bad weather.  The tour was scheduled to start at 9:15, but we had to meet on the South Bank at 8:45.  So we had to leave at 7:50.  No one was happy, to say the least.  We were cold, wet, miserable, and then had to continue to be cold wet and miserable while we got a tour of the all outdoor Shakespeare's Globe.  Don't get me wrong, the Globe is beautiful and extremely interesting, but there were other places yesterday morning that I would have rather been.  Like my bed, for instance.

After the tour, we sadly had to head back to RADA for our 11-1 class due to the dreary weather.  We all literally sat in the studio with our coats and hoods on for the next 2 hours because we were all so miserable and freezing.  Relieved is an understatement when that clock finally hit 1:00pm.  Maggie and I frantically speed-walked back to the apartment to get warm and took extremely scalding hot showers just to make ourselves feel better.  After relaxing for a few hours in the apartment, we decided to trek back out into the grossness (better prepared, though) and go see the Tower Bridge.  The Tower Bridge takes you in a lift (aka elevator) up 42 meters above the road part of the bridge to a pedestrian enclosed walkway.  Here, called the "Tower Bridge Exhibition", you can read all about the famous bridges of the world, as well as the history of this bridge.  After the upper bridge segment of the exhibition, you take the lift down underneath the bridge to the Engine Rooms, where you see how exactly the drawbridge functions.  It was definitely worth seeing!!

Next, after miraculously getting on the right bus back into the main part of the city, we visited Leadenhall Market.  Leadenhall Market is supposedly where Diagon Alley was filmed or based off of (not sure which, or both) in the Harry Potter film series.  So of course I had to go see it!  It wasn't as exciting as I thought, being kind of small and the only restaurants were pubs teeming with 9-5 business people who were definitely not our crowd.  But, I made sure to get a snapshot just to say that I had been there!

By this point, Maggie and I were getting pretty hungry but we figured that we would wander a little further to see if we would just stumble upon a cute little pub or restaurant.  Well, we didn't find a pub OR restaurant.  But, we did find our way to the Royal Exchange National Bank, St. Paul's Cathedral, and One New Change which is a shopping mall type area that has an amazing view from it's 6th floor.  I also took advantage of One New Change in my search for new combat boots because, as most of you probably don't know, my only pair of durable walking shoes that I had packed have come to the end of their lifespan and decided to break during my trip.  Sadly, I didn't find any new shoes at One New Change but that's okay!  We finally hopped onto the Tube with a sigh of relief (it was so warm in there!) and made our way back to Great Portland Street to grab a bite to eat at Pizza Express.  I know the name sounds deceiving and like fast food, but Pizza Express is actually a great italian restaurant.  We each got ourselves a Peroni beer, some dough balls, and I ate a monster calzone all by myself (thank God for all of this walking!)

Collapsing into bed last night was actually the best thing ever, besides realizing that we still had a full day of Saturday class ahead...

In our Saturday morning session, we watched a short YouTube clip of Glenda Jackson speaking to the House of Commons in Parliament after the death of Margaret Thatcher.  The news broadcast was supposed to be as part of a tribute to Thatcher, but when Jackson stood up, she had other ideas in mind.  She began to point out all of the flaws during Thatcher's reign, basically saying how it was the worst era in England ever.  Now, we weren't watching this video clip for political education or anything like that, but more to see how Glenda Jackson presented herself.  She was introducing such extreme and shocking ideas, but still managed to maintain a calm and level voice, speak without screaming even when people were trying to override her, and she owned every inch of that room.  She made sure that she was heard, because she knew that she deserved to be heard, and she didn't let that go until she had said every single thing that she had wanted to say.  After watching this YouTube clip, a couple of our classmates were told to go outside one by one and then come back in and try to tell us a poem.  But, while they were trying to tell us the poem, we would be whispering to one another, or banging on the floor, or have our backs turned to them; all obstacles that they had to try and fight through to make sure their message was still heard.  Our voice coach, George, said something interesting during this exercise.  He said, "10% of the people in your life are people who don't care what you do or say and will love you no matter what you do, 10% are people who care about what you do and what you say, and the other 80% just don't care...which percent should you be trying to talk to?"  It was interesting to look at it that way - at the very small amount of people who actually want to listen to you and hear what you have to say.  It is definitely something to keep in mind for the future.

