Stopped to Smell the Roses in Regent Park

Hello! In one week I will be back in Ohio. It's really hard to believe. Here are some things I will miss:
Mashed peas (mmm, sounds good Timothy, doesn't it?)
Funky Flavored Potato Crisps (Chips)
Wagamama
Green and Black's Chocolate
Baked beans with breakfast
Walking everywhere
Seeing all the bright colors, flowing skirts, and scarves (these are my people!)
Going to quality theatre without the fuss of planning it myself
Having parks and heaths reachable within 20 minutes
the architecture
South Bank
Post Cards- I prefer writing in short self absorbed paragraphs
Knowing I can touch history

The last few days have been busy. Yesterday I had a lovely afternoon. I went to the Samuel French bookshop. It's the base for theatre publishing. I spent over an hour gathering books in my arms only to realize that I did not lead a lifestyle in which I could afford armfuls of books. I did buy some though. I am in denial of my poor student status.
I had lunch in Fitzroy Square, which is a circle of a park that is gated. After walking around full circle, I finally found the entrance and felt like I was in a special club.
I still had a few hours so I went down to Regents Park which is only about a 20 minute walk from where we are staying. In Regents Park, I went to the Queen's Garden. Roses, roses, everywhere. I spent a half hour smelling all the different kinds and taking lots of pictures. Then I spent about 20 minutes sneezing. Then I found a nice little section where they had these green and white canvas lawnchairs that you could sit in. After pulling one in the shade and making several attempts to set it up and sit in it comfortably, I sat and watched people and caught up with my journal.
That night we went to a small town south of London called Guilford. Guilford was lovely for several reasons, one including they had a YMCA!! I took pictures, Dad. ;) We saw a show called Bronte which was really interesting, particularly if you are interested in the Bronte sisters (Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights).
Today I saw two shows- The Big Life (Ska Musical based on Shakespeare's Love's Labour Lost) and Troilus and Cressida (in original dialect "I beseech thee" becomes "Aye baysaych thay") at the Globe. In between I went to Wagamama (see list of London's faves) for dinner with Nick, Christina, and Jen. I had (and Amanda you will appreciate this) pumpkin, sweet potato, and eggplant baked in bread crumbs with a subtle curry sauce, rice and salad and steamed dumplings. Yummmmm...The other great thing about Wagamama is that they have 2 for 1 coupons in Timeout so it is very affordable.
Tomorrow we have an acting workshop, a group dinner on the South Bank, and then we are seeing a show at the National. I have not decided what I am going to do in the afternoon. Charles Dickens house? National Portrait Gallery? Regents Park? Who knows? The next few days, the shows are winding down so I am trying to make sure I do a lot of the sights. There's no way I will complete my list but I came to peace with that long ago.
I hope everyone is well and my thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the hurricanes and the stampede.
love, k

It's Carnival!
If you click on the following link and look between the red costumes, you can see the pattern of my costume.
http://www.mynottinghill.co.uk/nottinghilltv/gallery/carnival/carn-sun-2005_2.htm
The red and white costumes were in the same camp as I was.
That probably doesn't make too much sense, so I will do a quick explanation.
Carnival is a celebration done across the world. It is a chance for people to take the streets and say I am here. The Notting Hill carnival began when people from Trinidad and the West Indies came to Britain. No longer slaves, they could claim the streets. Many immigrants were brought to Britain to help rebuild after the war. Though, they were welcomed for their work, they were not welcomed into the community. It was much more difficult to find a place to live than find work. Carnival became a celebration for them to say I am here.
Over the years it has developed into a huge community event. The week prior there are calypso, steel band, and costume competitions. The Carnival yesterday was the end to the celebration, a parade throughout Notting Hill.
These parades often consists of different camps. These camps compete with each other for costumes, bands, and sound systems. Many of the students in our program worked with a camp called Mahogany. Mahogany is one of the most technically advanced of the camps with all the costumes supporting a theme- this year's theme was Stretch of the Imagination. The main costume competitions involve the costuming of the King and Queen. The rest of the performers support those costumes using the theme.
Because of my research I was unable to work with Mahogany throughout my stay, but yesterday when I got to the camp base, I did some last minute costume building- putting fiber glass rods into huge skirts. We had the opportunity to either 'play mas'- dance/perform in costume or be stewards- crowd control and aiding those in costume. I decided to play mas.
My costume was called Kaleidscope and I walked with many of the children. It was a long day. It's the combination of club dance party and parade. We walk behind a truck with a wall of speakers facing us. They told us before that we would have much more energy if we danced as opposed to walked. The costumes are designed to move. Many of them appear to have a circular ring of fabric around the waist, but they can expand to encase the entire person. Mine wasn't that exciting but it did have a large fiber glass hoop around the bottom and neck piece that I spun around my neck. I looked like the Queen of Hearts from Alice Wonderland and I also looked about 4 years old.
I feel like I gave you more of a lecture than a retelling of the day's events. The days events weren't terribly exciting. I got my costume, I danced, I walked, I stood, I danced some more and finally 12 hours after I left, I got home.
Now I enter on my last week of London. I'm not sure what I am going to do this afternoon. I may go to a park or a museum. Tonight we are seeing a show in Gilford which is a 40 minute train ride from London so I can't stray too far from Ramsay.
I hope all is well.

