Satirical, Sarcastical, Tragical, Comical

I’ve just started my summer vacation, and I’ve never wanted to be on vacation any less. More school please! Or, at least more fun drama school. I’m working on a couple of plans to keep me in London somehow (these plans include being adopted by Richard Digby-Day and Michael Winter, finding a British citizen to marry, creating a false identity—most of these plans involve winning the lottery so I can support myself). Even this past week has not lessened my love of London, LDA and the ridiculous tasks they set and expectations they have for us. In the past 7 days I have had all of my final classes (each one sadder than the last with the exceptions of Dramatic Literature and Speech) and several final performances.
Last Monday we had our Movement, Historical Dance and Stage Combat finals. For Movement, we had to create a movement piece with a partner showing what we had learned in the semester and displaying Laban’s movement practices. The pieces ranged from dance-y pieces set to music, a vaudeville-style act, a Dr. Seuss inspired piece and finally mine, which was based around MONSTERS.
Our Historical Dance showing followed immediately afterwards and really turned out to be, as Richard Digby-Day apparently calls it when students aren’t around, hysterical dance. Some of the dances we all knew very well, some, just a few couples really and truly knew, and for the Gallop Finale, I think only 1 couple made it all the way through with no mistakes…Oh well, at least it was hysterical.
For Stage Combat, we all learned the Mercutio/Tybalt/Romeo fight scene from Romeo and Juliet and it was performed 6 times that afternoon so that everyone got a chance to do some combat. Let me tell you, I make a great Romeo (I especially liked the irony of my line “oh, sweet Juliet, thy beauty hath made me effeminate”). Even though I knew all of the choreography I was actually occasionally scared or surprised by the fighting and the rage behind it, So I think we did a pretty good job.
On Tuesday, I had one of the most terrifying experiences of all time: the LDA final review. This consists of each student, one by one, going into a room filled with all of the tutors (over 20 people), sitting in a chair facing all of them as, one by one, each tutor tells you what you are good at and what you are bad at and how hard you tried during the semester and what more you should have done and can do. I have rarely been so nervous, but my overall comments were very positive, constructive, and lovely. I never want to do that again though.
Until Friday I was free from finals, but Friday afternoon was the UBER-final, the Shakespeare showing. Here we performed speeches from Richard III, and scenes from Measure for Measure and All’s Well that Ends Well. Once again, almost all the tutors were in the same room, staring at me, but I felt a little more sure of myself and I wanted to prove to them all that the nice things they said about me were true. After the showing we had a party at school where I paid many a tearful goodbye to most of my tutors and sadly left for the last time. Tomorrow I fly to Vienna to begin a European adventure until I return to the states on June 1st. I will attempt some updates whilst I travel, but I will happily tell everyone everything about this semester when I see your lovely faces in person again.

P.S. We also took a day trip last weekend to Jane Austen’s house, Winchester and Stonehenge, and here are some pictures from that journey.