Burough Market has an entirely different vibe than Spitalfields. The pace at which crowds wander through is a bit more frenzied, a bit more rushed, and in general, more goal oriented: the goal being lunch. Everyone is hangry, and there is no time to doddle. My first stop took me to a fruit stand selling fresh-pressed juices. The cups of juice were literally sitting amidst gorgeous piles of the fruit that they were made of. I opted for watermelon, which was lovely but a little homesickness inducing. It made me think of those oppressively hot Arkansas Fourth of July’s where the day stretches on a little longer before finally giving in to the dark. Part of me wanted to be sitting in a flimsy, fold-up chair watching fireflies rather than walking through a busy street. 

            I can’t always eat adventurously because I have a gluten sensitivity (womp, womp), but one goal that I had for this trip was to find some allergen friendly fish and chips. Situated at the bend of a narrow intersection at the edge of Burough Market was the loudest, smallest fish and chips shop you’ll ever find. The words “Fish! Kitchen” glowed as an unnecessarily self-explanatory beacon in the distance. Every order was a yelled relay between cook and cashier with little reminders to help the two cooks keep-up. Yet, they still managed to get order after order out in just a couple of minutes and for the correct customer. I stood back a little to watch the rhythm of how they worked. As a barista, something about the dance that people in the food service industry do every day to get through the rush is fascinating to me. At “Fish! Kitchen” it went something like this: 

Cashier: (Looks searchingly through the crowd for customers. Asks for their order before they have too much time to think about it.) “What d’ya want, love? Wheat free, sure. You know we can’t guarantee…”

Head Cook: (Raises eyebrows imploringly. Spins. Batters a piece of fish to toss in the fryer. Looks again at cashier as if to say, “yes, and?”)

Other cook: (Spins. Fills five cups with mushy peas. Turns to check the steadily bubbling cod that the head cook has just forgotten.)

Cashier: “Gluten-free Haddock!!!” 

Head Cook: “Did you tell her that we can’t guarantee…..?!”

Cashier: (to customer) “We can’t guarantee that it’s allergen free.”

Cashier: (yells across fryer) “She said it’s okay!!!”

Head Cook: (yells back across fryer) “She said it’s okay?!”

Cashier: (yells once again with the barest hint of an eye roll across the haze of steam gathering over the fryer) “She said it was okay!!!!!”

Other cook: (Boxes orders and hands them to customers. Looks back at head cook concerned. Fills five more cardboard jars with tartar sauce. Triple checks a piece of cod in the fryer.)

Head Cook: (Listening to another order) “No! No!” 

Head Cook: (Waves hands exasperatedly like he’s in a movie theatre trying to catch the attention of a friend who snuck in late.) “No more haddock!!!”

            Both my order and the next customer’s order were taken and made within the span of about a minute with just enough time for the guy next to me to ask, “you get the haddock?” I nodded. He sighed a small sigh of defeat, or maybe resignation, and looked down at his shoes. “Looks like that was the last piece haddock,” he said, and we both stood there awkwardly until a gleaming box of fish and chips was slid across the counter. I trailed past the clatter of the fish and chips shop and towards the outer perimeter of the market. Everything was quieter here as the lunch and dinner stands were replaced by small booths of pastries. I managed to find a small stand run by the “Free From Bakehouse” that sold allergen free sweets, and snagged a slice of Victoria Sponge and Passion Fruit Cheesecake. Oh my, that Victoria Sponge did not disappoint. I don’t think I’ve ever had gluten-free cake that’s as light as that was. The fish and chips were pretty miraculous too even though I forgot to order tartar sauce. Overall, the food that I got at Burough Market was probably the best that I had on the trip. Even though I didn’t get to branch out into different cuisines, I was happy to have found some British classics that accommodated my dietary restrictions. 

Final Score

Watermelon Juice: 10/10

Fish and Chips: 8/10

Mushy Peas: indifferent

Victoria Sponge: 12/10

Passion Fruit Cheesecake: 9/10

Back again soon,

Kath

For the final days of my short time in London, the group went to Stratford-upon-Avon. The birthplace of Shakespeare. A quaint little town, and a wonderfully calm note to end the trip on. After the nearly month-long time I spent in the vibrant city of London, this quiet town was the breath of fresh air we all needed. A deep breath it was.
We saw the birthplace of good old willy (this time I mean the house, not the town), the New House (that being the house he moved to after coming back to Stratford from London), the Hathaway cottage, and even the final resting place of Will, complete with a curse (seen below). a quiet place that sleeps early, rises early, and everyone was so very nice, Stratford was genuinely an honest highlight of the trip.

