The Last Week of My Summer Visit - July 2010

The last week of my summer visit to London in July was busy! I saw a few shows: Enron was fantastic. It was directed by Rubert Goold who is becoming my favorite director here in London. It is ashame that the show did not last more than two weeks on Broadway. Wall Street wasn't going to support this piece! He is being considered run either the National Theatre or The Royal Shakespeare Company. Smokey Joe's Cafe at the Landor Theatre above the Landor Pub was a wonderful piece of theatre. The space is small but the staging was excellent. I remember many years ago seeing a great production of Into the Woods in that space. I also booked tickets for the Theatre in London class to see Closer Than Ever on Oct. 9th at the Landor. I heard that the night before I went Andrew Lloyd Webber attended a performance there and really wants to see the show go on. I know it was extended for another week. Tonight I went to see Wolfboy an 85 minute musical at the Trafalgar Studio. A bizarre piece to say the least. Different music and lots of blood! It closes tomorrow night! Mike, my landlord, did a super job with the lighting! He has just met with Kevin Spacey to light a show that will be done in the tunnels near Waterloo Station. Exciting! I also saw La Bete as I mentioned in the last blog. A poster for it is below.

St. Paul's Cathedral
















I spent 30 pounds between the show ticket and popcorn and soda to see Inception at the Odeon in Leicester Square. Great movie not worth 30 pounds...hahaha. Never again!

I auditioned Shareen's friend, Shane, and casted him in God's Country. Just had a picture of Shareen and Shane here, and it got deleted. I will post them later. It is late Friday night, and I have to pack and leave in the morning for the States! Sorry guys!

On Sunday I was invited to a wonderful lunch over at Joyce Rae' s house. Joyce is an agent here in London and the wife of our former lighting designer, Roger Frith, who died unexpectedly last year. We miss him dearly. Also at the luncheon was Jonathan and Alise Kennedy. Jonathan is the Executive Director of Tara Arts where we are doing our play. His wife, Alise, does wardrobe for the Royal Ballet and just returned from a tour of China and Barcelona. The other two guests were Kate Williams and her daughter Kelly. Kelly is an agent and works with Joyce. Kate is an actress who has just finished filming her final episodes on the English soap opera, Eastenders. She is also well-know to the British public for her TV series Love Thy Neighbor which was the show that America's All in the Family was based on. She played the wife. We had a great discussion about how TV and film has changed both as far as writing the shows and the acting. Interesting topic! Pretty depressing actually....If you see me, I will explain more. Below is a picture of Kate, Joyce, and Jonathan.

I booked all the day trips this week and a few more shows for us to see in the fall. Looking forward to getting back to Winona to finish up the preparations for the London semester and to get ready to welcome 8 students from Rose Bruford College who will be spending a year at Saint Mary's studying theatre. I will keep you posted!

Kate Williams, Joyce Rae, and Johnathan Kennedy.