Cannes Do

As a bit of an introduction for those of you who haven't seen me for a few weeks/months, one of my most favorite new words/concepts is the "do", as in a noteworthy or interesting event. I like the idea of going to a do, having a do, watching a do, etc. So...

I have been in Nice in the south of France for a few days now, and it has been quite lovely (except for the actual getting here part where I was told mid-transit that the french railway workers were striking and that the train I needed to take would not be going to Nice that day. Thankfully I managed but it was a ridiculous and frustrating sort of day). Having been to California and Mexico at this time of the year, I realize that my genetics are just not made for that kind of sunshine. This sun, much much MUCH farther north is better for me. I've been outside for most of the last two days and not a part of me is sunburned! A miracle I can tell you

Today I decided to take the train to Cannes, about an hour away from Nice. The main thing that Cannes if famous for, of course, is the film festival, and fate would just so have it that the film festival is going on right now! I got off the train in Cannes and walked to the water, I started seeing more and more signs of the festival taking place until suddenly I turned a corner and thought to myself, this IS a do! Everything in the town was there to remind you that a world famous and important movie festival was going on. All the lampposts said "Cannes 62nd film Festival" and most of the restaurants had some sort of movie memorobilia displayed . There were also red carpets everywhere, different sizes and shapes for different venues, but all heavily guarded and off limits. Along the boardwalk, on the hotels facing the ocean were huge advertisments for some of the bigger films showing. On one corner was a giant robot for the new Transformers movie, and covering the whole front of one hotel was a snow-covered Christmas wonderland for a new version of a Christmas Carol starring Jim Carrey coming out this winter.

As for the boardwalk at Cannes, I can't say if it is usually this busy or strange, but it was certainly full of tourists and locals and by far the best/weirdest street performer I have ever witnessed. I think we've all seen the living statue street performers who paint themselves some metalic color and then stand very still and occasionally dance around or something when an audience member gives them money. Well, imagine that concept, expect replace metalic statue with a man dressed as Mozart and painted white, add in really terrible muzak playing from a boom box, and most importantly, add in a white and a black cat. This Mozart statue man stood on a pedestal, holding the two very docile cats and slightly dancing to the music as tourists took pictures of him. Sometimes he would put one of the cats on his hat where it would appear to fall asleep and he would give the other cat stuffed animals to hold, and once, very cleverly indeed, he had the cat hold the box for people to put money in. I have never seen cats so calm for so long--I think he may have drugged them. I watched this occur for a good 10 minutes, but if I had stayed much longer he probably would have noticed me and insisted I pay him for his performance.

Though I saw no celebrities and was discovered by no bigshot movie producers, Cannes truly was a do. I've had a delightful time in the south of France, but tomorrow morning I hop a train to Paris where I shall meet again with my dear friend Katie Davis, where adventures shall be had, wine shall be drunk, crepes shall be eaten and sights shall be seen. Au revoir

Flaneuring About

Flaneur: A wanderer through a city (I learned this word from James McAvoy in the play Three Days of Rain)
This is a pretty apt description of the last few days for me, except that it doesn't mention the part where I am usually lost. Oh well, not all definitions can be complete.
I just wanted to let you all know that I am in fact alive. I am currently in a very swanky and beautiful hostel in Venice right on the Grand Canal but since I wrote you last, I also finished my stay in Austria with a night in Innsbruck. Yesterday I literally travelled from the Alps to the Ocean in some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. Today I will explore Venice and eat more gelato, and tomorrow I'm off to Pisa!

,,When In Wien"