Thinking back on my time, I don’t think anyone could ever be the same after going abroad. Not just to London, but anywhere far and away, a culture different from your own, a place where the unfamiliar has to be home for a little while. It is a life-changing experience. Like good old Billy Shakes, starting as the young son of a glover, and becoming history’s most famous playwright. Hell, he moved to London for a while. When he came back he bought the biggest house in town. Maybe the same might happen to me. When I get back to Arkansas maybe ill start turning heads.
more than anything else I can take away from this trip, I take a piece of wisdom I learned. Everyone is interesting but the world is much bigger than everyone, but that insignificance is not a scary thought. that difference is a wonder bigger than the universe. Travel. With whatever means you have, find a way to travel, because the world wider than your small town or city holds the keys to growth you can’t find anywhere else.

We made landfall in Stratford-upon-Avon (SuA for short) following our abridged day trip around Oxford, and several of us were understandably bushed after the long coach rides and walking around in the heat and direct sunlight. So, that first evening consisted of little else than finding food from a place that was not already closed (one of the unique challenges of a smaller town like SuA) and getting settled in at our new lodgings.

I stayed in a triple room with Braedon and Shiloh in one of three guest houses our group and chaperones were lodged in. The place was different from the hotel in London in several ways, as the “guest house” designation implies; most of those differences were actually improvements over our first lodging, in my opinion. The room I stayed in and the overall property were smaller than the hotel, which made arranging luggage in a room with three twin beds a challenge. The quality of the linens and towels seemed markedly higher in the guest house, and the room had no heater (that I could see) that could potentially heat the room like at the hotel. Despite neither place having any semblance of air conditioning, I think that the guest house was hotter that first night in SuA than any of the days at the hotel. In the guest house’s defense, that was a night immediately following an extremely warm day for the UK and, as Shiloh and I discussed while sweating like old men in a sauna, the hotel’s rooms actually had vents in them and made air circulation of the colder, outside air possible. Our guest house room only had a vent in the bathroom, making an effective cross breeze impossible without leaving the room door open (which we did do in our desperation to cool of). Finally, the quality of breakfast at the guest house far outmatched what the Royal National Hotel had to offer. The smaller venue cooked its breakfasts in smaller batches, allowing for a greater level of quality control than could be expected from the hotel, with its much larger number of guests. And yet again, this time with the giant homemade croissants, Shawn proved that his support or bragging on things related to this program should not be distrusted.

The various Shakespeare landmark stops over the two full days the group remained in SuA provided a more grounded, grassroots aspect to Shakespeare that is often lost as we interact with these stories (especially in academics) as just the stories without considering the lived experiences of the writer of said stories. Both Shakespeare’s Birthplace and the New Place museum made abundantly clear that the playwright was a well-to-do, wealthy individual, which never seemed to fit into my framework for thinking about Shakespeare. Perhaps I preferred the idea of him being a small town boy who headed out to the big city and actually made it there; a man of mostly ordinary circumstances creating extraordinary art. It certainly makes for a more inspiring role model that way.

Anne Hathaway’s Cottage had some history to offer, such as information regarding the unorthodox marriage of Anne Hathaway to William Shakespeare, who was eighteen at the time. But, to be completely honest, I got more out of the property (as well as the other Shakespeare heritage sites) in dramaturgical and aesthetic terms than I did in historic ones. These replication of traditional wattle and daub building provided me with too many reference photos to count, and the gardens attached to these buildings, whether large or small, were pretty and highly calming.

Being a smaller town with less obvious things to do and see, I did a good amount of wandering around until I found something worth looking into. Oftentimes this was done as I tagged along with a group of our program participants, such as when I tried boba tea and cream tea respectively. For the former, I would say that boba is not for me. It tasted good, but the bubbles interrupt the cycle of drinking that I find satisfying, if that makes any sense. Cream tea had a few different elements to it, namely the tea itself, and the scones and accompanying fixings. My tea selection, thinking it appropriate to be as English as possible, was Earl Grey. While it was a worthy choice for expanding my horizons, it ended up being too strong and/or bitter for me, even when I added as much milk and sugar as I gauged was appropriate. The scones took a while to reveal their appeal to me, but, after throwing caution to the wind and layering them with hefty amounts of clotted cream and strawberry jam, they proved to be delicious. I also got to polish off a slice of Queen Victoria sponge cake that Austin did not particularly like, and I found it to be excellent!