In our afternoon session, we did some weird movement exercises with Charlie where he played a 3 minute song and within that time, each of us had to go into the middle of the circle and be part of the "dance" that was occurring.  Everyone had to be ready at all times, and there always had to be five people in the circle; three standing up and two in some type of squatting position.  If one person in the circle decides to squat who was standing, someone has to compensate for that and stand up.  The exercise was about cooperation and focus and less about the embarrassing dance moves that everyone was doing.  It showed how when we all put real focus into the task, all of the unimportant stuff just fades away.

At 5:00pm, I could not have been any happier.  The sun was out after many days of being hidden, class was over, and it was officially the Bank Holiday weekend!  We have Sunday and Monday off this weekend, which is a nice change and a good chance to relax and catch up on sleep.  Saturday night, we really didn't want to go to the strange club scene again, so we googled karaoke bars.  We ended up back in Shoreditch at a karaoke bar called "Birdcage."  It sounds really weird, I know, and the place definitely brought a different kind of crowd but it was an absolute blast.  We put our names on the karaoke list and watched as other people put themselves out there singing songs like, "Single Ladies," "River Deep,"  "Angels," and "My Sharona."  Finally, around 12:30am, we heard the MC say, "Up next, Christie and Maggie."  After all of these older more classic songs, guess what Maggie and I sang?  Titanium by Sia.  Yup.  But, we were a HIT.  We were probably so off-tune and completely screaming into the microphones, but we had so much fun.  And the crowd cheered for us which was awesome too!  It was an awesome way to start the weekend.

The craft of communication and how it led to a round of margaritas...

Yay!  It's Thursday night!  It's hard not to be excited that the week is almost over when I have a long weekend coming up.  And when I say long weekend, I mean two days.  Yes.  Since class is Monday through Saturday, I have Sunday and Monday off this weekend for the UK Bank Holiday and that is considered the long weekend.  Whatever, I'll take it!

Anyways, todays morning class was a pretty normal routine of our semi-supine relaxation exercises, a bunch of random voice exercises, and then more work on our sonnets.  Today we did the sonnet from Romeo and Juliet that begins with, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"  It was really fascinating to see how each person executed the sonnet differently.  What our voice coach wanted us to do was not to recite the poem, but to read it, be able to say each line without looking at it on the page, and put our own emotion and story behind it.  He wanted us to talk to whoever we were reading the sonnet to, not TELL the sonnet to them.  It was eye-opening how quickly the tone of people's voices and the way they read the sonnet changed so drastically.  It also was eye-opening to see how the sonnet took on so many different meanings depending on who was reading it.  Our next assignment is to choose one of Shakespeare's sonnets to share with the class at the end of the month.

Walking to class today, Maggie and I realized that we are already coming to the end of our second full week here in London!  Could it be true that we only have two weeks left?  After a bout of homesickness, I am now at the point where I am definitely NOT ready to leave this beautiful city!  I also am realizing how much of this city I have been taking for granted, as well as my time here.  Every little moment counts, and there's so many small things about London that I want to make sure that I will not forget.  So I am going to try and work on that for the next two weeks so that I don't leave with any regrets.

In our afternoon class, we had a workshop with two men who have created a company called, "Craft of Communication" which goes into big businesses and corporations and teaches employees how to communicate effectively.  Obviously, with only two hours time we didn't learn that much, but we did take away some pretty interesting information.  One thing that I found interesting is how much the fight or flight reaction has to do with the way we present ourselves and the way we communicate.  When someone is shy or closed off, they tend to slouch and lower their heads.  Little did we know that this is actually instinctual as they are protecting their visceral organs in the stomach and the jugular in their neck.  If someone is insecure with themselves, this is a natural defense mechanism.  On the other hand, someone arrogant and confident may hold their head high, exposing their neck and jugular and instinctively saying, "I am not afraid.  Just try and hurt me."  Another fascinating fact that they told us was that only 7% of communication actually has to do with the words that you say.  The other 93% is body language and the tone of your voice.  So as much as you think what you are saying may matter (which it still does, of course) it is more about the total presentation of yourself.  Finally, we were given the "Status Toolkit" of things we can do to present ourselves with a higher sense of status.  These were:

1. Own the space and time.  - If you walk into a room, from the second you cross that threshold you should be holding your head high and maintaining eye contact.  Not only that, but when you begin to speak, you must believe that these people are here to listen to YOU and YOU own that room and that it is YOUR time.  This will help you to slow down and thoroughly get your ideas across.

