Dedicated to Dad

So this will be a short blog post, dedicated to my father's side of the family, and to dear old dad in particular. Earlier in the semester I was considering what a posh area Kensington is, and was marvelling at the incredibly expensive-looking automobiles which are regularly parked.

First there's this beauty:

And further down the square is this one:

And further further down the square is this one:

And this is just a sampler plate. Beemers and Range Rovers and Ferraris and Porsches accent the ancient and awesome architecture with a more modern motif. Anyway, the point is that everything about this area is really expensive and ritzy. And then, gliding into view like a well-loved street-hot-dog-man hawking his sausages in Beverly Hills, my vision is graced with this familiar sight:

For those of you who may not be aware, this is a Volvo station wagon that's at least as old as I am. My family is a dedicated Volvo family (really just my Dad and my uncle, but I like to think imagine it as a grand family tradition). These cars are incredibly durable, withstanding the brunt of the ages like no other vehicle I know (and, being of course the car expert that I am, I'm undoubtedly qualified to speak on such issues). Our car, a 1993 Volvo 740, has approximately 350,000 miles on it (which is almost to the moon and back--this is one of my favorite statistics) and can still get 27 mpg on the highway. We've had it for a long long long long time, it's the car that I learned to drive on, and I have come to identify the boxy silhouette, admittedly rather derpy, with home. I love that car. And to see it, very out of place amongst the silver spoon swag wagons of the over-rich, gives my heart a little lift every time it comes into view.

I love you, Dad.

Shower in Bath: A Blog Post in 3 Acts

So it's been a little while since I've updated, and there's been a lot of stuff that's happened. So to make it easier for you guys, I'm going to get all meta for a moment and make my blog post about my theatrical shenanigans reflect traditional dramatic structure. Here we go.

Showers in Bath: A Blog Post in 3 Acts

[House manager enters SL, walks to center stage]

HM: Hello, good evening, and welcome to this evening's production of A Kentuckian Bumpkin in (or at least closer to) King Arthur's Court. There will be an intermission, beginning whenever you decide to stop reading and ending when you start again. Please silence all cellular devices now, and recording this blog post in any way, shape, or form is forbidden. Thank you, and enjoy the show.

[House manager exits SL. House lights down. Show begins.]

ACT I: The Books, the Arts, the Academes

When we last left our heroes (a.k.a me), I had just completed my first week of classes. I have now completed Week 4, and classes have ramped up accordingly. In Movement, for instance, we have stopped our simple back rolls interspersed with jumping and have moved on to something much more strenuous and therefore cool: After doing a couple minutes of rolls, we do a back roll all the way over onto our knees, then fall forward and start doing the Worm. We've also started working on handstands. I can do one against the wall no problem, but getting the balance right is gonna be tough. I'll get it, though. Once we've perfected that we'll be doing things where one starts on feet and hands in a squat and jumps into a handstand. I don't know what they're called, but it'll be very cool once we actually get there.

In Acting, we've started building our characters. We chose them from George Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer and will be working with them throughout the semester. Today, for instance, our homework was to go to the zoo and find an animal that had the same physicality as our character. Just before spring break we'll turn in a 10 or 15 page autobiography of our character, written in the first person, to find our character's voice. This will be difficult for me because mine can't read or write. I'll let you know how it goes.

We've been given monologues to work on in Acting Shakespeare. Mine is Iachimo from Cymbeline, and OH MY GOD HE'S SO CREEPY. That's all I'm going to say on the matter

The rest have been pretty much more of the same, which isn't to say they're bad. I really enjoy all my classes, even if some days I'm there from 9:30 to 6:00.

ACT II: What Happened to the Theatre?

We've been seeing it all, that's what happened to it. The sheer amount that's out there is staggering. The first show we were supposed to see was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, which was playing at the ill-fated Apollo Theatre before the roof collapsed last fall. So we didn't get to see that, but I heard it was fantastic. Here's a short list of the plays we've seen and what I thought about them.

Mojo: Starring Rupert Grint, Ben Whishaw, Colin Morgan, and Brendan Coyle. The story was all right, but Ben's performance was absolutely magnetic. You know those stories you hear but never really believe about being fascinated by somebody on stage doing absolutely nothing? That was me with him when all he was doing was sitting frozen on the desk as a frantic exchange went on center stage.

Ghosts: The set was amaaaaaaaaaazing. Google it. It's probably the most beautiful piece I've seen, and the acting of the leading lady and man certainly did it justice. Lesley Manville is a force of nature. Everything she did was so specific and natural. You could tell that she really lived in that house. It was the little things, like realizing one of the books in the pile you're carrying doesn't actually belong on that table, but on the other one over there.

The Mistress Contract: Not a stunning piece. The set was pretty cool, but the production was muddy. The leading lady generalized everything she did, didn't age over the 30-year span of the play, had trouble with her lines, and her accent ranged from New York to the Midwest. Part of it was the fact that we saw it on opening night, I'm sure, but it felt like a rehearsal.

Candide: I don't know if I've ever seen a production with more energy and life than this show. It's a fantastic musical (check it out if you don't know it) that they did in the round, and there wasn't a single moment where I was bored or uninvested (hint: it was 2.5 hours long). Also the leading lady was the triplest threat I have ever seen (Scarlett Strallen), and also the titular character was played by Fra Fee, who played Coufreyrac in the Les Mis movie.

ACT III: But There's More to Life than That...Don't Ask Me What

But what about my life outside of school? I still have one of those, right? Well, the answer is fortunately yes. London provides me with ample opportunity to explore outside of the LDA. One night all those Grinnellians studying in London (myself included) met at a pub for dinner. I'd already eaten, but Abby and I split a brownie that was really good. Another time (just this Saturday, actually), Abby and I went to get day tickets (tickets that you get the day of the show for really cheap) for Coriolanus with Tom Hiddleston and Mark Gatiss. We didn't get any (despite getting there at 4 in the morning, we were still too far back in line), but hopefully we will on Tuesday.

But my most exciting venture outside of the LDA was on February 1st, when Abby and some other studying with her and I went on a bus tour to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge is really cool--it's just out there hanging out in the middle of a field. And although undoubtedly the Ylvis song is running through your head, my first thought was of Spinal Tap. Which I'm totally fine with. Bath was also pretty neat, although kinda less so. There's an absolutely beautiful cathedral there and the architecture is beautiful, but the bathhouse itself (Roman, from approximately 60 AD) kinda underwhelmed me. I think it was the context--the fact that it was right in the middle of a bustling city, not surrounded by picturesque mountains and olive trees kinda took me out of it. Although we did manage to get 50 pence pastries, which is always a plus. Also it started raining while we were there (surprise, surprise), so we had showers in Bath. Can't stop, won't stop.

Epilogue

I'll probably get one more post in before spring break, and then I'm off on an adventure. Tickets are booked, supplies are ordered, and on March 1st I'll be leaving to backpack around the Isle of Skye (in Scotland) for our week of spring break. And when I say backpack, I mean the pitch-a-tent-in-the-wilderness and eat-cold-watery-potato-soup-on-a-mountaintop kind of backpacking. Really, it's the only kind. I'm really excited. I feel like I should come back so wiser and much more bearded than I left, but I don't know if I can accomplish that in a week. But that won't stop me from trying.

~Fin~