Rest In Peace Roger

Our dear friend, teacher, designer, and mentor, Roger Frith, passed away yesterday morning at 9:00 am. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Joyce, and daughter, Louise. Below is the last photo I took of Roger. I know your light will be shining down on all of us.



Roger and Jonathan on opening night of Radium Girls.

Lots of blogs and news posted below...

Well this will be the last blog from London. I have posted four blogs for your reading pleasure with tons of photos. This one covers a variety of things. The next is Thanksgiving in Britain. Then some sad news about Roger Frith. The final one is our private tour of the National Theatre that we took today. Eight of us leave for Dublin on Saturday. Tim and Mary leave at 4am for Paris and then Rome. Peter and Shannon take off for Paris, Germany, Austria, and Rome. Tommy is headed back to the states as is Amber and Michelle. The acting class also did some awesome scenes from the play, Us and Them about how the British see Americans and how the American view the British....very funny stuff. Tim, Michelle, Caitlin, and Ali did great British dialects. and Curtis, Dani, Bern, Peter, and Joe handled the New York dialects very well....

I had a great meal at The Ivy last week! I finally got there. Had dinner with Jonathan, his wife, Alise, and his mother Carol that many of you met this summer in Winona.

We have seen some awesome theatre this week. August: Osage County at the National. Noises Off and Edward Scissorhands, the ballet at the New Wimbleldon Theatre. We saw Marat/Sade tonight and on Tuesday, Bern, Ali, Jonathan and I went to see Sondheim's A Little Night Music which was directed by Trevor Nunn at the Chocolate Factory. Getting great reviews.

Bill went to Normandy and made it back on Sunday to have Thanksgiving dinner. Dani and Amber went to Rome.

Amber throwing a coin in the Treve Fountain...hoping for what Amber???

Dani, what's up with the sling?

The Pope....

I will be posting more blogs from Ireland....Stay tuned!

Thanksgiving in Britian

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We celebrated Thanksgiving last Sunday with a great dinner, Macy's Day Parade (from last year), and good company. Went shopping on Saturday and got two large frozen turkeys that we were praying would thaw out by Sunday afternoon. Everyone contributed something to the dinner. I prepared the turkeys and greek salad. Bern made a sweet apple based stuffing that was awesome! Curtis attempted to make jello. Put it in the freezer and finally by Wednesday it was ready to be eaten. Corn, gravy, savory stuffing, pecan pie, green bean hot dish (Ali), Michelle made a truffle dessert, hot rolls, cranberry sauce, cold pistashio salad that Caitlin made, and sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes. Plus tons more. It was a good start to a busy week.




Two turkeys thawing in the bath tub.




Don't ask!!!



Sweet potatoes before they are baked with brandy and brown sugar.




Curtis' frozen jello...I never did get to taste it three days later.




Of course, Greek Salad

Taking Bern's stuffing out of the turkey.

Turkey out of the oven with the savory stuffing.

Joe provided us with the Macy's Day Parade from last year.

More parade!

Peter and Tommy set the table.

center pieces...and candles. We went all out!

Our Turkey Hand wall....

What we were thankful for....

the group

Enjoying the meal

The tables and chairs from Radium Girls came in handy...

Sad News about Roger Frith

We are saddened to hear that Roger Frith, our lighting designer in London, is in a coma and will not come out of it. Below I have attached an email from his wife, Joyce, explaining what happened after his 11 hour surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in his mouth. All of our students have become close to Roger so I wanted everyone to get the same news. In tribute to Roger we all went to his favorite hang out, Wibbas Downs, the Weatherspoon's pub, in Wimbledon after we saw the ballet, Edward Scissorhands. We toasted Roger and thought of all the good times we had with him this semester. Tim and Shannon also worked with Roger on other shows he was working on. I will keep everyone informed as far as any further developments.

Here is Joyce's email:

Forgive me if I have already sent this information but I am getting rather muddled as to whom I have spoken and when.
I think most of you know that Rog came through an 11 hour operation for mouth cancer on Monday 17th Nov really well. Sadly, he had a massive relapse on Thursday 20th. He got a large blood clot in his throat which closed his airways. He stopped breathing and his heart stopped. They brought him round but at great cost. The brain was starved of oxygen for too long and he is now in a coma and has no brain function. My beautiful husband is lying in intensive care unable to respond to anything at all. All we are doing now is waiting. They have taken him off all life support machines and are keeping him as comfortable as possible. They are looking after him so well - they even gave him shave so he looked nice. I think they are intending to send him to the ward when they have a private room available so that we have privacy and dignity.
It is all too awful to talk about - I felt I had to tell you all to warn you of the inevitable consequences. Louise and I are surviving somehow or the other and everybody has been wonderful. Please do not send me any more flowers but do write if you wish. I can just about cope now with email and cards but I am not brilliant on the phone. If you feel you know somebody who is not on this list should be informed then please pass on the message for me.
My love to you all - Joycie x



At Weatherspoons...Roger's favorite hang out

Please keep Roger and Joyce in your prayers.

Backstage Tour of the National Theatre

We had a private tour of the backstage of the National Theatre. Tim Blazdell, a design associate, tooks us around. We got to go on the set of Oedipus and August: Osage County. This was a great way to end our time in London. The tour and Tim were amazing!



Banners at the back of the National Theatre.



All of us on the stage of August: Osage County, the production from Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. An amazing show and great set!






The Lyttelton Theatre taken from the stage of August: Osage County

Tim Blazdell giving us a tour of the paint shop.

On the set of Oedipus in the Olivier Theatre. It starred Ralph Fiennes.

Soldier costumes for War Horse.

One of the overworked horse puppets.

Taking a photo at the rear of Joey, the main character horse puppet. Why this end guys?

Joey's leg.

Joey...head up against the wall. Wish it was the other way around.

The goose puppet hanging upside down in storage.

Part of the set for The Walworth Farce in the Cottesloe Theatre. We didn't see the show at the National but will be seeing this production next week in Dublin. It is going on tour.

The group with Tim Blazdell in the Cottesloe Theatre

Part of the outdoor photo exhibit at the National.


After the tour we went to see Marat/Sade at the Pleasance Theatre performed by the Mountview Acting School. The picture below pretty much sums up how we are all feeling at the end of the semester and exam week.

The End!!!! A good time was had by all!!!!

The Many Faces of Shannon Welle

As many of us here in London know, Shannon Welle loves to steal people's cameras and take pictures of herself on these cameras. I would like to share some of her handiwork that I found on my camera during our Thanksgiving celebration! Enjoy!

For those who do not know Shannon here is what she really sort of looks like...