Mock Audition and Thrifting

We had our mock audition with our monologues in Shakespeare today. Everyone performed their pieces and we had mini workshops and critiques at the end of class. It went very well. I can't wait to perform again in Stratford! After class, Amy, Tanner, and I went thrifting. Much like our Goodwill and Salvation Army shops, they have charity shops here for various organizations. However here they include cancer research, heart disease, and many other causes. We didn't end up buying anything, but it was very cool to see. I think there were one or two shops in Surbiton that we missed. Maybe we can go back another day. We also stopped by Sainsbury and bought a tube of chocolate chip "digestive biscuits" and a two liter bottle of cider. We had a nice evening in doing homework and getting ready for class tomorrow.

Oxford and The Events

Our BC&S class had an early morning today. We took a field trip to Oxford, boarding the charter bus at 8:45 a.m. at Seething Wells. I slept almost all the way there, until we got to the lovely scenery that is Oxford. Our first stop was the trip around the area was the Sheldonian Theatre, where Oxford holds its graduation ceremonies. The mural on the ceiling represents the arts and sciences conquering envy, rapine, and ignorance. The architecture of the building, by Christopher Wren, was incredibly progressive as there are no columns holding up the ceiling. It was one of his first major works. After our visit to the lookout of the theatre, we began our tour. Our tour guide, Jaime, was very funny and passionate about Oxford. He started off by first pointing out a bicycle and reminding us that bicycles are silent and dangerous as we crossed the street, then explaining to us the difference between university and college at a collegiate university like Oxford. Oxford University is not a place you can be or not be, but the acquirement of knowledge. The many colleges at Oxford are more like our dorms in the U.S. They include all the necessities for living. Christ Church College is one of the most well known due to its use in the Harry Potter film series. It was not part of our guided tour, but after our lunch break where we visited Oxford's famous covered market and The Eagle and Child Pub–known to locals as "the bird and the baby"–we took a self-guided tour of Christ Church. It was beautiful. The Great Hall, used as the dining hall in the Sorcerer's Stone film, was incredible. It was hard to imagine eating there on a daily basis.

 The view from the Sheldonian Theatre lookout.

 Our tour guide, Jaime.

 The door to the dean of Brasenose College's house. The dean was a good friend to C.S. Lewis. The intricate door and the fawns guarding it are rumored to have inspired his stories of Narnia. If you look closely, you can see the lamp post down the street.

The University Church of St. Mary at Christ Church College. Many incredible people have spoken from that pulpit, including, according to Jaime, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu

 Lunch! 

The pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien met with their writing club, The Inklings.

Lots of locations around Christ Church College looked incredibly familiar from the Harry Potter films.

The portrait of Charles Dodgson in the Great Hall, better known as Lewis Carroll

The Alice Window in the Great Hall

It was hard to get a good picture in the Great Hall because the line is constantly moving.

After our tour of Christ Church, we headed back to Seething Wells. We had a bit of a stressful ride because our show for the evening was scheduled to start at 7:45 and we hit rush hour traffic. Lance convinced them to hold the show for a bit for us. We were still a little late but got to see most of The Events at The Young Vic. It was an interesting piece about a female priest of the Anglican church who'd survived an atrocity during the rehearsal of her church choir. Every night the performance has a different guest choir from the community. It made the piece very powerful to see members of the community in the roles of the show. Afterward, a group of us headed to Coronation in Surbiton for drinks and chips with Lance.

