Ok, I owe a huge apology. My last entry was 2 months ago. 2 MONTHS. That's just unacceptable. So you may taunt me, mock me, shun me, I deserve it. Now on to updates.

I'M IN FRICKIN LONDON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been here for two months now and these have been the BEST two months of my entire life. I don't know how I'm going to be able to leave.

So we got here the first week and had orientation, which was actually not too bad. I know Trinity orienation is pretty intense but they make it pretty easy for you here. They give a lot of free time for you to explore the city and such, so it's all good. We were introduced to some our professors and the people in charge and all that. We also got to finalize our class choices and mingle and meet people. Interestingly about 80% of the people are actually from Syracuse University (which sponsors this program). I don't know a soul!

Let me explain the layout of the program. We are located at Faraday House, right in the heart of London, almost literally. Our classes are all in this building as well as a computer lab, small auditorium, student lounge, everything you need. My living situation is pre-arranged. You have the option of going out and finding your own apartment or living with other students in apartments already set up for you. Seeing as how I don't know a soul here, I obviously chose prearranged, which actually works out well because Bedford Place (where I live) is very close to Faraday House.

So the second week in we started classes. My classes: Modern Stage, Acting for the Frame, Advanced Performance for Actors, and Shakespeare's Globe. Let's explain these shall we?

Modern Stage is a classroom style course with Michael Barclay, one of the most fabulous and all-knowing teachers I have ever met. I'm not kidding, a fountain of knowledge with positive energy to boot. This class takes us out into the London theater scene, where we see one play a week and come back and discuss the piece. Twist my arm, right? The work is minimal, requiring a few reviews of pieces we have scene. Interestingly enough, only about half of the plays I have seen in London have been for this class, the other half for fun! Wicked, Les Miserables, We Will Rock You, Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Family. It's fantastic. Let me tell you though, the pieces we have to see for this class are SPECTACULAR as well. We have seen Marguerite, Under the Blue Sky, Her Naked Skin, Pinter One-Acts, In-I, and we are almost halfway through the semester. Not only that, you can't imagine the actors I have seen!!! Juliette Binoche, Ian McDiarmid, and soon I will see Ralph Fiennes and Josh Hartnett! Heaven...

Acting for the Frame is exactly what it sounds like, it's a screen acting class. Anyone who has acted before, this is a WHOLE NEW experience. Screen acting takes so much more control and dedication than theater acting, so much so that you sometimes have to remember which you are doing or you might be in a theater rehearsal acting like a screen actor or vice versa. I have learned the most from this class, I must say, simply because of this new material and acting style. With John Beschizza, the prof, I've gotten to do a monologue from Waiting for Guffman (grin) and a scene from Friends and pretty soon I will do another monologue from Seven. The pieces we do are filmed and we analyze them as a class. At the end of the year we get a reel (CD with all of our work on it) to use for our own benefit. Take a screen acting class if you can. It's your one opportunity to have a teacher say: "Please find monologues from films and TV. And constantly watch TV." For education purposes, of course.

Advanced Performance is really just a production. Brian Nocella has taken "The Bird and the Two-Ton Weight", an original play by Syracuse alum Darcy Fowler, and turned it into a workshop performance. The play talks about the Pan-Am 103 crash from 1988, where a bomb exploded on the flight and killed everyone on board, including a large group of Syracuse London students returning home for Christmas. The play will be performed in Lockerbie, where the accident happened, and then back here in London. The cast size is 5 and the class size is.... 20. So we changed things around slightly. The show was double cast, with a cast for Lockerbie and another for London, and the other students became an ensemble who would perform a 15 minute original Epilogue at the end and help during the show as well. And I got cast in the Lockerbie cast!!! I am playing Colin, a troubled 17 year old dealing with his mom's death with his sister Chelsea who has come home to take care of the family. It's a very fun role and my first chance with a dramatic role. We are in rehearsals, but outside of them we have been researching the accident and the students who were on board. We have had some very emotional classes discussing this. In addition we are working with the LeCoq method of acting for the epilogue, so I am learning some new acting styles as well.