I've been in Wien, Österreich (Vienna, Austria) since Tuesday visiting my dear friend Christy Henderson who has been studying here since January. Tuesday was an interesting day for me-I very reluctantly left my flat in London, mainly because at some point during the day they would have actually forcibly removed me from the premises, made my way to Gatwick Airport and flew to a country where I spoke not a word of the language. (I still haven't really gotten over London--one of Christy's roommates has a large collection of DVDs, out of which I've chosen to watch pretty much only movies that are set in or have to do with England in some way, or the characters have british accents.)
Still, I'm very glad I'm here. I'm fairly certain that had Christy not studied here I would not have come to Vienna--I've never felt any particular curiosity or interest in Vienna or Austria, and of all the places in Europe I could visit, it was not high on my list--but since coming here I have realized what a wonderful city it is. It is still a little strange for me to be in a city where everyone is not speaking my language (thankfully it appears that EVERYONE speaks at least some English), and I have definitely almost been hit by at least 5 cars (they drive here on the wrong? right? American? side of the road), but I have found my way around pretty well. Austria, like so many cities in Europe, has a very long and interesting History, several palace, huge cathedrals, and a lot of Austrian pride. The Viennese are particularly proud of Mozart, despite the fact he was actually born in Salzburg, and in front of every music establishment, several museums, and many special candy stores (specializing in candy with Mozart on it) there are men dressed up as Mozart trying to sell you things. The best is to see these men when they are on their breaks, eating lunch and riding the Strassenbahn (part of Vienna public transport) in full Mozart gear.
So far of the main Vienna sights to see I have viewed St. Stephen's Cathedral, Karlskirche, the Opera, Naschmarkt, the Parliament, several Museums, historic U-Bahn (subway) stations, and Schönbrunn. On Wednesday I wen to Karlskirche, a baroque cathedral with a beautifully painted dome, which, due to renovations from a few years ago, has huge scaffolding inside going all the way up into the dome that tourists can ascend. Apparently the church continually says that they are about to take the scaffolding down since it sort of ruins the effect of the church, but the money it makes from tourists paying to have this fairly unique experience has convinced them to keep it there for the time being. It was amazing to see the painting, the architecture and the view from that height in a church, a sight that in most churches only those painting the fresco would ever see. It was also slightly terrifying to be so very high on years old scaffolding, swaying slightly as 20-30 tourists wandered up and down.
Though we did other things on Thursday, the most important part was going to get Sachertorte and Melange at the Sacher Cafe, Sachertorte is a kind of chocolate cake which was the center of a lawsuit for many years as to who had invented the original recipe, and melange is delicious, milky coffee. Both are wonderful, though perhaps not worth a lawsuit...
Yesterday I met Christy after her German class. We got lunch at the outdoor market, the Naschmarkt, and then went to Schönbrunn, the former summer palace of the Hapsburg family, now a public park and museum. Christy tells me that part of the idea behind Schönbrunn was to make it the Versailles of the East, and they seem to have done a pretty good job of it. I especially liked the fake roman statues and ruins, and the enormous fountains dotting the grounds. From the top of the hill behind the palace, where sits a building called the Gloriette, you can see a view of all of Vienna and the surrounding forests. After Schönbrunn, Christy took me back into town and we got in line for standing room tickets to the Opera. It was Wagner's Siegfried, the third of four opera's in Wagner's Ring Cycle. Not everyone knows quite how much I like the Rings Cycle (in fact, probably only Katie Davis knows how excited I was to see this performance) but even without this added Wagner excitement, the Opera and the performances where unbelievable. I happily stood for hours in a hot and sometimes smelly crowd watching this amazing production for 4 euro. Lovely.
I think the rest of my trip in Vienna is going to be filled with Christy trying to get me to eat as much traditional Viennese food and drink as much Viennese wine as possible, and on Monday I begin the epic train journey through Italy, France, Belgium and The Netherlands.
I don't have a way of uploading pictures until I get back to London on the 28th, but eventually i will have proof of some of these amazing sights.
Aufwiederzehn!

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.

A Brief Updates With Pictures

BUSY!!!! This is essentially our last week of classes and next week we have a final performances in almost every class…hmmm, I should probably be working on those projects now. Anyway, hopefully after next week I can post many amazing pictures and videos of these projects for you to enjoy. But for now, here are some pictures of the last couple of weeks to assure you that I am alive and well in London town.

Easter Eggs


Fire of London Memorial


Remains of original Roman London


A Wagamama (just for Katie Davis)


Imelda Staunton and LDA

Stratford, Sicilia, and Shakespeare: Exit, Pursued by a Bair

Bright and early on Thursday morning the entirety of the London Dramatic Academy, including Richard Digby-Day and Michael Winter, boarded a coach and began our 2.5 hour pilgrimage to Stratford-upon-Avon. LDA had rented for us one of those tourist travel-coaches that look like airplanes inside, are very conspicuous and awkward on the road and are fitted with a microphone, a feature taken full advantage of by Richard. During the 2.5 hours, about half that time was filled with Richard lecturing about Stratford, Kenilworth Castle (our first stop on the trip), Shakespeare and “A Winter’s Tale” (the show we were seeing in Stratford that night). When we finally arrived at Kenilworth Castle we were certainly ready to have a good run around castle ruins and English countryside.
Kenilworth Castle is a ruined castle a few miles outside of Stratford which had a very interesting history through the English Civil War and then, as Richard explained, “it more or less has become very boring since then.” Originally built by William the Conqueror, the most interesting part of its history was when it belonged to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and where Dudley apparently made his grandest and most obvious attempt to impress and woo Queen Elizabeth I. As we were looking at the one restored area of the ruins, the Elizabethan gatehouse, Michael Winter crept up behind me and my friend Anne, tapped us on the shoulder and said “did you see the fireplace downstairs? I touched that. Queen Elizabeth must have touched that when she was here. Go along, go touch it!” And we did.
Around noon we all returned to the bus and finally drove into Stratford. The town of Stratford (upon the Avon river) is a strange one—some sections are a very nice, normal, English country town, other parts are like a Shakespeare theme park. Everything in the center of Stratford has a Shakespeare-y name: Othello’s restaurant, Falstaff Towers flats, If Music Be the Food of Love café. The street with Shakespeare’s birthplace is filled with these sorts of restaurants, Shakespeare bookstores, and occasionally actors dressed in Elizabethan garb wandering the street performing famous scenes. After lunch we were split into two groups, one led by Richard and mine led by Michael, for a walking tour of Stratford.
Michael Winter is the greatest and best of all men, and he LOVES Shakespeare and reading Shakespeare and thinking about Shakespeare and imagining what his life was like. In Shakespeare class, he always tells us what his best guess is to which role in each play Shakespeare wrote for himself. So, it wasn’t surprising that the route that Michael chose to tour us through Stratford was what he believed to be the walk Shakespeare would have taken to school everyday. Starting from Shakespeare’s birthplace we saw Shakespeare’s school, his church, the location of the home he bought for himself (torn down a few centuries ago over some sort of tax dispute) and we ended by seeing his grave. We then walked along the Avon to where the Royal Shakespeare Company would be performing “A Winter’s Tale” that night.
I’d never seen or read “A Winter’s Tale” so I was excited to see what the RSC would do. Unfortunately, it was just not a good production. Michael and Richard hated it, and kept falling asleep. It’s really an amazing play, but the script—which calls for a baby, and bear, a satyr dance, and a statue coming to life all on stage—is very difficult and needs good direction and clear use of the language to make any sense of all. The best part of the play actually was the bear, which wasn’t real as Michael supposed the one in the original production would have been since there was a bear-bating ring next to the original Globe, but was a massive and amazing puppet. Some of my fellow students complained that this production changed Shakespeare’s most famous stage direction “Exit, pursued by a bear” (the character wasn’t so much pursued as eaten on stage) but I didn’t mind.
After the show we got back on the bus for a long ride home, arrive at 12:30am, and then we were back to classes at 9:30 the next morning. It was a delightfully Shakespeare filled day for one and all.