I strongly dislike the bus.
It is probably my own fault- had I brought with me a discman, sleeping pills, or knitting, it may not have been so bad. However 9 hours on a bus but nothing to do except think, when you have already had plenty time to think, it got a little old. I actually counted down minutes for awhile to make time go faster. Also dodging my seatmate as he dozed and nodded towards me became a fun little game. Amazing what you can do to entertain yourself.
I may have been hallucinating but I swear I saw the following on a sign:
Mancheter 90
Birmingham 30
Welcome Break 25

I really began to look forward to the Welcome Break after that. It never came.
So now I am back in london. It's a balmy 50 degrees. It does feel balmy after Scotland. I put a skirt on. I was beginning to forget I had legs and it's strange to let any air actually hit my skin without wincing from cold. Okay, that may be exagerrating but sadly just a little. It was really cold in Scotland. I had a dream that I actually went to Alaska instead, and still people were shocked when I told them how many clothes I had to wear.
I did love my trip, however. I do not want to give off the wrong impression. Edinburgh was gorgeous. The hostel was nicer than I expected and I saw quite a bit. I feel like I only scratched the surface. I am wondering if it would be possible to get a grant to study Shakespeare on the Fringe- looking at fringe productions of Shakespeare. This was one of my plots I hatched on the 9 hour trip home. As well as how I would end up starring in a Broadway production that began on the fringe circuit and then in a film of the same play and exactly who would I thank in my acceptance speech and how gracious I would be and the style gown I would be wearing. It's these kind of daydreams that you get through 9 hours of bus traveling. Sigh.
I am back in London and the trip is beginning to wind down. Tomorrow I am 'playing mas' in the Notting Hill Carnival. This means I am dressing up and performing in the parade. They are putting me in a children's costume, I think it's because of my height. I think it will be really fun.
After that, I am not altogether sure what we are doing. I know we have one more acting workshop and some more shows to see. I am going to hit the Globe hard again before I leave. I want to resee some shows and see some new ones. The Globe has been the most exciting venue so far. Though the festival does rival it pretty closely.
I hope everyone is well. It's great to hear from you, I am definately thinking of you. Though I have loved the trip, I think I will be ready to come back by the end.

This is going to be much shorter than originally planned because I already lost one draft of this.
I hate Macs.
My highlight of the day (and my trip!) was climbing up Arthur's Seat. You can see it in many pictures of Edinburgh. It's this huge crag that overlooks the city. I picture it as King Lear's Heath, so for the rest of this email, I will call it the Heath. For two hours, it was just me and the Heath. It was much easier climbing up than getting back down. I took a whole roll of film, so will share those when I get back. The wind ripped through me when I get to the top and it was amazing.
I also went to the John Knox house, Hollyrood palace, an art exhibit from the queen mother, and a production of Genet's The Maids (which I am adding to my growing list of shows I want to direct).
Yesterday I went to The Elephant House, the castle, a production of Richard II, and a production of Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
Tomorrow I have a 8-9 hour bus trip back to London.

