"Why i don't despair."

Please, take 8 minutes and watch this. Please. It made me cry. I love Jon Stewart, he always says the right thing.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
September 11, 2001
www.thedailyshow.com
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On a happier note, Sonnets went well today. I was so nervous, but i got it over with pretty much unscathed. :) I wish i could say, YAY It'S THE WEEKEND...but i've still got lots of work the next two days, but not too much.

Sinead have started our Tart Tuesday tradition a little early because after this week we decided we deserved some Tarts. So we went back to the little french restruant and had tarts. I just got that same mixed berry and she got the lemon one. And we also got the most glorious hot chocolate. It was fantastic.

Other than that it was a pretty normal day. Sinead and i had lots of fun going grocery shopping, i went in to get popcorn and left with like mountains of things. But it was wonderful.

I promise some recordings tomorrow! :)
Cheers!
-T

12 hour days.

Today was the longest day, but it gets shorter after this. Although i've been complaining about how long my days are, i really am having such a brilliant learning experience. It's just a little stressful/overwhelming at times.

Tomorrow we are presenting our Sonnets, which i'm nervous for...but excited to see everyone elses ( because we've been working in small groups.) We just have a lot to rehearse to get ready fro the Gala (the LDA london centre opening celebration thing)...which is also kind of stressfull.

Some fun things though. I might have a recording for you of some of the singing we've been doing. I recorded bits of our rehearsal today so i could come home and listen to my parts (he advised us to do this). ALthough i'm soprano (sorry Dischords, but i am so happy not to be singing tenor for once ;) ) so my parts are pretty much just the melody. But they are kind of cute. It doesn't sound half bad concidering we've learned 5 songs in 2 days (and he made up all the harmonies on the spot). It's kind of amazing that this group (a bunch of which arn't musical) have learned all this music so quickly. I'm impressed at how not terrible we sound ;) But it's so much fun.

And hopefully i have a few great plays coming up. Through LDA we'll be seeing As You Like It on Tuesday. But personally I would really love to see Arcadia (Tom Stoppard) this weekend. Also this new play called Punk Rock (which is being hailed as a cross between Spring Awakening and History Boys). And it was actually recommended to us by Richard Digby Day! And also War Horse (which RDD and lovely Sarah has recommended to me was well). So lots to see. Hopefully Arcadia happens this weekend because it's closing :( But we shall see.

Wish me luck on my Sonnet tomorrow. Off to read over my lines.

Cheers!
-T

Exhaustion Part II

The days are so long, and they are made longer knowing that we won't have a break this weekend. But, it's still lots of fun.

Historical dance was 'brilliant', but as we all know i'm not the most...well...graceful person so it will certainly be a challenge. :D

Sonnets. well. lets just say i'm going to be spending the next hour repeating my sonnet over and over and over.

The fun thing about today was we started the singing project. Basically we're having this "LDA OPENING PARTY" because LDA moved to a new building apart of the Heythrope college...so they're having this party were we are doing a bunch of different showings for a bunch of people (a reading from Henry the Fifth, a dance and some singing). So we started learning the Tradition English Folk songs today.

It was lots of fun singing with everyone, especially because not all of us are singers ;) But we're working through it.

Now, it's just more line memorizing. I can't wait until next week when we will get out before dark (aka about 6PM). It will be very nice.

Also we're seeing "As You Like It" on Tuesday at the Globe. SO PUMPED! <3

Cheers!
-T

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