It is insane how fast one month in England has gone by. In that time, my perception of what theatre is and can be has been completely changed. Theatre in London has inspired me to think outside the box, which is extremely hard for me. Only recently have I started my journey as a set designer and had only considered myself a performer until this year. 

Having this experience has really changed me, and in writing this blog, I keep discovering new ways I’ve been inspired. Growing up, I never had the chance to watch professional theatre. My family had immigrated to the United States only a year before I was born. The Arts and Theatre weren’t something they knew about. It wasn’t something common in my community.

So, growing up, I wasn’t exposed to theatre. Coming to college, not knowing enough about the theatre world was a huge insecurity of mine. I didn’t know major references to productions, or theatre icons. I didn’t know any history or important culture moments. The only piece of theatre history I was slightly knowledgeable in was Shakespeare. It was the person whose significance in theatre I understood. While I was never all knowledgeable about Shakespeares life, it feels full circle to come and explore where he was from.

After being in central London for so long, Stratford was a breath of fresh air. I don’t think I fully wrapped my head around the fact that we visited Shakespeares homes. I got to see a piece of history with my own eyes. Stratford Upon Avon also served as an opportunity to reflect on my journey. I ended up spending alone time, enjoying the town and the fresh air. On of the most English things I experienced, was watching the English people get worked up over a rowing race. I was watching from a bench; with the best vanilla ice cream I’ve had. It had a little bit of raspberry sauce that made it so good.

It was also interesting to live in a town that more accurately represented the rest of England. I had the luxury of a 24hour Tesco in London, while the tesco in Stratford closed at 10pm. Night life was basically nonexistent, which made adventures end shorter in the day. Part of why I loved London, was being able to explore the city, day and night. I don’t want to get crucified for saying this, but I really missed London after the first night in Stratford. A part of me wishes I had taken more advantage to watch theatre the first week I arrived. I yearned to be back but also yearned to be home. Isn’t that an interesting feeling?

I am incredibly grateful for the group of people I experienced London with. As individuals, we all experienced stressful or difficult situations. But we always tried to remain calm and optimistic. We were always there for each other, even if things were going horribly wrong. My Paris people know what I mean.

This trip was full of so many opportunities. I had the opportunity to get closer to my peers, and form new friendships. I took on another pair of parents (AKA Mother Susan and Father Tim). I was inspired to explore fashion, unafraid of any judgement. I felt safe to be who I was, and I am entirely grateful to all of you. I tried new foods from different cultures, broadening my palate. I tried doing a British accent in Paris (and failed terribly). I figured out how to travel by myself in a whole new country (thank goodness they speak English).

I have done so many new things, and have learned a lot about myself through this trip. It’s taught me that I really can do anything I put my mind to. London was a beautiful city to explore, full of different cultures and amazing theatre. I will miss the Tube, and English Breakfast. The sound of free healthcare at night, Brick Lane Market, the array of languages at every turn, the West End, stealing croissants from breakfast. I will miss so many things. I don’t think think about this as my peak, because I WILL be back. It’s not goodbye, just see you later. Perhaps Grad School? We’ll see 🙂

Farewell Friends, for one last time

-Belinda (AKA belindar)

Once when I was scrolling through instagram while on this trip I saw a post by a person form the US and they were talking about the differences between the US and the UK.  It was very clear that the person came from a small town in the US and had only been to London and thought that London was like the rest of the UK.  As you can imagine they got called out a lot in the comments.  I have traveled all over the world but always to big cities and while I understood that city life is completely different from town life I had never experienced that difference.  I’m really grateful for our short stay in Stratford because it gave me that experience of town life.  One thing I noticed is the cars and walkability.  Stratford was still walkable because it was built before cars and while not as walkable as London it is still extremely walkable, that being said I saw a lot of personal cars in Stratford which I did not see in London.  Another thing I noticed about Stratford is the fact half of the shops have Shakespeare in the name which I thought was funny.  Also seeing the Shakespeare related buildings was awesome because while royal palaces are cool, seeing cottages where more normal people lived that were built before the founding of our country is insane.  Seeing how there were only two rooms and everyone slept in the same room really showed the great difference between royalty and peasants in pre-modern times.