I survived my first day in Scotland. Maybe 'survived' is not the right word. I conquered my first day in Scotland.
Highlights include:
Eating lunch at the Elephant House where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter. I think I am going to back again- good food and maybe I will be inspired.
Despite my vows of taking a break from theatre, the pull of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival was way too much temptation. I saw two plays today. One was easy, it was right down the road. It was a production of Paula Vogel's "How I Learned to Drive". It was a great show. Very small venue, minimal sets.
The second show was the fearless Kimberly taking over. 'So what if it is on the other side of a city that I don't know and I am going on about 3 hours of sleep?' Yes, I bought tickets for Children of the Sea that took place in the Royal Botanical Gardens. Much of my afternoon consisted of first finding the bus station/information and then figuring out the bus system. With the help of a sweet old lady on the bus, I got there safe and sound about 2 1/2 hours early. Oops. I also learned how big the Royal Botanical Gardens were- QUITE big. I had to walk around it several times to find the gate and find food. I ate at a lovely Indian restaurant and then walked back to the gardens. The show was amazing. It won several awards at the Festival. It's a retelling of Shakespeare's "Pericles". It was done by Tsunami victims and they incorporated the Sri Lankian (sp?? word??) culture, theatrical practices, and dancing. It was a promenade performance which means the audience was led to different locations. As al the bright colors and dancing was going on, you could often see the Edinburgh castle in the background. That alone was quite amazing.
Another notable thing- it's freezing here. It's like November weather. I wore 2 shirts, a cardigan, fleece, jean jacket, hat, scarf, and gloves, still cold! Other that that, I do like Edinburgh.
For the most part I like traveling by myself, but I am a bit lonesome so expect more entries in the next few days. I am desperate to tell stories and talk.
And what is up with getting junk comments? I though junk email was bad enough...If anyone knows how to make it stop, let me know.

There is nothing glamorous or extravagent about traveling by bus.
But I am here. I did survive.
For the record, if anyone plans to make a similar trip in the future. Stop at Manchester, not Birmingham.
Don't sit among a family.
Wear lots of layers.

I knew I was taking a rsik by sitting among a family. What I didn't prepare for was that the parents would be the worst behaved. Granted the little boy in back of me was trying to touch my face whenever I laid down. The parents were spraying water on one of their sleeeeping children and then using their phones to take videos saying, Look at the wet spot on DAvey's pants. He wet himself! This would have been amusing once, but they must have done it six times in about 30 minutes. Then they weree drawing on his face. What alaremed me about this was that I tought he was really wetting himself so I felt so incredibly bad for him and was concerned with whether it was going to smell. At a later spot Iwas able to move.
Excuse my spelling mistakes , the compauter has delay on it and I am tryiping to type fast because someone is waitnigfor it .
So bus trip tis over , Ediburgh is beautiful and the day is just beginning.