2.  One thought, one breath. - It is so easy for people to stumble through their words so fast that not a single thing is actually heard (sounds like me.)  If we focus more on separating our ideas into separate smaller ideas, and giving a breath to each one, we will learn to slow down our speaking and pause more often to make sure our ideas are coming across the most efficiently.  Which leads me into the next point...

3.  Punctuate your words. - It is important to actually finish each word you say and make it finite.  If you are saying "project" don't say "projec."  Say "projeCT."  You know what I mean?  There is a big difference; one that separates you from lazy to articulate.

4.  See and be seen.  - We all believe eye contact is THE most important part of communication.  And in some ways it is.  But it also important to allow yourself to BE seen.  You must have that openness in both ways, seeing people and letting them see you that they can better empathize with what you are saying.

5.  Maintain your three points of contact. - It is important that each of your feet keeps three points of contact; the heel, the big toe, and the little toe.  With these three points of contact comes the most stability, and the appearance of the most stability, which makes you seem more confident in front of a big crowd or audience.

6.  Divide your audience into three sections. - Many people who want to keep eye contact with their audience do something known as "the sweep" where they constantly swing their eyes back and forth across the whole group of people in front of them.  Little do they know that this behavior just makes it harder for the audience to concentrate on the words that they are saying.  Instead, it is better to separate the audience into three different sections: a left, a right, and a middle.  Always start with the middle, and transfer your eye contact at the end of an idea or phrase.  This way, you are engaging the whole audience without making them dizzy.

After all of this talk about communication, my brain was buzzing with new information and it was time to wind down.  It was happy hour at Benito's Hat, a little mexican joint down the road from class, so we went there with a bunch of the girls and got delicious burritos and watermelon and strawberry margaritas.  We ended up staying there for almost three hours just talking, but it was really nice.  It was way better than just going home and sitting on my computer!

It's getting late now, and tomorrow we have to be up by 7:30am to get to Shakespeare's Globe by 8:45 for a backstage tour!  We aren't supposed to have a full day of class tomorrow, and Maggie and I are hoping we will make it to the famous Tower Bridge (aka London Bridge) before the day is through.

Until then!!

The Audience

Today was not a very exciting day in Londontown, but it is still worth noting.

In our morning voice session, we focused a lot on intention.  We executed this topic by tossing a ball while calling out the person's name.  We noted the significance in not only saying the person's name loud enough, but maintaining eye contact and the very direct intent to throw it to THAT specific person.  With this focus on intention, we can further develop our vocal skills and learn how to execute our speech in such a way that it is the most effective.  I find it really interesting how all of this vocal work is extremely physical and is about more than just your vocal chords and mouth, but about every part of your body and your mind.  Our vocal coach, George, also told us some pretty cool theatre myths such as why the green room is called a green room, why people say "Break a leg" instead of "good luck", and what a ghost light is.  Now, I feel a little more in tune with the life of the theatre majors in the group as well as actors and actresses in general!

During our lunch break, Maggie and I walked over to Oxford Street which is pretty close by, so that we could start searching for souvenirs.  Oxford Street most reminds me of New York City out of everywhere in London.  Why?  Sketchy people, creepy souvenir stores, and lots of noise and crowds.  We wandered for a bit and even took a look around a strip mall a little bit down the road.  (Something very weird in London is that you have to pay to use public bathrooms...usually 20 pence which is probably almost $0.50!)  After getting our fill of Oxford Street, we scuttled back to the safety of Tottenham Court Road and headed back to RADA for afternoon class.

When we arrived back to class, we were told that Charlie our teacher would be late.  We were thinking at most, 15 to 20 minutes.  But instead, Charlie never showed up and the TA showed up an hour later.  Now, if we were normal college students on a Dialogue, after 20 minutes we would have all got up and just left class.  But what did we do?  We all sat in a circle together and sang random songs from Les Mis, Backstreet Boys...even Baby Got Back!  It was silly but amazing that it didn't even cross any of our minds to leave class, but rather just stick around and hang out together.  Unfortunately, when the TA arrived we did have to break-up our powwow and do a small amount of work, but our unplanned extra hour of break made it that much better.

