Thursday, October 06, 2005

So...much...thinking...

I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

Thursdays I have six hours of classes, all with the same teacher who talks very fast and who is very enthusiastic. Listening to him is like reading an academic text--you have to pay attention or you'll end up missing half the point. Right now my brain hurts a lot, probably from being overused. First my legs, now my brain...ouch! We are working on new pieces that are completely different from anything I learned in Point: instead of working on "characters" we're working on "roles" instead of "plot" we're working on "action" and "events" --subtle differences to be sure, but ones that are very important. It's definitely building on what I learned before.

Yesterday I went to see a play called "Crocodile Seeking Refuge" which is about five refugees from various parts of the world seeking refuge in the UK. The stories and the source material were very good, but the staging left something to be desired, and the script was a little shaky. One of my fellow classmates also came and saw the show and we ended up talking about the play, theater, life, the Universe and everything in a pub for three hours. Ironically, he was also from the Midwest, so there was quite a bit of "You understand what I'm saying when I talk about priviledged middle class white people?" "Yes!" So that was exciting. Still find it ironic that I've come halfway around the world to talk to Americans about British theater. :) I made it to Covent Garden again last night and finally got my Cornish pasty, which was just as good as I remember. I was extremely happy to be in London, and to have finally seen some theater and to have had a good long talk with someone. A good day!

Now, as you can imagine, I'm pretty tired, and I still need to get a couple books out of the library. It's only quarter to six here, but it's already getting dark. I guess the UK is a little farther north than Green Bay, so it is going to get darker earlier, but it still catches me by surprize.

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