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