Tonight, we saw The Audience at The Gielgud Theatre in the West End of London.  The Audience is a play about the Queen of England (played by Helen Mirren) and her meetings with every Prime Minister that has been in office during her reign (12 in all.)  It was an extremely interesting, thought-provoking, and surprisingly humorous play.  It is interesting to know that each Prime Minister in office out of precedent, would meet with the Queen every Tuesday evening for twenty minutes and update her on the status of the country.  It wasn't written anywhere in the constitution, and everything said during the "Audience" or meeting was completely confidential and held between the Queen and the current Prime Minister.  We were introduced to encounters between the Queen and Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, and even the current Prime Minister, David Cameron.  They even touched upon the Queen's state after Margaret Thatcher's death, which apparently is a very emotional topic for her as they were only 6 months apart in age.  The play used flashbacks of the Queen as a child to reflect the Queen's discontent as a young girl to be the heiress of the throne.  It was extremely well thought out, and my favorite part of the play was the end when the Queen notes that it is not the Monarch that makes the country, but each of the Prime Ministers; and how each of them looks to the Queen as an unwavering constant in a country that is always changing.  The play, in this way, was not only entertaining, but left the audience with a real message and a true respect for the Queen of England despite her age.  I would greatly recommend seeing this play.

* Silly side note, at British plays and musicals, they sell Haagen Dazs ice cream in little carts right next to each seating section.  Apparently it is a tradition in all theaters.  Another difference from American theatre is that they allow outside food and drink, but they charge you almost $5 for a program!!!*

Well, it is extremely late here and time for me to go to bed!

Goodnight everyone xo

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Yesterday and today in voice class, we began to venture into text.  Yes, actual words to read off of!  Sadly, we are still forced to do silly vocal exercises for the first half of class, but at least with text we can actually read something now!  For the past two days, we have been working on Shakespeare's 29th sonnet which is:

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Basically, this sonnet is about a man who wishes his life was different than his current state, until he realizes he has nothing to complain about because he has the love of his life.

If some of you don't know, Shakespeare's sonnets are supposed to be read in iambic pentameter, which is a set of 10 syllables paired into twos with one syllable in each pair being emphasized more.  It is complicated and difficult, but when executed correctly, it leaves the sonnet with the greatest impact.  Today, once becoming familiar with the sonnet, we played around with it in different ways.  We tried walking around and reading it, and each time there was a punctuation mark, we had to switch the direction in which we were walking in.  We also tried reading the sonnet without iambic pentameter, as well as reading the sonnet as if each line were it's own finite poem.  It was interesting to see how different people executed the poem, some spoked fervently, while others more pleasantly who emphasized the love story part of the sonnet.  It really amazed me how the sonnet could take on so many meanings just by the tone and person reading it.

In our afternoon classes, we have been doing some pretty interesting things with Charlie.  Yesterday, we started off the class by lying in a circle so that your head was resting on the person's stomach next to you, and someone's head was resting on yours.  We then were told to let out all of the giggles that we had inside of us for the next five minutes of class.  It's pretty funny how when we are told to giggle, it becomes the hardest thing in the world.  Meanwhile, most of the class has giggles throughout each of our sessions.  Once one person started giggling; though, you couldn't help but start laughing as well just because of the pure strangeness of the sensation of feeling someone's stomach vibrating below you as it erupted with laughter.  It was a great way to relieve all the stress and tension everyone felt, and to start the class off on a light note.

After the laughing exercise, we were told to get into partners and do more mirroring.  I decided that since I have basically avoided Maggie in every session thus far, we should finally be partners.  And boy oh boy, what a good idea that was!  It was so funny how much we could predict each other's next movements, as well as how identical we have come to be in our mannerisms and facial expressions...no wonder people think we are sisters or something!  My favorite part of class yesterday was making Maggie do the dance to "Shawty it's your Booty" and seeing if she could figure out that that was what I was making her mirror.  Obviously, once she caught on, we both burst into laughter.  Gotta love that girl!


(For those of you who don't know the dance...here it is:)

Today in class, we were assigned scene partners because we are going to begin working with short scripts in this class as well.  But, before we were given our scenes, we were to do a trust game with our scene partner.  The trust game consisted of one of us closing our eyes and pretending we were blind, while our scene partner guided us around the room.  Lori is my scene partner, and I had no issues trusting her in guiding me around to room.  Only once did I come a little to close to hitting my face into the window, but I'll let her get away with that this time!  It was amazing to see how much my senses heightened when my eyes had to be shut.  Every smell was more poignant, and every touch was more intense.  We were told to touch other people's hands and arms and try to figure out who they were.  It was funny and rather embarrassing that I had such a hard time telling who was who when I could not look and see who it was!

