LONDON: Week Three: Part One - Art, Theatre, and The Tower of London

I am splitting this blog into two parts.  Part Two will be on our visit to Blenheim Palace.  It was our third Friday day trip.  That one will be very long, so I decided to do the rest of the week in this first blog.

THEATRE THIS WEEK!

On Monday, the Theatre in London class went to see Come From Away for our West End musical.  This is a musical based on all the planes that got diverted to Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11 and how the townspeople of Gander and surrounding towns took 7,000 passengers into their homes, schools, and churches.  The production was awesome!  I also happened to see it in New York City a couple of years ago.  It was special seeing it the anniversary week of 9/11.  The cast of 12 play the townspeople, the passengers, pilots, flight attendants, news reporters, etc.  Incredible!

On Wednesday we saw a production of The Son that we read for London: Page to Stage.  Very, very emotional! Again, an awesome cast.  Tough topic: suicide.  Takes place in Paris, a very French perspective that we discussed. Had a good talk about Existentialism.

Alise Kennedy joined us. She was leaving for India the next day and hadn't packed!!!!

ACTING 3 CLASS:

The Acting 3 class with Tony James will be working on Every Brilliant Thing for the semester and will perform it on the last day of class.  Ironically, this is the second time I heard of this play.  My friend, Michael Fitzpatrick, will be performing it as a one-man show this summer for the Great River Shakespeare Festival.  We obviously are splitting all the role among the students in the class. They will also be working on dialects for this piece.  Sounds exciting!!!!

ART IN LONDON CLASS:

In the last blog I mentioned that the students went to The National Gallery for the Art in London class.  Here are some of the pieces Anna Dale found interesting.  Thanks Anna for the pictures.

One of my all time favorites!

This week the Art in London class met at The Somerset House.  The students had fun playing in the fountain outside but also enjoyed the art inside.  Again thanks to Anna for her photos of the art.

 THE TOWER OF LONDON:

Arielle and Ahnika took some time to visit the Tower of London.  They enjoyed the experience.  Loved the Crown Jewels!

Tower Bridge.  A lot of people think this is London Bridge.  It is not!  The original London Bridge is in Arizona!!!!  Fun fact.

 Students have been actively going to see all types of plays outside of class requirements.  They have seen tons!  Great group.  More on this later.
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Stay tuned for our visit to Blenheim Palace.  A lot of intrigue involved if you have been keeping up with the news!!!  Gold toilet!

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!!!