I know it's pretty quick for a new post, but yesterday was a whirlwind of a day so this is also for my records. :)
I got up early and headed out to Saint Pauls. Because of some delays, I ended up walking along the South Bank from Embankment to get there. I am glad it worked out that way because it was a beautiful walk to do in the morning. I was nervous about making it in time for service, but I got there just in time for the 10:15 Matin service.
I had never been to a Matin. Basically the choir runs the show and they sing everything except the apostles creed, the readings, and the sermon. It was gorgeous. The cathedral alone could take your breath away and then to have this choir singing everything. Their voices echoed off the walls.
After that I met up with Nick and Christina. We headed off to the Brick Lane Market. This almost a sensory overload. It was teetering on the balance. There were so many smells, tastse, sights, sounds. You walk into this huge, fieldhouse like building and there is stall after stall of clothes, jewelry, handbags, jackets, anything you can imagine. All the colors are bright. The big fashion here right now is bohemian chic. Lots of bright colored, full skirts with these really wide belts. There is also a section with food and that has every nationality you can think of. My two favorites were the olive stand that had all of these brightly colored olives in baskets and a greek bakery.
After Brick Lane market, Christina and I headed to the City of London museum. We pretty much walked through it until we found the Victorian walk, then we took some more time. We took a break for tea and talked to a calypso singer about carnival.
Then we headed to Harrods for the Food Halls. Harrods is extravagence. The food halls are works of art. There is a room for meat (we didn't spend much time in that one), a produce room where they had dried strawberries which I found very expensive interesting, a deli/ready to eat room, and our favorite- a chocolate/tea/coffee room. Both of us bought chocolate before we left. Gourmet and organic chocolate has been a recent and dangerous discovery for me.
We took a break after Harrods and stopped at our dorm and then headed to Camden street for dinner. Going to Camden and Harrods in one day was an experience. Camden is kind of the punk area- or at least the market sells a lot of that style of clothing. I have also never seen so many body piercing. Not being able to pass up another piercing I....didn't get one. No more piercings for me. We had dinner at Wagamama and then headed to Hampstead for a fringe show.
Hamstead is an oasis in London. It has the Heath- big huge area of fields and woods, quaint houses, and hills. Before the fringe show, we explored the Heath. We went in a back entrance and felt a lot like Hansel and Gretel. One minute we are in London, the next on this little dirt path in the woods.
The fringe show we saw was Victoria Plums and it was basically an actress sharing her research on the Victorian period. It was really fun. We were the only ones in the audience under the age of 60, but we both really loved it.
That was my Sunday and now it's on the record. Have a great week everyone!

Hello all, I am back in London. It is good to be back. I loved Stratford. It will definately be billed as one of the high points of my trip. I didn't do anything exciting. I even had some personal drama to work through, but it still was just a great place for me to stop, take a deep breath, and realize that I was in England and it's not everyday you find yourself in a lovely little English town where Shakespeare once lived.
I actually shyed (sp?) away from most of the touristy things. As strange as it is being someone who studies Shakespeare, I am not to interested in seeing where he may have hung his hat. History is a fickle beast and the cynic in me arises. I did see Anne Hathaway's cottage and Shakespeare's grave. At the cottage, I was happiest in the garden and Jamie I took a LOT of pictures for you. The flowers were so amazing.
Shakespeare's grave was inside the Holy Trinity Church. It was a beautiful and peaceful place and they were actually playing the Nocturne from Mendelsohn's Midsumer Night's Dream score. This was a piece I heard repeatedly when I worked on the show this spring, so it was a very beautiful moment.
Once the group left on Friday morning, I was on my own in Stratford. I spent most of the day researching at the Royal Shakespeare Archives. I really enjoyed the research. I also managed to make a mess of myself. My hands were black from the pencil I was using to write with and then I had to wear gloves for touching any of the pictures. Well there is this white powder inside the gloves that gets all over your hands. Within minutes of taking the gloves off, I had the powder in my hair, all over my face, all over my dark pants and black long sleeve shirt. It was ridiculous. I get dirty no matter what I am doing.
After doing research, I found the Dirty Duck or Black Swan- this is a bar that is very popular with RSC actors. Because I am clueless to star spotting, I have no idea who else was there. I had fish n chips n peas and this fabulous 250 ml glass of wine. I ate it on the patio looking at the Avon river. After that I stumbled upon Holy Trinity Church. After a big ole glass of wine, I had some fabulous idea for photo ops. One of which was taking a picture looking up at this chandelier, getting the whole thing in standing directly under it. It took me awhile to get the best angle, and I am sure I was quite a sight to see, but it should be a really cool picture. After my photo taking antics, the cashier correctly guessed that I was a student and gave me a discount on seeing Will's grave. So much for being a sophisticated, mature adult woman. For anyone who remembers my high school photography days, the shot reminded me a lot of my study on grocery carts. ;)
As I said they were playing Mendelsohn's Nocturne, so I took a small break and just enjoyed the music and being in an old church. Then I finally found the internet cafe, I say finally because the night before I had scoured the streets for it. It was so right under my nose. A few emails later, I was back to my bed and breakfast.
The bed and breakfast was not as nice as the one the night before, but it had a unique style. E, the color scheme in my room was orange and purple with this fabulous purple light fixture! I took pictures for you! It was a very cozy night in my little orange and purple room reading, writing, and listening to the rain.
Today I got up and headed back to the archives. I was much more leery of the gloves and managed to stay (relatively) clean. I had some surprises in my research today, like it sounds like one of my productions really sucked. If you really want to know details, you can ask, but I won't bore you with specifics. I wandered around and did some shopping. Part of this shopping was very safe because I found a great thrift shop. Part of my shopping will prevent me from eating out this week, but alas, I think it was worth it.
I caught the train back to London. This was exciting on many levels, the most important being I didn't have to take a cab or bus to Banbury. On the way to Stratford, we could only take the train to Banbury and then we took a cab. It was supposed to take us 40 minutes and I think we got there in 20. Two of my friends were worried we were going to crash and die. My most immediate worry was whether or not I was going to throw up. It was awful! Mom, it was even worse than the cab ride in Puerto Rico.
The train ride was lovely. I saw some of the English countryside, did a little writing, and reading. Mostly I just stared out the window and daydreamed/enjoyed being in England.
I am in London until Wednesday and then I am taking an overnight bus to Scotland. Stratford was a good warm up of being in a new city and finding my way around. Edinborough is a lot bigger and will be more difficult but I feel a lot more confident about it. I also have a better idea on how to pack. Lightly, lightly, lightly.
My thoughts are with you and I hope everyone is well. I heard from April that there was a tornado in Stoughton. I hope everyone is safe and I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

