Dear 'ole Blighty...

Well, two weeks have passed...the week before last there wasn't much to report. The one highlight of my work-stressed week was seeing the musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, FOR FREE! That's right $free.99. They put up this flyer in all of the drama schools quoting 2 free preview night performances for students. So, I cruised on into the theatre the weekend before, told the lady at the box office this and she then handed me 2 free tickets to see this show (btw, I've been dying to see it since the Tony's last year). And that was that. It was more fun then I've had at the theatre in a long time! It was a singin', toe-tappin' tour de force. It makes no apologies for it's big cheese and I loved it! Run; don't walk, if you haven't already seen it...


This past week, however, was theatre-tastic! Tuesday nights I still teach tap, so that went as planned. Then...Wednesday I saw one of the best productions I have ever seen. It was called Sizwe Bansi is Dead by Athol Fugard (of The Road to Mecca fame) and directed by legendary theatre practitioner, Peter Brook. It was in French with surtitles and performed by 2 actors. The set was non-existent and all of their props and how they set up for each segment was done with cardboard boxes, clothing racks, etc. It was brilliant. It just went to show that you don't need anything but good actors who truly love their craft. That makes for perfect theatre. It was nice to be reminded of why we do this every day. Really nice. On Thursday, my entire class went to the National Theatre to see A Matter of Life and Death. This, for me, was interesting to watch but a classic case of what happens to a company that usually doesn't have this much money or this much space. It was a bit of sensory overload at times and because of that, they lost the story in the process. However, it was a cool spectacle and I'm glad I saw it. It was done by a well-known theatre company here called Kneehigh so I was glad to see something done by them, finally. On Friday night, a bunch of us saw the final production of the 3-year B.A. Acting course students (well, half of them at least) of Mephisto. It was brilliant. They really looked like they were ready to go out into the big bad world of acting. Kudos to them for a job superbly done. Saturday night we went to see another show at the National called Philistines by Maxim Gorky. This was yet another stellar production. Really amazing acting, the set was great and the story was so...Russian. I loved it. The National Theatre still holds as my facorite place in London. It houses 3 distinctly different theatres, all with their own charm and ambiance. It's an incredible place and the work they do there is unparalleled. So much good theatre in so little time. I also must point out that the 5 shows that I have seen in the last 2 weeks have, collectively, cost me 29.50 (pounds). That means, about $60. An average of 12 bucks a show. Nowhere in the States can boast this kind of quality for that kind of value. I love being a student here and I will continue to love it and use my ID for as long as I can! ;)

Sizwe Bansi is Dead @ The Barbican

The National Theatre @ night - what a sight! :)

AND...Last night, my friends Jenny & Louise and I went to a live studio audience taping at BBC Television Center of a sitcom that Louise's friend Steve is in. This is the second season of the show called Grownups, and it was so cool! We were fancy shmancy "production guests" and got to hang out in the green room with the cast and crew afterwards (free food & drink as a bonus)! After my week of TV learning, this was incredibly cool to be able to see all that Martin taught us and that he was so right about everything! Not that we doubted him, of course.

This is the first season's cast, Steve is on the far left. The second season has 2 new guys instead of the 2 next to Steve.

So, this was a fab week. It made up for the slow one before. I am off to memorize lines for The Laramie Project. Happy birthday to Amanda Lee Williams for yesterday! I hope you rocked it out sista! xoxo

WALES!!! And more...

OK, I know it's not that exciting for most natives of the UK, but this American transplant was thrilled to head to Wales for the long weekend! My friend and classmate, Miranda, is from Swansea (a beautiful town in Wales, also where Catherine Zeta-Jones is from) and she brought Olivia and me along for a visit! It was gorgeous and the residents of Wales have the best/funniest accents ever! I had never seen anything like it. Her family was so lovely and generous and we just had a jolly nice time! Here are some pics from the trip...
1. Olivia, Miranda & I in the adorable seafront town called, wait for it - The Mumbles!
2. The seaside cliffs of the Gower Peninsula - what? Just like New Jersey.
3. Olivia, Me & Miranda on the cliffs!




So, that was bank holiday weekend. The week before was a really interesting week for me at school. We had a very cool guy named Martin Gooch come in and teach us all about acting for tele (yes, TV). We crammed so much into one week and all feel a bit more clued into what it means and what it takes to work on camera. We filmed scenes from a General Hospital/ER-esque show called Doctors, learned all about cameras, angles, marks, lingo, castings, etc. It was awesome. And Martin was fly. Good times.

This past week saw our first read-thru of The Laramie Project. It is such a powerful piece and I am so excited to really get into it. We present our research findings tomorrow (we were split into pairs to teach the rest of the cast about a certain aspect dealing with the play) and we also get our castings. There are 65 roles and 16 actors - so cool, huh? We each will play multiple parts, obviously, and I am really looking forward to that.

I saw a play at the National yesterday. I was somewhat bored by it but it had some interesting moments. It was historical and a bit dry for my taste, but hey, you can't win 'em all. It was called The Reporter. For those of you who may know about him, the man that it centered around was a BBC reporter called James Mossman.

In other news...some of you know about this already, but it's now been made official. A director that I worked with on my last show in Seattle, Cynthia White, offered me the role of a lifetime. She offered me Ophelia in Hamlet at the Southwest Shakespeare Festival in Odessa, Texas this summer. It's an amazing opportunity and one that I was so honored to receive. I had to clear it with the University of Essex because if I wanted to do this show, I would miss the rehearsal and performance of my MA graduation project. This was huge because this part of how I would receive my Masters degree. It was a classic case of artists v. academics. My head of year was thrilled for me and said that East 15 trains you to go out and get professional work and we should just be able to say 'yes, go and do it!' However, if any of you have ever dealt with university politics, you know it's never that easy. So, after submitting a packet of paperwork, including forms, a personal statement of why this was important to me, literature from the theatre, a letter from my director, her resume, etc., the university finally agreed to let me use Ophelia as my own graduation project! Yay! So, my thesis, my portfolio, all of it, will be based on my rehearsal process and performance of Ophelia. So great. Whew! Texas in August has always been my dream. I will be there from the 28th of July through the 22nd of September. Wow.

So, that's the deal ladies and gents. Before I go, I have to wish happy birthdays to my beautiful niece Dana, who turned 5 on the 5th of May and to Val, my step mama, for the 12th of May. Oh, and Happy Mom's Day to all you moms out there! :)