Welcome to my 2015 London Blog! If you subscribe to this blog, you will be notified every time I post during this semester. This year we have 14 students studying in London. We have been here for two weeks and have been quite busy, hence my being late with the blog!!!! I am doing a two-part blog for this first one seeing that we have been doing a lot and I have tons of pictures. So here is the first Part beginning with the students' arrival.
The Arrival:
The students arrived on Saturday August 29th. After meeting them at the Baron's Court Tube stop, I brought them to their flats (apartments). This year there are two people per apartment. We have one group of three and Jack has a single in the penthouse, as we like to call it! After most of the students arrived, we went into Hammersmith and got Oyster cards (3 month tube passes) and cell phones. Students had the rest of the day to settle into the flats and go grocery shopping and try to stay awake!
Kenny on the tube.
Bailey and Jake arrived on Friday!
Kenny, Colleen, and Jack
Andrew arriving from Cedar Rapids, Iowa!
The Walking Tour:
On Sunday I took the students on a walking tour of Central London. Here are some of the places we visited.
Walking from the flats to Baron's Court
First stop: Westminster, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey.
In front of Big Ben.
In front of The London Eye
We walked along the South Bank to The National Theatre where we went inside to buy copies of London Road that the acting class will be working on this semester.
The alternate space at the National for smaller shows.
The skate park on the South Bank was totally empty!!! No skaters! That was a first. Usually there is always skaters around! A developer bought the land here and wanted to get rid of the skate park. Because of protests and a lot of support from the public the skateboard park is STAYING!!!
Ally and Yoda on the South Bank
Crossing Jubilee Bridge to cross the Thames River to get to Embankment
Of course we had to stop at The Crypt in Saint Martin's of the Fields Church in Trafalgar Square where we had tea and coffee and some food! This is one of my favorite spots in London to escape the hustle and bustle of the City. They are still no longer serving bread and butter pudding with hot custard! I am crushed!
The Crypt.
Later we went to Covent Garden and stopped by the Drury Lane Theatre. We will tour this theatre on Monday. More later on that. But some of you may know I have a theory that pigeons are taking over the world and are probably from another planet. Have you ever seen baby pigeons? Dead Pigeons? No they are everywhere. They even arrested a pigeon in China for spying!!! True! Well now they have their own buses to take them around!!!!
After Covent Garden we went to one of my favorite, cheap Italian restaurants La Porchetta (Pollo Bar). Look at the size of the Calzone Jack ordered!
My carbonara!
Inside Covent Garden
We ended up at Piccadilly Circus, the Times Square of London.
The tube ride back to the Flats!!!
Jake and Bailey way, way back in the tube. Some of the newer cars are all one long car as this one is.
The Classroom:
This year we have a new classroom space. We are now located in Hammersmith right next to the tube station! Each of us has our own desk. Very nice space!
The students met all their teacher this week. Classes that they all are taking are Theatre in London, Art in London, and Global Issues. Theatre students take Page to Stage. Acting students have Acting III with Tony James. Adrian Chapman teaches the Contemporary British Writers class and David Tinham teaches British Politics as well as the Global Issues class. Becky Hurst teaches Art in London, and I teach Theatre in London and Page to Stage.
The Global Issues class went to Greenwich to the Maritime Museum and Meridian time line.
Greenwich
David with Global Issues class in Greenwich.
The Cutty Sark!
Here is where two time zones meet.
Lisa Ann in two time zones.
Explain this!!!!
The Art in London class went to the Tate Britain Museum for their first class! Here are just of few of the art pieces that they viewed!
The Family Group.
A Turner! One of my favorite artists. Perhaps you saw the film Mr. Turner that was released this past year. Excellent insight to this strange man.
The Lady of Shalott
Ophelia
The students in the Theatre in London class did a presentation of the Old Globe and New Globe Theatre. The Page to Stage class analyzed and discussed Shakespeare's play, As You Like It. That night we all went to The Globe to see As You Like It. It was a terrific production. We stood in the front of the stage. Got to the theatre at 5:45 and waited in line so we could rush the stage and lean up against it for the duration of the show. Easier on our feet!
View of the Globe from the Southwark Bridge
Lisa Ann in front of the gate that leads to the Yard (Pit). This is where the line begins. All the figures in the gate are all the animals that are mentioned in Shakespeare's plays!
Waiting in Line.
The Stage.
Being Cute!
Group in front of stage at end of the play!
The Rehearsals:
We are holding rehearsals at The Cockpit Theatre off of Church Street near the Edgeware Road tube stop (where we used to live many years ago!). We are doing the play, Some American's Abroad by Richard Nelson, a British playwright. We originally were going to do two Woody Allen short plays but ended up never hearing if we could get the rights to do them so I switched plays in July. We spent the first week doing read-throughs and a lot of table work. On Sunday we started blocking (staging) the scenes. After week two we have the whole show blocked!
Colleen is not only in the show playing Betty, but she is also stage managing!
On the way to rehearsal one day we viewed a double rainbow!!!!
On the way home from the first read-through students stopped at Icco Pizza on Goodge Street which former students know well.
The Plays:
Aside from As You Like It, we saw the musical, Parade, at the Eel Brook Pub in Fulham. A great show in a Fringe Theatre.... The assistant director of the show was James Hunter, a former student of mine from Rose Bruford, who will be playing the American Tourist in our production of Some American's Abroad.
A number of students went to see 39 Steps. Some went on closing night of the show where many of the actors who have been in the show were in the audience. All loved it!
Students also went to go see Matilda. Jake and Bailey only paid 5 pounds for seats!!!!
Jake and Bailey also saw Everyman at the National the day after they arrived and then went to see Imelda Staunton in Gypsy at the Savoy Theatre. I saw this production in July and it was awesome!
Imelda signing autographs.
The Page to Stage class went to see War Horse at The New London Theatre. It was NOT sold out. First time I have seen a lot of empty seats. Not sure if it was because it was a Monday night or not. The class had mixed reviews of it which we will discuss this Monday in class. Should be an interesting discussion!
The cafe across from the theatre.
Andrew opting to read instead of taking part in the group photo below!
The set for War Horse!
Where's Waldo, oops, I mean, Andrew!
Erin and Sami went to the Notting Hill Carnival last weekend!
And Jake went to Hogwarts!!!!!
Part Two will cover our two day trips to Cambridge and Canterbury and the play we are seeing tomorrow, The Play That Goes Wrong, which is the play we are seeing for Theatre in London for the unit on British Music Halls, Pantos, and Farce!
THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!!!!!
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