I think if I wanted to completely wrap up this trip I would write more than anyone is ever willing to read so I’m going to try and keep this pretty short.  I want to start off by thanking the University of Arkansas for giving me this opportunity.  I also want to thank Shawn, Courtney, Susan, and Tim for all their amazing help on this trip.  I know I’m going to look back on this trip as some of the best days of my life and I have you all to thank for this amazing experience.  When I try to think of a favorite moment I really can’t.  I had so much fun watching all the shows, going to museums, getting to know the city, and getting to hang out with all these amazing people.  I can’t place a specific moment as my favorite.  As a theatre student of course Broadway and the West End are my big goals so getting to be in London for almost a month was a great experience and I learned so much.  This trip has changed my life and opened my eyes so much to things you can do with theatre.  I cannot wait to return to working on theatre with all this new knowledge I have gained.  Once again thank you to everyone that helped me get on this trip, I am so grateful to all of you and also thank you to my fellow students on the trip for being the wonderful people you all are, this trip wouldn’t be nearly as fun as it was without all of you.

Watching “King Lear” in Ukrainian was an interesting experience.  We read King Lear for class so I was very familiar with the script which did help me during the show.  However, there were many changes to the story that made it difficult to understand.  I was under the impression that this would be a normal production of “King Lear” but instead this was a unique script.  There were only 5 characters: King Lear, the Jester, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia.  It seems that a lot of the action with other characters was either cut or it happened off-screen and was explained sometime on screen.  I was able to follow some parts.  I could follow the opening easily and I also understood when Lear was kicked out by his daughters and when he was monologuing about his mistakes.  Overall, I believe that I was roughly able to follow the story however if I had not read and studied the script I definitely would have no idea what was happening.  I think they captured the overall essence of the play but I still didn’t enjoy it.  While I do appreciate the thought put into it and admire the hard work of everyone involved, the fact is that I do not speak Ukrainian.  The point of art is to convey a message and how can I receive that message if it’s in a language I can’t understand.  Many art forms like painting, dance, and performance art are universal languages able to be understood by anyone but something text focused like theatre isn’t.  The themes can be universal but the language isn’t.  I found myself only really enjoying when the jester would do slapstick humor.  I support what the show is trying to raise awareness for and I’m definitely glad that I did try this; however, in the future I would like to have subtitles when I experience a piece of art in a foreign language.

This is a Chanel suit from the Victoria and Albert Museum and this relates to the show “Guys and Dolls”.  The Chanel suit was introduced in 1925; however, it became extremely popular in 1954 which matches the 1950’s setting of “Guys and Dolls”.  Since 1954 the Chanel suit has been a staple in fashion and is very often replicated or is the source of inspiration for other pieces.  It became a symbol of femininity, elegance, and the working woman with many high class women wearing them around to boost their popularity.  It is also an important fashion piece in feminism; the looser silhouette is meant to be a sharp turn from the popularity of corsets at the time of its creation.  It was a step towards more functional clothing for women which is why it was so popular.  While “Guys and Dolls” is definitely not very feminist, the Chanel suit and symbol of the working woman.  The uniforms for the women of the save our souls groups had the same silhouette.  Chanel suit inspiration also appeared in some of the outfits that female ensemble members wore.  Following WW2 more and more women were entering the workforce and women’s fashion at the time did not support that so the more functional design of Chanel suits became an icon for women in the workforce and a source of inspiration for work uniforms for women.  There were many other important pieces of fashion history that appeared in “Guys and Dolls” like Christian Dior’s “New Look” which could be seen being replicated in some of the dresses the women were wearing.  I am a really big fan of fashion and fashion history so seeing these pieces of fashion history in the Victoria and Albert museums and also seeing fashion history portrayed well in shows is amazing to me.

If you were to give me a year to live in London, completely on my own and with the freedom to do anything and everything I wanted to, I would come back wishing I had more time. With how quickly these days and weeks have gone by, it’s honestly hard to believe that a month has already passed. Now at the end of our journey, I find myself reflecting in Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Stratford itself is a beautiful, small town, with its slower pace and obsession with the Bard creating a perfect place to end our study abroad experience. I loved seeing and walking through locations like Shakespeare’s birthplace or Anne Hathaway’s cottage, and the town’s mixture of architectural styles made it amazing to walk through. Wandering through the streets at night, no other soul in sight, felt tranquil and almost magical compared to the bustle and unnatural brightness of nights in London. The experience of Stratford felt no more yielding than a dream, with its seemingly daily farmer’s markets stretching across plazas before vanishing at 5:00, its historical sites nestled between antique stores and candy shops, and the tourism depending almost entirely upon Shakespeare’s mere existence. Whether it was watching theatre in languages I did not understand or having afternoon tea in a cafe populated with cats named after Shakespeare characters or even just wandering the quiet streets in the dead of night, I adored every minute that I spent in this place. 

All in all, my time in London has felt like a strange dream, as if I have but slumber’d here, while these visions did appear. Visions of an expansive urban setting, with buildings sprouting into the sky, and so many shops packed so tightly together that you could get anything you ever need within a five minute walk. Of a place so casually old you see people park their cars next to ancient Roman walls or over the graves of long dead kings (that has actually happened before. Twice). Of a city so large and sprawling and yet feeling so incredibly small and local. Of a public transit system where it feels like you step off into a completely different city from where you started at, even if you are just a stop away.