I don't have much time but I can do a very quick post.
I am in Stratford right now. It has been a Godsend. The place we are staying at is so nice and clean! I think I got the best night's sleep last night than I have had all of my trip. It's really been a great re-energizer for me. I was getting to a point of being really tired of being sick and tired, so I am so glad for this. Also, I had my first hot breakfast! I forgot how good toast is when it is still warm!
The town is (obviously) much smaller than London. It's very touristy, but very pretty. We are in walking distance of the theater and where I will be doing research. Tomorrow I start my research at the Royal Shakespeare Archives. I will be doing that all day tomorrow and then Saturday morning. Most of our group is heading back tomorrow so it will be nice to have a break.
We have seen two shows so far that have been very good but pretty dark. Tonight we see As You Like It- the play that started it all for me. I am very excited to hear the All the world's a stage speech.
I hope everyone is well.
My harry potter update- I saw the actors that play Dumbledore and Filch in the the Henry IV plays. Filch is quite good as an actor- he was one of my favorites in the production! Daniel Radcliffe (Harry himself) was in the audience!

Feel a sickie coming on?
I have had the unexpected pleasure to get sick while being in London. I have a cold/flu bug. It really isn't that bad. This isn't a post to complain about how I don't feel well, more to comment on medication. It is a good thing I am studying theatre as opposed to oh, I don't know, rock climbing, because really I just go into various theatres and watch plays being performed. Not too tough.
First, to Amanda who laughed and scorned when I packed a good deal of my medicine cabinet- I have already gone through my supplies and have had to resort to British medication. The first thing I noticed is that, at least at the places where I shop, there isn't much selection. This is fine because I do often get bogged down by choices. The second thing is that they have much more fun in descriptions. When a cough was bothering me, I had the choice between medicine that treated a 'tickly' cough or 'chesty' cough. It was a hard choice, but I did go for 'chesty.' It didn't really work so I went back to the store where I found some medication that treated my flu like symptoms. Upon opening the carton, a piece of paper fell out.
"This leaflet provides information about your medicice. Please read carefully....Please keep this leaftlet. You may need to read it again."
Since it was so polite, I decided to read it...
It broke down for me what exactly was in my medicine, the various pack sizes I could choose from, blah, blah, then I got to the interesting section-the side effects.The side effects included all of my flu like symptoms in addition, delirium, and various other life threatening effects that you often see on those drug commercials.
That medical tidbit out to satisfy my roommates who were having trouble following my theatrical ramblings.
Other recent highlights:
I have spent a lot of time at the Globe in the last few days. How cool is that? :) Last night I saw a production of Pericles. Now Pericles is a terrible play when you read it and from my research in undergrad, often a terrible play in performance (Disney on Crack was one of my favorite descriptions). The production I saw last night is at the top of my list for favorite productions in London. The director did an amazing job with her concept of the show and making the show make sense. If anyone knows the play (and let me know who you are), the director focused on how Antioch's incest and the guilt Pericles felt for not saving Antioch's daughter continued to haunt him as he searched for other examples of family, and relationships between fathers and daughters. The Gower character served as a guide for Pericles as he retraced his steps a la It's A Wonderful Life style through his life. For those who don't know the play, they used a lot of trapeze artists and it was really cool.
I saw The Winter's Tale this afternoon. That was good too.
On Saturday we did an improv workshop with one of the directors from the Improbable Company.
On Friday night I walked across the Tower Bridge at night and saw the castle all lit up.
Upcoming events:
Tuesday is my History play day at the National. I am going with some friends early in the morning to get tix for Henry IV Part 2, at 11 we are getting a tour of the National, at 2 we are seeing Henry IV Part 1, and then at night seeing Henry IV Part 2. Wednesday we leave for Stratford where I will stay until Saturday.

