Can you tell I’m a tourist?

May 26, 2016

I think they can…

Today I wore nike shorts, chacos, and my American flag Razorback shirt.  I think that gives me away a little bit…

It has been such a whirlwind of a Thursday!

We started out our morning with class at the Swedenborg House where we all talked about our experiences with our first London shows! We discussed the importance of design in building intensity and suspense, particularly as it pertains to The Woman in Black, which all of the other students saw last night.  Of course, I mentioned in my post yesterday that I saw Les Mis! It was a fantastic show with great scenic and lighting design, and even better performers. The man who played Jean Val Jean had an absolutely beautiful voice and huge range! The set was very interesting and made the transition from location to location believable and interactive.  The stage had a large turntable set into the floor, which allowed stagehands to change the set pieces while another scene was going on up front.  It also allowed the actors to look as though they were actually walking through the streets of Paris, though they were only walking in place on the turn table.  I was critical of two points of the production.  One, the actress who played Cosette had too bright a voice for me.  She did not always blend well with her scene partners. Two, Javert’s suicide scene was a mess.  It asked too much of the suspension of disbelief, and had I been the director, I would have made some very different choices for that scene.  Overall, the show was fantastic.  Fabulously talented musicians and actors all evening long.

After class we took the tube over to Borough Market. This market was huge! More cheese and bread than you can ever imagine! I had a wonderful “toasted cheese sandwich, which consisted of:

…and it was so good! I also adopted a cute little succulent plant!

After perusing the market’s offerings, a group of us took the tube back to Parliament Square, where we proceeded to act as American as possible.  I kid you not, we spend a full 30 minutes taking pictures with Big Ben.  We took a lovely walk around the square and retired to a park along the Thames.  We were able to rest for a while and make some plans for our free time this weekend.  We also found a playground and spent a bit of time there, embracing our childhoods and playing on equipment that we’ve never encountered before.  My favorite were tiles that were set into the ground and played musical notes when you stepped on them.  After a nice lengthy walk along the Thames, we returned to our hotel to charge our phones before tonight’s evening performance.

We had the opportunity to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, but unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed in the production.  But that is a story for another day! And by another day, I mean tomorrow.  As a requirement for class, I will be posting a review of the production tomorrow in addition to my daily blog post.  So never fear, if you get easily bored with theatrical reviews, there’s another post coming.

Cheers and good night!