We got to end class early today because we were scheduled to take a tour of the National Theatre on the South Bank.  The Theatre was extremely interesting, as it holds three different kinds of theaters under it's roof; each one catering to up to 3 shows at a time!  I'm pretty sure the tour guide said that over a year, over 26 shows could have been shown at the Theatre.  We also got to go backstage and see the set design area as well as all of the extra and random props that they have laying around.  I'm not a huge theatre buff but the tour was still very cool!

After the tour, Maggie and I along with two other girls went to the restaurant Giraffe that sits right along the South Bank of London on the River Thames.  It is a beautiful view, rain or shine; and luckily today, the sun was shining!  We got extremely delicious food and passionfruit cider that was to die for! I can't really tell if I'm gaining or losing weight on this trip due to the constant paradox of walking so much but then eating so much food!!

Another day of class awaits tomorrow and then tomorrow night we are going to see The Audience featuring Helen Mirren!  My hopes are high that I will actually like this play!

Until next time!!

“When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.” ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Yesterday's class dragged on for quite a bit and I think everyone was ready to have their Sunday off.  In George's morning voice class, we did a lot of relaxation exercises as well as discussed the introduction of the book that we were supposed to read.  Basically, the book talked about how there is a difference between our natural voice and our habitual voice and how it takes effort to separate them.  The book also talked about how it can take up to 20 years to define this difference and truly come into your own natural voice.  Obviously, we are only here for a month and are only getting a small taste of all of the hard work it takes to really become comfortable with your voice.  The second half of our morning session, we practiced using our natural voice saying, "I am me."  We had to stare at the person standing across from us in the circle and look them in the eyes and say this statement with them.  We then had to take a step towards them and then do it again.  We continued to do this until we were face to face with them, then shoulder to shoulder, and then back to back.  After back to back, we then took one step away and did it again until we had swapped places in the circle.  Afterwards, we talked about how when you had someone to focus your attention on, it was easier to use your natural voice and not feel nervous.  It seemed as though we were drawing energy off of each other to encourage one another to do the exercise as efficiently as possible.

Our afternoon class was our first 'official' class with Charlie, our new instructor.  We spent the first half hour of class discussing The Tempest as well as anything else we had learned related to class.  I was shocked when Charlie was able to go around the circle and name everyone without hesitation, until our TA told us afterwards that he had studied on Facebook!  Very very clever.  We then got into two small circles and started a massage circle to release any tension we had from the past week.  I must say, everyone is a great masseuse and it was a good time to practice my massage skills for physical therapy! We then split into partners and analyzed each other's posture and helped our partner by telling them where they were holding tension and figuring out ways in which they could release that tension.  Both my partner and I are very tall, and we found that both of us held a lot of tension in our shoulders.  It makes sense, because we spend so much time hunched over and not standing at our full height.  It's amazing how much this all relates to anatomy and reminds me more and more how much I love the profession I am going into.  Finally, we ended the class with mirroring.  Basically, I had to stand less than 2 feet away from my partner, maintaining eye contact and TRYING (note that word) to keep a serious face.  Knowing me, I of course could not stop bursting out into laughter because my partner is one of the clowns in the group and kept making silly facial expressions at me.  After finally getting over the giggles, I realized how intense and intimate it is to maintain eye contact with someone.  But, I also realized how much better at it I am getting.  I can now stare into someone's eyes and truly read them, and not feel as awkward as I used to.  Eye contact is such a strong physical connection, one that we don't use very often.  It truly can be the difference in the way a person sees you.  I know that usually when people try to maintain eye contact with me, I make a silly face or ask, "What are you looking at?!"  So I'm going to try from now on to just let it happen and not make everything into such a lighthearted joke.

Last night, we went out with some girls on the Dialogue to a club called Tiger Tiger.  It was ridiculously expensive and definitely not worth the money it cost to get in.  Once again, the crowd was older and more businessy, and the music was OLD.  Like, we are talking Black Eyed Peas "Pump It" was playing.  Who plays that at a club?!  People in London, I guess.  Either way, it was still a great time and I love the girls I went with.  They are all so sweet and funny and remind me a lot of my friends at home.  I'm hoping that even when we all return home from the trip, we will still stay in contact.  (I'm even trying to convince a younger girl to go through recruitment just so she can be my little.  Sneaky, I know.)