I hope this finds everyone well. I have gotten two rounds of postcards out and will keep them coming.

Hello-
I don't have too much time so this will be a quick post.
I finished my research at the National Theatre yesterday. I really loved doing research there- the people were so nice and friendly, not to mention the materials they had were amazing. I got to look at costume renderings, groundplans, cue sheets, prop lists, press articles, an annotated script, the actual production on video tape- my inner nerd was in full blossom! I was up to my elbows in materials. I think I got some really great stuff that will be really useful and impressive in my thesis (well impressive to me, at least). Particularly the blocking notes for Fiona Shaw during the deposition scene! You know, I am probably one of very few that finds that exciting. Oh, well.
Last night, I saw a production of Frankie and Johny at the Claire de Lune (or something like that, I don't know if I have all the right wording)in a very small theatre on Leicester Square. It was quite good in a very intimate space. We were pretty much sitting on the set with them. They also used a bit of scrim. You know how I love scrim.
I just saw a production of The Tempest at The Globe. I was perched right on the stage- it was absolutely incredible to hear Prospero's epilogue and some of the beautiful passages that reference the Globe and to be in the Globe-unreal.
Tonight we are seeing another show at the National about an actor who kills his critics.
I hope everyone is well. Tomorrow we are supposed to see a London heatwave. I am curious to see what that constitutes. It's been so mild so far, I can't imagine it getting too hot, but we'll see.

This is a post for all of you non-theater lovers.
On Sunday, I had a little time to explore on my own. I started the day off looking for Saint Giles church. It's old and has some relation to a lot of poets (this is terrible but I haven't had time to look it up in my little tour book). This took awhile but I familiarized myself with Tottenham Court Road and with the help of the church bells, did find the church. The parish was very small and very welcoming. All the songs were sung to basically the same melody which made it easy for me since I didn't know the songs.
After Church, I set out to find somewhere for lunch. Now I passed some really good looking restaurants, but I in quest for something- I'm not sure what but I did have something in mind (I was to find out later that subconciously I was looking for a really bad restaurant). I decided on fish n chips. It actually ended up being an impulse decision, I was hungry and had hit an area with not as much variety, saw it on the ksiok and went in. As I was sitting down in the empty cafe staring at the yellow and black striped walls, I began to suspect that it wasn't the four star dining establishment I had hoped for. When I got my food, unfortunately my suspicions were correct. Not so good, but I can cross off fish n chips off my list of things to do.
I was in the Soho area at this point and began to explore. At first it was exciting and then as I continued to pass the same shops over and over, I began to suspect I was going in a circle. I tried to follow arrows to Leicester square, but still I passed the same shops. In desperation I got on a bus and rode it for about three blocks- just long enough to get me out of the loop and into Leicester square.
In Leicester square I watched people setting up for the premiere of The Island which was pretty cool to see. I stayed long enough to get my bearings and then headed to Trafalgar square.
I stopped in the National Portrait Gallery just to get indoors for a bit. I found the portraits of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I as well as one of Deborah Warner. It was really cool and I may head back today if I have a chance. I knew that there would be performances starting at 3, so I got some bread from Pret a Manger and went to the square where I found some people from my performance.
The performances were really cool. I won't go into much detail (this is for non theatre lovers). The first performance was all over the place, the second performance was on the base of the Nelson monument, and the third performance was around and in one of the fountains. I took a lot of pictures for those who are intrigued.
I should get going now. I need to catch breakfast before they stop serving. I hope everyone is well and will post again soon.

