A Semester in London: September 2012

Image by Darrell Fair

It is late on September 19th. We again have had a busy week, and it is only Wednesday. On Monday we went to a wonderful production of War Horse at the New London Theatre. Lots of crying!

Set model that students viewed at the Victoria Albert Museum with the Art in London class.

Before the show some of us went to go eat at Belgo (one of my favorite restaurants) across the street from the Donmar Warehouse. It is a Belgian restaurant that specializes in mussels. Here is some of what we ate.

Elyssa and Tasha had pasta with salmon and asparagus.

Julie had moist, roasted chicken with a creamy mushroom sauce.

Tony contemplating eating a lobster burger with avocado. He had never had lobster.

And he loved it! He also tried and enjoyed some of my mussels.

Mussels in a classic cream sauce with fries that you dip in mayo.....

John and Allie also had mussels, and Matt had pork and leek sausages with mashed potato....It looked yummy!

That afternoon we went on a tour of the Drury Lane Theatre, the oldest theatre in London. The tour was given by two actors who portray a variety of characters. Some of the past students will recognize these actors, especially the one we have nicknamed "Drury Lane". He is still there Curtis! Curtis does a great impersonation of this man who by the way has mellowed over the years.

Picture of W.C. Fields hanging in one of the hallways.

Part of the bomb that hit the theatre during WWII.

It ran over 4,000 performances. 2282 was when it broke the record.

Andrew is sitting in the Queen's chair!!!!

"Drury Lane"

The boxes. Not allowed to take a picture of the stage where Shrek is playing.

In the Prince's chamber.

The other tour guide....

On Tuesday evening the Page to Stage class went to see the play, Jumpy, at the Duke of York Theatre. We saw this play last year at the Royal Court Theatre. It just transferred to the West End for a limited run.

The set....

Last Friday our day trip was to Canterbury which is absolutely one of my favorite places in England. Being an English major in undergraduate school I had to read the entire works of Chaucer in Middle English!!!! So I make pilgrimages to Canterbury, many pilgrimages!. In addition to that I love King Henry II and his relationship with Thomas a Beckett! So I enjoy taking the students here. Some of you may know the movie and play, Beckett with Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton or the play and film, The Lion in Winter where Peter O'Toole played Henry II again at the end of his reign. T.S. Eliot's play, Murder in the Cathedral is also based on Beckett's murder. We do a tour of this medevil city and then we go into the Cathedral and explore! Enjoy the photos...