This trip taught me many things I never would have known about London without going. I learned about the many rich and expansive markets throughout the city, home to many different stores and restaurants (and barbershops) for almost anything you could ever want. I found my way through the surprisingly easy to understand tube system, which I first thought would be incredibly confusing and something I may not use often, but ended up taking casually every day. I became engrossed in the collections and stories of museums and galleries and even the small antique shops on the corners. I ate foods and tasted things that I had never seen before or just assumed would be vaguely gross, like a meat pie. I saw so many different shows and equally as many different ways of doing theatre, taking in what decisions and choices I thought worked and what did not to help me in my own sound design work this upcoming semester. 

Overall, London has been an immensely powerful and incredibly educational trip to go on, and an experience I would not trade for anything else. While I feel like I left a part of myself in London (and, as I am an honest Ben, I would have to say I legitimately did. I left behind my mouse’s USB in the hotel room, after all), I feel like London has left me with a part of itself as well. Whether it is the souvenirs that I take home in my near bursting suitcase, or the stories that will unfurl off my tongue at any social gathering for the next five years, or the lessons I wish to put to practice and the recipes I wish to try etched into my brain, I have been changed by my experiences in London. I wish to return some day, if I have unearned luck, and do and see more than what I have already, but for now I think it would be better to rest at home. 

Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue, I will make amends ere long, and say goodbye to a little place called London.

For my Fringe Theatre post I will be writing about “Bluets”.  “Bluets” was an incredibly unique show.  There were 3 actors and they played A, B, and C.  The actors each had their own stand on the stage.  Bluets was more like slam poetry than a theatre show.  There was a story but it was essentially one long poem that was read off by three people switching off lines.  It also used something that I never seen before in theatre which is the use of cameras and screens.  There was a big screen above the actors and that was the show really.  Each actor had a camera and they would make what was being shown on the screen live.  There was a TV behind each actor to make backgrounds and also a table that had another camera on it.  As one actor read out their lines, the other actors would stand near the TV to look like they were driving or on the tube.  They would also use the table to make it look like they were holding someone’s hand in the hospital.  There were many other things the actors acted out but those were the most common.  These aren’t my own words but my friend Killian referred to it as a live film and I totally agree with that.  The show was what was on the screen with the lines being narration to what was happening.  I had truly never seen anything like this; however, I do believe Romeo and Juliet with Tom Holland also uses a screen so I know this has been done before but this is the first time I’ve seen it and it blew me away.  As for the story, I thought it was pretty good.  The show is about depression and since I don’t have depression I can’t really comment on the accuracy but the show did have this melancholic mood that conveyed the feelings of the main character very well.  The show had a lot of blue in it and the main character had an obsession with the color.  The color blue is also something that I am very interested in and seeing all the different ways the color was used and the themes it conveyed was very enjoyable.  Overall I really enjoyed Bluets and it is definitely the most unique show I have ever seen in my life.

When I learned that were going to Hampton Court Palace I was interested but as a person that isn’t a fan of monarchies I wasn’t incredibly excited and while that definitely did lower my opinion just because I don’t find seeing the way royalty lived very interesting that doesn’t mean I wasn’t able to admire the beauty of the palace.  After the very fun trip to Bath I was excited for another day trip to Hampton.  The first place I walked through was the kitchen which was bigger than most restaurant kitchens.  It was interesting to see what they ate because spices and new world crops had not reached Europe.  After that I saw a fountain that used to be a fountain of wine, sadly it was not functional anymore.  Walking through the palace I saw tons of art and I also noticed the difference in architecture within the building.  The palace had been expanded upon over time.  The palace was built in the Tudor style but later expanded in the Baroque style.  Eventually I went into a room with a set of games that would have been played at the time the palace was used and I must say those games sucked.  There was a board game and I played both sides to see how it would play. The first roll landed on an empty square, the second roll landed on a space that made you move the same number of spaces again.  I kept landing on that until I reached the end so that game only lasted two turns.  The other games I didn’t play but I read the rules and one was essentially just war and the other was incredibly boring.  The last place I went to was the gardens and they were massive. The first part was mostly open with incredibly well kept up grass, but then I went to the more garden-like area.  The gardens were absolutely amazing and just kept on going on.  I was amazed at how the gardens were kept up.  It was filled with beautiful flowers and statues all arranged very well.  I sadly wasn’t able to see all of the gardens but I got to see a large portion.  While I still am not a Royalist and seeing places like Hampton Court Palace does kind of anger me seeing how royalty lived in contrast to how peasants lived; however, the beauty of Hampton Court Palace is undeniable and the history of it was very interesting to learn.