Hi everyone-
I am in the computer lab typing up some notes for my research so I thought this would be a good time to write a new post. I have seen two shows so far both have been pretty amazing. We saw the Arab Israeli Cookbook on Thursday night. This was an amazing play that was a collection of monologues and short scenes surrounding the conflects in Israel. There were some really poignant scenes relating to some of the current events witht the bombings. The show was running prior to what has happened and so I can't even imagine how it felt to be the actors and all of sudden have these stories about bombings, the fear of an abandoned backpack, not letting the terrorists disturb regular routine bring a whole new layer of meaning to the piece. I bought the script because it was excellent and because I think I am going to use some of the monologues as a way in for my actors on the piece I am directing. I think it will just give them more material to get their minds around and help me to get my mind around it as well.
Death of a Salesman was the other show we saw. Visually this piece was absolutely stunning. I have never seen anything like it in terms of design and stage pictures. I realized once the play started that I was more familiar with All my Sons than Death of a Salesman. One of the challenges of this piece is to be able to show multiple rooms of the house as well as multiple settings outside the house. One way they did that in this piece was to use a turntable, have the different levels shift, and really make us of scrims (a cloth that when backlit is transculent but when lit from a different angle is opaque). The shifting of scenery made the piece almost cinematic, the use of the turntable almost made it like we as an audience were zooming in on a scene. I didn't find the acting/directing in this as strong which I think puts me in a minority. Mrs. Loman was outstanding- she was a small, fierce, bulldog, emotional powerhouse. The other actors grew on me in the second act but the first act was just really slow on tempo. Rob Lowe was also in the audience much to the delight of many from our program. I am a terrible star spotter so left to my own devices I would not have noticed. For any of you Rob Lowe fans, he was a very pretty man. I think my favorite part of seeing him was watching Chris watch him from the balcony. He was so excited. It was like watching a little kid at Christmas. :)
As I said at the beginning of the post, I am typing up research this morning. My research has been amazing so far. I got to watch a taped production of Fiona Shaw playing Richard II which was inspring. Deborah Warner is my new directing hero. I also was able to go through the groundplans, costume renderings, cue sheets, and rehearsal/production photos. Next week I am going to go through the press releases and I'll be done at the National. The archivists are really friendly and helpful. One of them even made me tea yesterday and we had a nice little talk about productions that are running now.
Between 4 and midnight today I am seeing three shows- Shoreditch Madonna, Hedda Gabler, and MacBeth. I want to do some exploring today and tomorrow to get a better sense of my surroundings.
Take care everyone.

D'oh!

I am safe and sound in London. The only strange thing thus far has been the British Family in front of us on the airplane had a life sized Homer Simpson doll. I thought that was very peculiar for several reasons none of which I have to time to get into.
The dorms are much homier than I expected. Not exactly like nicer, but more cozy. We have a great location close to grocery stores, cafes, Indian restaurants, and this very internet cafe.
Last night we explored Leicester and Tralfagar squares. Today we have our first class, I start research, and we are going to our first show. I am very excited to jump in and get started. My research is at National Theatre so I will be walking across the Waterloo Bridge and then on the Queen's Way along the Thames. If I get lost, I will get lost in style.
Note to Mom and Dad- Of course, I won't get lost and if I do, it's a very safe area. And as Amanda knows, I am well versed in Karate and can protect myself (aka hit first and run).