"Ah, Relief."

Why Hello!

Sorry it's been a few days. It's been rather busy. This weekend we had lots of rehearsals and showings. On Saturday we did our singing showing, which was fun. And then worked on Mr. Polly forever. And on Sunday we had a Mr. Polly extravaganza. Where we refined everything and preformed it. Honestly, it went alright--i made a little flub, which is very agrivating because it was a part i was always a little nervous on--so i worked it for ever and ever and ever and still messed it up a little bit...but what can you do. At least the Novel Project is FINALLY OVER. We were all very very happy.

But this weekend i also got to see Punk Rock. Which i loved. I went with Sinead, and at first we walked around a bit looking for somewhere to eat. Eventually we ate at the Lyric which has this great little like restaurant/cafe thing. I really loved the theatre.

Here is Sinead eating yummy salad in the cafe-sitting place.

The play was at The Lyric-Hammersmith theatre. Last season they did Spring Awakening...*sigh* One of the kids cast in this show had actually been in that cast as well.

Tom Sturridge and Jessica Raine {image link}

I really loved the show. From the acting to the set to the technical choices. I thought it was extremely powerful. But really, it's very inspiring seeing actors your own age, working and doing it brilliantly. I especially loved the young man (Tom Sturridge) who played William. He was fantastic. I loved his movements and how he portrayed this difficult and interesting character. I also loved Henry Lloyd-Hughes who played Bennett (the outrageous bully) who is so convincing and honestly the biggest prick i've ever seen. But he's so brilliant at being just so unbelievably evil, and then seconds later acting as if he's done nothing wrong, so perfectly light and lively. It was wonderful.

The script was also so fantastic. It's a play by a man named Simon Stephens. I thought it was beautifully written. Some of his speeches are just so interesting, and the way the students interact with each other. In the program he writes a very interesting bit about taking the change to write for and about young people because so often he sees playwrites being afraid too. I loved it's quick pace but also the intimate and still moments. Inbetween scene changes there is loud disjointed rock music, which as Sinead pointed out to me before the show (they played it then too) would make the quiet moments even quieter. And it's true. You notice the silence, and it (i believe) makes a bigger impact.

Lovely.

I also LOVED the set. It took place within the library of the school, and if you can see from the picture the huge bookcases were just BRILLIANT. It seriously felt like the school was somehow carved from the school and placed onstage. I can't explain how drawn into each scene i was, that when it ended and music blasted out of the speakers i was jarred every single time.

Painting in the along the wall in the Restaurant/Cafe place.

Other than that we had our first real day of classes today. It was great because we had a SUPER intense movement class. I thought i was going to pass out after--it was so much work. Some historical dance, where we are getting ready for the Gala on wednesday. Lunch. Dramatic lit (where we just chatted about a play we're reading "The Shoemakers Holiday" by Thomas Dekker) and the STAGE COMBAT! Which was SO AWESOME. WE're learning with rapiers now and parrying. It's so awesome. I loved it.

Tomorrow is going to be super fun too, AND IT's TART TUESDAY. Sinead and i have been scoping out our next tart excursion and we think we've found another really nice cafe.

Promise lots of fun stuff tomorrow,

AND CONGRATS TO THE DISCHORDS ON OUR TWO NEW MEMBERS. <3 I miss you guys, but i'm so happy! YAY!

Cheers, T

Ps. The title of this entry is also a line from the show. ;)

Exhaustion.

Wow. Today was so long. We had the novel project for 5 hours. BUT we did get a lot of good work done. I think it's going to turn out very nicely.

There's just lots of memorization. Egads. Which i should go do right now.

Ps. I miss all the Dischords so much. I keep getting messages from you and seriously, i am having trouble getting through the day knowing i don't have rehearsal in the evening. <3

We have historical dance tomorrow...which i'm wicked excited for. Physical Theatre was great today, we did a lot of warming up our muscles, which was very nice for us because most of us were DYING (wicked sore) from movement yesterday. Egads.

Off to memorize my sonnet, which i really like. It's number 65.

Cheers!
-T

PS. I've decided that listening to "You Make My Dreams" Hall & Oates is the best thing to listen to while you're on the tube. It makes watching people so funny because it's such a great happy, upbeat song and it's like sharing in your own little private joke. It always makes me smile, and want to start dancing. it's really wonderful. Try it sometime. <3

First Day :)

Today was our real first day. And it wasn't as insane as i thought it would be, but it was still pretty crazy. :D

Left the flats at 8:45 AM and class started at 9:30. So we all got there a little early and had some time to chill before class.

First up (9:30-11) was Movement: It was so much fun! Our tutor is wonderful, so fun and silly but i feel like we're all really going to be challenged. In the first 10 minutes we were all panting and ready to die. After a bit of warming up and really playing with our bodies she told us we had 3 minutes to think of something unique to show her. Some kind of talent, so she could associate us with something. Erg. great. So i just decided to sing Disneyland. Of course she calls my name first. Great. And of course my voice cracks half way through had i dunno it was pretty horrifying. So basically i sat back down while everyone else was wonderful and got up and did their talent. At least three other singers. All i could think was "great, i can't even do my talent right and had to make a fool of myself in front of everyone." But, i guess it's good to just get it out of the way right? Then we did a bit more movement and talked about future classes and such.

Then we had a little break and at 11:15 we had Sonnets. I feel very lucky because my sonnet professor is Richard Digby Day (he runs the entire program and is such a wonderful person to be learning from). And ususally he doesn't teach the sonnets so it's like double the luck. ;) Anyways the sonnet class made me feel a lot better. It was really fun and it's nice to start working through things.

At 1 we got a nice lunch break. And I'm really starting to feel that we're all meshing more. It's great :D

Then at 2 we started The Novel Project. Most of us were worried because we thought we'd have this huge test on the book we were reading, but it wasn't that bad. :) It was more of a chat about the book, where she asked us specific questions. The difficult part is that this project is basically taking 8 pages out of the book and putting it onstage. Without missing a word. So we spent the first two hours chatting about the book and together reading through the text. Then we broke up into two groups and each group has about 7-8 pages that we're putting together. The last hour we worked together and started splitting up the text. But we have about 5 hours tomorrow (the whole thing goes up on sunday) so it's going to work out.

Then that was over at 5, so we now had an hour for dinner. ( At 6 we had stage combat but he broke us up into two groups so the first group went at 6 and i was in the second group, so i did some shopping and came back at 7).

Finally at 7 i had stage combat. Wicked great class, the professor is so wonderful. We haven't started with the rapiers yet--we're just using our pointer fingers to practice the movements but i think i'm really going to love it.

AND then at 8 i got on the tube to come home. The end. :D

Now, i'm very tired and i have a bit to memorize...so i'll head off to bed. But i think you get it. Thats basically the rest of my week with a few different changes here and there. But it's going to be very long (especially because we don't get sat/sun off). I'm sorry this was not very exciting...but it was lots of fun!

Miss you all!
Cheers! T