Visits, Protests and Inspiration

It has been an eventful week. Today was our first day back to classes after our second break, but much more occurred in those 5 days of break than I often get to witness in a normal week. To start, this week Barack Obama finally paid me a visit in London so that I was, for the first time, in the same country as our most awesome President. My second visit came on Friday when my dearest dear friend Christy Henderson flew from Vienna, Austria (where she is studying Economics and eating cake and drinking coffee and speaking German) to spend the weekend with me. She hadn’t spent much time in London before, so we enjoyed some very touristy activities. On Saturday alone we saw: Trafalgar Square, the National Portrait Gallery, Big Ben, Parliament, the Eye, the National Theatre, the Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Buckingham Palace. Saturday night we went pub hopping, and Christy was treated to the strange phenomena of bad American music from 5-15 years ago being played full blast to pubs full of middle-aged Londoners. On Sunday we went on a lovely walk through Hyde Park, ate French food on the run, took a double-decker bus home, explored Maida Vale and Little Venice and sampled all varieties of British candy and cookies. On Monday she flew back to Vienna after having crammed weeks worth of London activities into 2 days.
Meanwhile, the gear-up for the G20 summit was in full swing. On Saturday when Christy and I exited the Tube in Trafalgar Square we stumbled upon a 50,000 person strong protest march all along the route I had chosen to walk Christy along. Hundreds of groups were represented in the march that wound past Trafalgar Square and down towards Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. Most of the march was made up of groups with matching t-shirts and big signs, some had marching bands, others mega-horns, but a few of the groups were truly frightening and memorable. What stands out most to me from the march, other than the sheer number of people involved, was the group that had made huge Carnival-esque puppets
representing the riders of the apocalypse following a sign that read “CAPITALISM ISN’T WORKING.” Thankfully this huge march remained peaceful, but witnessing that number of people all in one place made it very clear in my mind that any of these events could turn into horrible violence and chaos very easily. As it was, the protest was a somewhat ominous, but overall an amazing example of organized and positive protest.
The fervor over the G20 has put London in a strange mood, and ending this break, which more or less marks one month to go until the end of my studies in London, has put everyone in my program in a strange mood as well. To counteract this moodiness, last night my flatmate Kat and I made the best choice we’ve ever made and got student rush tickets (in the 4th row wonderfully enough) for the play Three Days of Rain. Our main motivation for going to this show was, slightly embarrassingly, to see handsome Scottish actor James McAvoy live on stage, but it turned out that this show was the best one we have seen since coming to London. An excellent script, a perfect cast, amazing direction, everything about this show was good. EVERYTHING. James McAvoy was brilliant. His performance literally re-inspired me in my love of theatre and, cheesy as this sounds, reminded me why I am here in the first place. The whole show in fact was an inspiration and Kat and I could barely speak after it was over. We ran immediately from the theatre to the stage door to try to speak to the actors and tell them how much we appreciated their performances. Pretty quickly, the area was swarmed by teenage girls and middle-aged women desperate to see James McAvoy. When he finally came out to sign autographs we somehow managed to grab his attention, tell him we were in drama school, and badly articulate how moving his performance had been. He then proceeded to give us advice and encouragement about drama school and acting, and basically proved himself to be the best person in the world. I was so excited to go back to classes today, and the James McAvoy magic worked, because my tutors were all happily surprised at my newfound energy and motivation.
Well, that’s quite enough for one blog post, but if anyone wants to hear more about James McAvoy, feel free to ask.