The production of “Long Day’s Journey into Night” at the Wyndham theatre was interesting to say the least.  “Long Day’s Journey into Night” was one of the three plays we read before coming to London.  The script is great and was my favorite out of the three that we had read, so I was very excited to see it especially considering that Brian Cox would also be in the production we were seeing.  Seeing it live was incredible; however, I had some issues with it.  My issues are with the tech.  My first issue is the set, in the script the room the play takes place in is filled with stuff but in this production the room was empty.  The set wasn’t minimalistic because it was a complete unit, but it was also empty.  I understand that the set was meant to look like the house had no soul but instead the set just seemed boring to me.  The sound design was also very weird, there was this prerecorded music that played at the beginning and intermission which I didn’t really get but it was fine.  However, a short melody would play when something important happened during the play and I hated that.  It almost felt insulting, as if I as the viewer couldn’t understand the story or its themes.  Lastly, the lighting felt awkward.  The play takes place in one room at different parts of the day, so the setting never changed.  Throughout the play lights are turned off and on so there are lights that mimic the lights in that house and the placement of these lights are so weird.  They are not realistic to where actual lights would be in a house like that.  They were at awkward positions and created strange lighting.  Also at the end when the mom entered all the lights turned on suddenly and it completely blinded me.  While the tech elements weren’t that great I must say the acting was incredible.  Every actor gave a stellar performance and did incredible justice to the script.

It felt incredible to see a show in the Globe Theatre.  It didn’t really hit me in the gift shop, but once I walked into the actual theatre it immediately hit me just how amazing it was to be in this historic theatre.  I had seen pictures so nothing surprised me about the theatre itself but it was interesting to see the size of the crowd.  I had been debating with myself over if the globe would be packed or not because on the one hand it is the globe but on the other hand since they only do Shakespeare plays they will do the same show multiple times so maybe people wouldn’t go as much.  The place wasn’t completely packed, especially near the sides, but there was definitely a sizable crowd.  As for the show the first thing that caught my eye was the set which was very minimalistic.  There was a giant orange tree along the wall, two temporary railings on the pillars, and baskets of oranges around the pillars.  To say the performance exceeded my expectations would be understatement.  The actors were absolutely hilarious and made the Shakespearean text so clear.  The minimalist set worked so well because the actors used the space so well; however, I did expect that.  One thing I didn’t expect was the amount of crowd work.  There were tons of entrances and exits with the groundlings area along with many crowd interactions throughout the play.  This play very much differed from a contemporary production in America with the theatre and the set.  It also differed from how it would have been performed in Shakespeare’s day with the set and also the actors actually got into character instead of just saying the lines like they would have in Shakespeare’s day.  While there was a set it was very small which is similar to how there wouldn’t have been any set in Shakespeare’s day, another element that was similar was how the actors would talk to the audience during their soliloquies instead of just lookin out and up like most actors do now.

I really enjoyed the trip to Bath.  I found the architecture to be very interesting and the technology of the baths was incredible.  There were many places in the bath house that caught my eye like the sauna room and the collection of Roman coins.  I also found it interesting that the bath water was believed to have medicinal properties.  The thing that interested me most was that the bath house was not divided by class at all.  I didn’t expect that at all, I had expected the bath house to have multiple rooms for different classes or just not have let poor people in when it was used as a bathhouse.  I’m curious as to why it wasn’t divided by class at that time.  I didn’t get to see much of Bath so I can’t speak for the entire town but I could tell it was different from London.  The biggest difference was the size, Bath is so much smaller than London.  One thing I noticed about the architecture was that a lot of the buildings looked very similar, some buildings stood out but many looked the same and most were tan with grey roofs.  Besides seeing the Roman Baths we also got afternoon tea at the pump room which is definitely one of my favorite things that we have done.  I don’t like tea so I was mainly in it for the food but the tea was surprisingly good.  I ordered Darjeeling tea and while I still had to add milk and sugar I didn’t have to add a ton like I usually would have to make coffee or tea drinkable for me.  Onto the food, it was incredible.  I started with these little sandwiches that had salmon in one, egg in another, and the last one I can’t remember.  Next was this little pancake with something and a bit of caviar and another that I had no idea what it was but it was really good.  Next was scones with clotted cream and jam, and while they were good I didn’t think they were any better than Shawn’s homemade scones with clotted cream and jam.  Last was the desserts, there was a pistachio and blueberries tart thing, a raspberry cake, and a chocolate something.  To be perfectly honest nothing by itself was 10/10 perfect in every way the best thing was probably an 8.5/10, but all together it was amazing and as an experience it was unforgettable.