London Week Two: Part One

It is late Sunday night, September 19th, and I decided to do a couple of blogs this week and split them up. We had a very interesting and productive week. This blog will deal with all the theatre that we experienced this week. Next blog will cover the Art Class's visit to The Banqueting Hall and our trip to Blenheim Palace and a few other sightseeing spots in London.

On Monday evening we went to see our West End Show for the Theatre in London class, Billy Elliot, The Musical. It got mixed reviews from the students. I am looking forward to our class discussion on it tomorrow. Below are some photos of the interior of the Victoria Palace Theatre.

Part of the group after the show.

Some of the group sat in The Dress Circle and some sat in the Stalls down below. All were great seats!

We have been having awesome rehearsals for God's Country at the The Drill Hall rehearsal space. The rainbow has given us good luck for getting the better rooms all week because of other people cancelling their rehearsals. On Monday before we went to see Billy Elliot I brought all the students to Tara Studio where we will be performing God's Country October 19-23. It was the first chance most of the students got to see the space. This has really helped them envision the space as we rehearse at The Drill Hall.

Tara Studio below:

The show we saw for Page to Stage on Saturday was All My Sons by Arthur Miller. We had a wonderful discussion and analysis of the play before we went and tomorrow we will critique the production. It starred Zoe Wannamaker and David Suchet. Both were excellent! The set was wonderful, as were most of the other performances. It was at the Apollo Theatre.

Heather, Regina, and Anna stopped for Sushi at Yo, Sushi before attending All My Sons. Matthew, Jarod, and Joanna went to the matinee of Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at the New Wimbledon Theatre.

As I mentioned last week, some of the students went to the outdoor theatre in Regent's Park to see Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. Below Marie, Matt, Annie, and Michael along with Joanna who took the photo are protecting themselves from the rain with their fashionable rain slickers....at least the ones at the Globe has nice quotes about rain all over them!!!

Matt went to the Press Night of the opening of Noel Coward's Design for Living at the Old Vic Theatre. The Old Vic is the theatre that American actor, Kevin Spacey runs. This play was banned and censored in the 1930's by the Lord Chamberlain.....and has just recently been revived. It received wonderful reviews from both Matt and the critics!

Matt was on a mission this week. He also went to the Menier Chocolate Factory, the theatre company that has been producing all those wonderful productions that have transferred to Broadway: Sunday in the Park with George, A Little Night Music, La Cage aux Folles to name a few. The newsest venture is Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love directed by Trevor Nunn. Matthew loved it and got to meet the cast after the show. He spent a few hours at the theatre cafe waiting to get a ticket. He read War Horse for class tomorrow. We are also seeing the play tomorrow night after a tour of the Drury Lane Theatre, the oldest theatre in London. Matt also partook in a wonderful chocolate dessert (see below). I am tempted to go to the theatre for the dessert, not the play!!!!

Matt with the cast of Aspects of Love

As I mentioned above Matt, Jarod, and Joanna got to see the excellent production of Swan Lake. I got to see Matthew Bourne's production when it first came out a number of years ago! Literally, breathtaking! Last year we got to see his production of Edward Scissorhands at the New Wimbledon Theatre. This is the theatre where we used to do our productions prior to going to Tara Studio. Bourne's Cinderella, which I had seen before is also coming to London this semester. Our dance minors who are here in London have a wide variety of dance performances that they can attend. I will keep you informed as to what they see. They are also taking classes at Pineapple Studio which they are enjoying very much.

Last Friday after we returned from Blenheim Palace a group of us went to go see Avenue Q. We wanted to catch it before it closed. It is closing on October 30th. It was hysterical. We saw three understudies who were terrific. A few others went to go see Chicago and Jake and Ryan went to see Avenue Q on Saturday night after they returned from spending the night in Sidcup with the ATA students at Rose Bruford.

The group poses with Lucy the Slut!

The pre-set curtain.

That's All Folks! Look for Part Two in a couple of days....