Skylight

Tanner, Liz, Amy and I met at 7:30 to make our way into the city to get day seats for Skylight with Bill Nighy and Carrie Mulligan. I guess I should clarify that day seats are similar to student rush seats. They are sold on the day of performances for extremely discounted prices. Before we caught the train, we stopped at the Pickled Pantry for Cream Tea, a scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam and a cup of tea. We waited in line for over an hour in front of the theatre while we ate our scones. They were scrumptious. Unfortunately, the show only has 12 day seats and since the computers were down-we later discovered this was all around the city-they were selling standing room seats. When we made our way up to the ticket office there were only two seats left. The girls insisted that Tanner and I take them. Liz went to get tickets to 1984, Amy and Nina decided to have a dinner date, and Tanner and I went to Baker Street in search of his phone at the tube lost and found office. They have him all the information they had but said it would be a few days before they received it. With this news, we headed back to Surbiton for a quick nap before the evening show. Getting into the theatre was madness. There was a returns line a mine long and people were crowding and fighting with the box office to get in. It is definitely the most contemporary theatre piece we have seen. Mulligan and Nighy were splendid. Much of the show was just watching people be. There were a couple men around us talking through the show, which was rather frustrating but the show was lovely regardless. 

Titus Andronicus

We had a nice relaxing Sunday morning. Nina, Liz, Tanner, Amy and I bought tickets a few months ago to see Titus Andronicus at the Globe so we took it easy until show time. The Festival of Love is a short walk from the Globe, so we decided to eat there. Tanner and I tried a Harissa chicken wrap, which was delicious. I also bought a garlic and parsley foccacia and a mojito popsicle, both very tasty. We got in line at 4:40 p.m. for a 6:30 p.m. show and there was already a long queue. We still ended up in the center, but we didn't get to lean on the stage. There was a lot of movement through the audience of the actors, so we got shifted around quite bit. Even some of the scenes happened on the ground. It was an incredible experience. The show, however, was very gory. They warned us before the show that an average of six people faint per performance. Sure enough, six people had fainted before intermission. It was very cool to recognize the actress who played Tamora from her role on Game of Thrones as Ellaria Sand. After the show we headed back to Surbiton to Coronation for a cider. We had a funny encounter on the way home with a very nice British couple. We had decided earlier that we were going to wake up early to get day seats for Skylight and wanted to stop at a place our friends had told us about. I said to the group "I want to know where the pickled pantry is," and walking the opposite direction pointed and told me "Down there!" There are plenty of very kind strangers around here who are happy to help if you just ask!

Harissa Chicken

Mojito ice lollies!

Our spot in line.

Interval (intermission) depicting our mixed emotions 

My arm was a little stage-blood stained

Tanner and I at the Globe gates

Coronation!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

What to say? I found the show breathtaking. It was a beautiful depiction of the life of an autistic child as well as his relationship with his parents. This show was very movement based, which I enjoyed. Throughout Act I, Christopher, the young boy, built a train se around the stage. Though we couldn't see the floor from the front row, the floor and the three walls were lit as a grid and had trap doors to closets that stored props. We learned that it will be coming to Broadway in September! It's beautiful and anyone who has a chance to see it should. If you can't, I also highly recommend the book. 

1984

The stage adaptation of 1984 was very impressive. I enjoyed the interpretation of the classic novel. The set change into room 101 was pretty incredible. The Winston was great. It was a small cast, and the technical aspects and use of cameras were very cool.

Festival of Love

Tanner, Amy, Liz, and I woke up to leave for London at 8. We student rushed the evening performance of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. We got great seats. We tried to get tickets for the Skylight matinee but the line was too long so we split up and they got tickets to Once while Tan and I tried to find 1984. We got there in time to get inexpensive front row seats for the 2:30 performance. 

On our way back to Leicester Square to reconvene with Amy and Liz we got a little lost and stumbled across St. James Street Market. They had lots of beautiful artistic crafts. I found some porcelain that looked just like Grammy's. After meeting up with Amy and Liz, we headed to the National Theatre to see if they had tickets for Madea next weekend. We waited for about fifteen minutes at the box office until we realized we were at the wrong one. The one we wanted was just around the corner. On our way back to Waterloo, we stopped by the Festival of Love. It is a celebration of the Same Sex Couples Marriage Act, but focuses on seven different kinds of love as defined by the Ancient Greeks. We stopped by a secondhand book booth as well as the food market. The market had stalls with food and drinks from countries around the world. Everything smelled incredible as we wandered between the booths. Liz bought some focaccia bread and Amy bought some juice which we sampled. The festival will be on throughout the month so we will definitely be heading back to sample some more!