A Semester in London: LONDON 2012: WEEK 1 AND 2

image by Darrell Fair

Welome to the 2012 Saint Mary's University London blog! Please join the blog if you want to be notified everytime I post an entry. Hope you enjoy following our adventure across the pond in the Mother Country! Here we go!

Well all the students arrived on Saturday, September 1. We spent the day moving into the flats at Broadmead, getting mobile phones and Oyster cards(tube passes), and going to Hammersmith to check out the area and find Primark! I also treated everyone to Millie's cookies!!!!

John waiting with me at the tube stop for students to arrive.

On Sunday I met the students at the flats and took them on a walking tour of London. Here are some of the sights that we saw!

Tube ride to Westminster

First view of Big Ben coming out of the Underground

The London Eye

Stopped at the Crypt at Saint Martin of the Field's Church for tea, coffee, cokes and bread and butter pudding and apple crisp with hot custard.

We then went to the National Theatre to check it out. Here are some photos of the outside festivities at the National that happens beginning in the summer and ending with the Mayor's Thames Festival which was this past weekend. Pictures are from both weekends.

NATIONAL THEATRE:

Andrew enjoying his big chair!

Tony really enjoying his big chair!

The National built an outdoor pub called the Prop Store using an old set and props.

Alex, Taylor, Lydia, Katie and I went to see London Road at the Olivier Theatre before it closed last Saturday. An interesting musical about a serial killer and how the murder of five prostitutes affected the neighborhood of London Road! Very obscure and entertaining.

CLASSES:

We started classes this week. My two classes, Theatre in London and Page to Stage, were on Monday. On Tuesday we went to Rose Bruford College where the students take their Global Issues class and Acting the British Approach. This year the first three Global Issues classes will have the first year ATA (American Theatre Arts) students from Rose Bruford also being part of the class. Our students have already made friends with the Rose Bruford students and have been socializing with them. Wednesday's classes are British Contemporary Writers with Adrian Chapman who has replaced Patricia Owen who passed away this summer and British Politics with David Tinham another new professor. That class visited the Imperial War Museum. Thursday morning is Art in London with Elizabeth Dawson. Their first visit was the Banqueting Hall and Thursday afternoon is International Management with Darren O'Byrne and Christopher Bond.

As part of the Theatre in London and Page to Stage classes we went to a number of plays. Here they are below:

WEST END THEATRE:

Monday Night we went to see Chariots of Fire. It was our first West End Show.
A great way to start off our theatre adventure and a great tribute to the Olympics.

Winners or Losers? You decide!

The stage where audience also sat and a running track which came out into the audience. The running scenes were brilliantly choreographed and all were very different from each other.

Alex (center is either bored or tired)

Julie, Lydia, Charlotte, and Tasha!

This week we saw two more West End Shows, Les Miserables and One Man, Two Guvnors. Both were fantastic. Excellent cast for both. One Man...was a brilliant farce and had us rolling in the aisles. Les Miz was awesome and very moving. The new orchestration was super as was the new sound system. One could literally hear and understand every single word of the show.

The students with the young boy who played Garvouche. He was adorable!

Last night we saw One Man, Two Guvnors at the Royal Haymarket Theatre. It is a West End show that transferred to the West End from the National Theatre. This year it won Best Play and BestActor at the Tony Awards and it has also won many Olivier Awards here in London. All well-deserved. Lydia and Allie went to the stage door after the show and met the cast! Here they all are below:

THE GLOBE THEATRE:

Last Tuesday and Saturday we went to the Globe Theatre and saw Taming of the Shrew and Richard III which starred Mark Rylance. My favorite British actor! We had great weather for both shows, and we showed up early to be the first in line so we could rush the stage in order to lean on it for the three hours of the show. We were Groundlings so we stood for the entire show. Thank God the shows were entertaining and went by fast! He are photos from both productions.

The Globe

This season's plays.

Waiting in Line........and waiting....and waiting.......

Mark Rylance

Set for Taming of the Shrew (Notice the pigeon on the stage. Pigeons are even infiltrating the Globe Theatre. Part of my theory that they are taking over the world. More on this in other blogs to come!!!

Set for Richard III

The ceiling above the stage

The Pit

The show made Alex cockeyed!

No Comment!

Part of the Group in front of the Shrew stage.

Southwark Bridge on the way home.

St. Paul's dome across from the Globe.

REHEARSALS:

In addition to classes and going to plays, we began rehearsing for our play, Almost, Maine by John Cariani. We are performing it October 23 -27 at Tara Studios in Earlsfield at 7:30 pm. We are rehearsing at RADA studios (They bought the old Drill Hall studio that we have always rehearsed in. RADA, however, is charging more than Drill Hall. Need to find another place for next year methinks!). We are also using another room in our classroom building for rehearsals until we can move into Tara a week before we open. Students came prepared with all their lines memorized and character analysis completed. We blocked the show in two days and are having fun working on it. Here are a couple of rehearsal photos.

Stage Manager: John Gob

CAMBRIDGE:

On Fridays we go on day trips to areas outside of London. This past Friday we went on our first day trip to Cambridge. We had a wonderful, hot, sunny day. Our tour guide was Ian. Some of you from may remember Ian from the past . Enjoy the photos.

Punting Boats

Mathematical Bridge

Ian and Group in front of Queen's College

Over the main door of Queen's College

In St. Mary's Church...could it be the inspiration for our Stars and Strips?

Tower of this church is the oldest building in Cambridge.

Ceiling of the Eagle Pub where RAF and US airforce and army put their squadrons on the ceiling of the pub with matches and lighters. The whole ceiling is covered with this. Some of us had lunch here. See past blogs for more pictures of The Eagle.