Resonating

Yesterday morning we had the great pleasure of having a discussion with actor David Bradley, Filch in the Harry Potter series, who seemed only too happy to answer our questions about acting, life and give us a few tips on things. He told us all kinds of stories about how he knew Harold Pinter when he was working on Homecoming back in the 90’s and the little stories about hitting your mark in film work and why it can be more of a drain and harder than theater in some respects (mainly having to play for the advantage of the camera where you have a lot less control over what will go in the final project). It was also really nice to hear that even a great actor like him; it took 4 attempts to get into RADA! He tried 4 times and finally got in. Nice to hear that if your tenacious enough some good things can come of it. Just a real pleasure to talk with him and have someone generally interested in what we were saying and worked his hardest to answer our questions honestly and thoughtfully.

Les Miserables

Having premiered back in the 80’s, it’s pretty astonishing to see something that hasn’t changed in nearly 30 years still carry so much emotion. The timing of us seeing this show was pretty strange to say the least. Having just heard Monday morning of the news from the US and the death of Bin Laden then seeing this show on Tuesday, a show all about a failed attempt at revolution where the rebels all die for no reason, really struck a chord with me at least. Thinking on the last ten years of war and destruction in the middle east and what it was all for seems like so much compared to what we were actually trying to achieve. All that wasted life for ten years in wars we shouldn’t have been fighting in and now we finally get what we set out to do, ten years too late. Plus I saw all the celebrations that were going on across the US, people cheering the death of a human being. Now I’m not condoning anything that Bin Laden did and I certainly don’t agree with his ethic, but, should we really be celebrating someone’s murder? Yes, he was a horrible human being and I’m glad he’s no longer among the living, but killing the leader of such an extreme group of people is only going to anger and entice others to follow suit, especially when they see how everyone is cheering and celebrating in his death. Now if say the tables were turned? And they were the ones celebrating the death of an American military extremist that you were a part of their group? You would hate them even more than you did before, right, and want to get even with them? Killing people, no matter how bad they are, only provoakes more killing. "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Anyway, back to the play. It’s epic and beautiful, I cried. The music is beautiful albeit very 80’s musical, like Phantom and Sweeney Todd.

TODAY!

Shakespeare acting class today! Not as physically exhausting as classes with Imogene was last week, but just as stimulating for the mind. I have had Shakespeare explained to me so many times, from Iambic Pentameter to “the directions are in the words” but I never really fully understood it all until today. Yolanda (that was the instructor’s name) works with the RSC as well as the Globe with education and sometimes works as an actor as well; she had us incorporate the meter in our physicality. We did similar exercises two years ago when I was here before, but it made more sense to me today (maybe I wasn’t as concerned with looking good for the instructor as I was last time) as well as explaining really clearly the pauses and how the pauses mean there can be movement and gestures that may have been there. If you listen closely you can figure out without a director where to go and what to do, which I never really realized before, guess I never paid that close of attention to the verse like I did today.

Had an interview for a summer job at a summer camp in Sunriver Oregon after class. I was offered the job after a 15 minute Skype interview. So upon my return back to the states, I will be employed!

And the Horse You Rode in On by Told by an Idiot at the Barbican Pit

Uh, well there’s just not much I can say, only that I defiantly didn’t like the show. There were far too many themes going on for the play they had set out to do, whatever it was they were trying to do, I still am not sure. By the end I was bored by it all and even the really good acting couldn’t save such a jumbled, mess of a script that tried really hard to add historical significance with the whole “Enlightenment through Demonstration” but they had weird ways of going about them which made it just confusing and I got lost and tuned out very quickly. They had some good moments of humor at the start then all of a sudden it seemed like they ran out of gags and then they lost the audience, thereby losing their energy for the show. The end was blasé to say the least with a stupid and preachy message about your life and your message that you have or something like that.

Tomorrow through Saturday: Stonehenge, Bath, Avebury, Bristol and Wells…oh my!