Today, Maggie and I walked over to Oxford Circus and treated ourselves (more like experimented) to a full English breakfast.  So, a full English breakfast consists of eggs sunny side up, sausage, "bacon", toast, and beans.  Weird, I know.  I don't really like any of that stuff besides toast, but I ate it anyway because it was an experience!  Except for the bacon.  Ew.  It was more just like a gigantic piece of ham slightly fried.

After having a late breakfast, we then took the Tube over to Kensington and made our way over to Kensington Palace where we had reserved tickets to see the inside quarters of the Palace.  We first went through the Queen's apartments, which told the story of William and Mary and of Mary' sister, Anne, who had 17 failed pregnancies, only to have her 18th child die on his 11th birthday.  Anne was supposed to birth the next heir to the throne because Mary could not have children.  I know I'm missing pieces of the story, but somewhere down the line of relatives the next heir became King George I.  After visiting the Queen's apartments, we went to see the King's apartments.  It was amazing to see just how much more ornate and extravagant the King's quarters were compared to the Queen's.  The King had a grand staircase, fresco painted ceilings, chandeliers, and tons and tons of old paintings.  I liked how the Palace had transformed these old quarters to tell the King and Queen's stories so that it wasn't just walking through rooms with a bunch of artifacts.  I really wish I had read up on my English history before I visited; though, because it was a lot more interesting than I expected it to be!

The last section that we could see in the Palace was "Victoria Revealed" which was all about Queen Victoria, who was the youngest and longest reigning Queen of England.  She was brought into office at the young age of only eighteen!  Can you imagine being that young, a WOMAN in the 1800s, and being Queen of a country?  Absolutely insane.  But, she did it.  And she did it extremely well.  Victoria was an extraordinary person and very intelligent.  The exhibit had covered the walls, tables, and floors with quotes and blurbs from all of Victoria's journals and writings.  I truly felt like I was getting to know her, and what it was like for her to run a country and still try to have a normal life.  My favorite part of this exhibit was the love story that developed between Queen Victoria and Albert.  There was a whole room devoted to their love; segments of letters written to one another, things Victoria had written describing Albert, the place where they first met, etc.  Just from all of the writing and imagery shown in this exhibit, anyone could see how much they loved each other.  I felt like I was following Victoria through her whole life and truly feeling every emotion that she had felt.  It was  extremely sad when we arrived at the segment of the exhibit where she writes about Albert dying.  Suddenly, the whole exhibit was very dark and gloomy.  Victoria's writing became sad and you could sense how lonely she had become.  If I had to choose one thing that I have done so far on this trip that left an impact on me, it was the Queen Victoria exhibit and the story of Victoria and Albert.

After leaving Kensington Palace, we explored the gardens and FINALLY found the Peter Pan statue.  My lifelong dream has finally come true.  To stand next to the original statue of Peter Pan, donated by the author himself, J.M. Barrie in 1912.  The statue is 101 years old and as beautiful as ever.  It sparks such youth and a drive for adventure and it will always be my favorite thing about London.  It is a reminder that no matter how old you get, you never really have to grow up.

After thoroughly exploring Kensington Gardens on this surprisingly beautiful, warm, AND sunny day, we crossed the street to Hyde Park.  There, we stopped at the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, where we dipped our feet in the bubbling (and freezing cold) water.  Hey, if we are there, we might as well get the whole experience, right?  Sitting there with the sun on my back and my feet in the water, I couldn't help but really appreciate the whole experience I was having.  At the same time, today is the first time my homesickness is really hitting me.  There are a lot of things I miss about home, but I know it is worth it to be here and it's only three more weeks after all.

We ended our extremely long day at Harrods which is like the Macy's of London.  Except way more expensive.  A small moto-leather jacket was 1065 pounds!  Which is like $2500 in the U.S.  The place made me want to be rich and famous, to say the least.  It was still really fun to explore all the different rooms and gape at the loads of designer clothes within my reach.  It was also really fun to pose with yet another huge giraffe stuffed animal and just appreciate the pure fun of window shopping.  After exploring all five floors completely, I was relieved to get on the Tube and sit down.  Getting back to our apartment and sitting in my bed was even more of a relief!

A new week of class starts tomorrow (blegh) and yet another week of adventures awaits!

I hope everyone is enjoying reading this, because I am truly enjoying writing it.

I miss everyone so much!! So much hugs and kisses coming from across the pond.

xoxo