Now Shakespeare's Globe, this is the class that sold this program for me. This is the big one. You ready? Acting classes for Shakespeare. The classes are AT THE NEW GLOBE THEATER. I get to go to the Globe and take classes from professional Shakespeare actors and coaches. I mean, OH MY GOD. It's like a dream. The class is split up into smaller classes: Movement with Glynn, Voice with Stewart, and Performance with Yolanda. Soon we will also have Text with Giles and the scene work. The first few weeks we met with Patrick, the head of education at the Globe who is an absolutely stellar person just to be around. He taught us about text, folio, language, and more and I honestly wish I had gotten to have more classes with him. Glynn is the single most eccentric and interesting woman I have ever met and her Movement class has made me more in touch and tuned to my body than ever before. Not only that, but my verse monologues are so much more energized and motivated. Stewart is just an amazing character with a huge heart and the sexiest voice I have ever heard. He has taught me to find my true voice (which is much lower than my regular one) and use my breath and body to create sound without any force or strain. In addition I am able to manipulate it to affect my audience when doing a piece. Yolanda (who incidentally, if anyone has seen Children of Men, is the Spanish woman with the dog in the chase scene right at the very end. SO COOL!) has taught us how to use text, iambic pentameter, and basic acting to perform Shakespeare. I can't wait to see what comes next with Giles, but here is the best part about the class. At the end of the semester, our final is a group of scenes. From Shakespeare. Which we perform. On the stage of the Globe. Take that in for a second. On the Globe Theater stage. I am SO PSYCHED!!!!! My parents actually just told me they are going to fly in to watch the scenes!

I kid you not, the first few weeks of classes I wanted to cry with how much I loved the classes. There have of course been moments when I have missed home and everyone back at Trinity, but I would come here again and again and again if I had the chance!

There are 20 people in the Drama program here and I love each and every one of them. They have become my new family, taken me right in, and given me new, long-lasting friendships which I will treasure. My roommates are pretty fantastic as well! I'll be honest though, and say I see the Drama kids more simply because all of my classes are with them. PS I am taking 12 hours this semester, so it's pretty light, which might contribute to why I am not stressing as much or panicking at all. Although I do have a paper due Monday..... meh.

Let's talk about London. It's huge. Obviously. However in a matter of weeks I know the tube system like the back of my hand. Easy peasy. You can get anywhere and everywhere, whether going to a play or someone's apartment. Getting to the Globe is 3 tube stops away and a 10 minute walk. Funny story, I pass St. Paul's Cathedral every day. It's really ironic because I know many people hear that and think "Oh I would love to go see it, I hear it's breathtaking." It really is. The first few times. Now I'm at the point where I'm like: "Oh look, there's St. Paul's. Ho hum. Over the bridge to the Globe Theater. There's the Tower of London over that way. Oh, and the London Eye is off in the distance. How nice." I truly feel at home here and everything has become so familiar. Even the whole driving on the left side of the street thing.

Another good part about this program is that they provide opportunities to see things outside of London. I have gone on trips provided by the school to Stonehenge, Bath, Brighton, Hampton Court, they really just give you opportunities to see everything. Stonehenge was kind of underwhelming, honestly. Bath was beautiful. Roman baths were very cool. Brighton is AMAZING!!!! I would go back there any day of the week. Beautiful beach, Brighton Pier is just a blast, great town. And Hampton Court, Henry VIII's palace, was breathtaking of course. I'm not going out of London much right now though. During Fall Break, however, I AM going to SPAIN!!!! And Portugal too, forgot about that. For a full week! I will let you know how that goes soon. Over Halloween I am going to Dublin, which is apparently the place to be during that time. Who knew? I know you are probably thinking "Wow, those trips sound really expensive." Not when I'm a hop, skip, and a step away though. Flights to Spain are cheap cheap cheap if you get them early enough. Granted the pound is killing my bank account, but you can live right if you live cheap. I'll say that now though, the one big disadvantage to going abroad to London is that you just hemorrhage money. Worth it though.

What do you do in your free time in London? Well, you either hang with your buddies at a flat or a coffee shop or you go to the pub, the big social hangout scene in London. The clubs are pretty fantastic too, and all of these places are great opportunities to meet people, both English and otherwise. London is shockingly diverse culturally, you hear languages you might not expect to.

I honestly wish I had kept this blog going for the past two months, but I'll be honest, I got so caught up with having so much fun that I just forgot. The time flies by, which of course worries me because I DON'T WANT IT TO END!!!! I especially wish I had kept up because my description of my time abroad could have so much more in depth. But I will be better about this from now on. Trust me. And keep reading!

Cheers!

Posted by Mark at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)