Amidst all of the wandering, experimenting with food, absorbing history, and packing up for the long day of flights on the 20th, I reflected on this trip as a whole; about the things I learned, the people I met, the high and lows, and so on. By the end of all of my reflecting I found myself with this: Deciding to spend the time and money going to the UK with this program is one of the best decisions I have ever made. The revelation of a whole new world of theatre, culture, history, and so much more made me consider and expand my possibilities for the future. The gorgeous historic buildings and sites stimulated the creative portions of my brain, and pestered me to record them to use as reference photos for future stage craft or illustration purposes. The productions, from my most favorite to least favorite, taught me what my preferences were for theatre and what I should aim for in my own dramatic endeavors. Most importantly of all, it led to me viewing myself in a new, more positive light.

I would not hesitate to recommend this program to others, whether they live theatre or could not care less about the stage. I am not exaggerating when I say that the journey is life-changing.

Today was our last museum day here in London, and we finished strong with the Victoria and Albert Museum! While I have been there before, I figured the exhibits have changed some since then, so I was exited to see it again.

The tube ride from the Russel Square stop to South Kensington was cramped and unfortunately long, and, in the interest of saving battery on my phone, I could not entertain myself with anything other than my imagination and passive listening. Overhearing Grason and Isaac talk about the things they saw and did during our stay gave me some regrets that I did not feel before then. I could have revisited certain museums, I could have bought tickets to more extra shows; I hope that I will not look back on this trip with that mindset. I accomplished much of what I set out to do, and between events being cancelled and being laid up by Covid, some of the chances I could have seized disappeared without any fault of my own. I have done a lot of new things, and gained new experiences, and I am proud and happy in those facts.

Anyway, back to the museum!

Getting to the Theatre and Performance section would have been difficult without Shawn’s knowledge of the floor plan, accrued through his several visits over the years of leading this program, I would wager. Once we all gathered at the entry of that section, we all, in typical fashion, began to absorb its contents at our pace; at the very least, I did. The first portion, closest to the entrance, consisted of costumes, photographs, and other memorabilia across the history of the Royal Academy of Dance. Dancing is a performing art that I have never gotten into at anything past the surface level; it is subsequently my weakest skill of my performer’s triangle (the other two skills being acting and singing). But I still appreciate the physical strain and full-body dexterity required to dance at a high level, let alone a decent one. I caught snippets of history about the Academy, and its timeline allowed me to better arrange in my brain the movements involved in furthering dance as a career with genuine merit, and make some inferences about the timing of similar movements in theatre.

From there onward, the exhibits covered English forms of performance (drama, film, music, circuses, etc.), with the majority of the portions covering one aspect of theatre. There was a significant costume section, another dedicated to set designs, an interactive booth for sound design and projections respectively, and others, all of which featured very famous artifacts or represented works done in the creation of famous works. While the other portions awed me or occupied my attention for a brief while, my favorite pieces were those exemplifying set and costume design in particular. Something about the sketches and renderings and scale models involved in set design, and the simple or deeply detailed representations created in costume designs, makes one feel like a grand creator, bringing beings or worlds to life with scale rules, paint sets, and cardboard (all of the set models were made out of better materials than foam core board or card stock, but the materials used do not change the feeling).

One particular model stood out to me, not because it was cerebral or revolutionary or made with unusual materials, but because I have a personal attachment to the playwright of the play the model was made for. It was a fully colored and detailed scale model used for the 1971 production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night performed by the National Theatre Company. One of my first truly good monologues that I found and prepared myself is said by the character Don Parritt in O’Neill’s play The Iceman Cometh, and my Theatre History II course with Morgan Hicks gave me more of his background information and his impact on American theatre as a whole. I must confess that I have never read Long Day’s Journey into Night all the way through, but I know enough about it to know that it is very similar to two of the required readings for this summer course: The Corn is Green and The Glass Menagerie. All three of these plays are semi-autobiographical, reflecting on the playwrights’ circumstances during their childhoods or young adulthoods All three of them follow young men as the primary characters as they navigate the barriers to their freedom; those being family for Night and Menagerie, and upbringing in a mining community for Green. Finally, all three of them, if their words are taken to the a literal extent, are set in residential spaces or homes (though how hospitable they are varies).

The Theatre and Performance section lit a creative fire in my mind, compelling me to create in the future. Unfortunately, it was so hot in that section that I would have believed it if someone told me there was an actual fire! I took my time getting everything I could out of that section, but by the end I was pretty work out, so I did not explore much of the museum after that.

After a detour where I bought some useful-looking Shakespeare books and a souvenir for a friend at the Globe Theatre’s gift shop, as well as a few hours of rest at the hotel, the group regrouped and walked over to see The Woman in Black. I knew it was supposed to be scary going in, but what I got was beyond my expectations! The way tension was built and varying levels of sound were utilized have the play an energy similar to a horror movie. The deceptively simple set allowed for some excellent shadow work, and the two actors were absolutely fantastic at slipping between their “real” selves and the characters they plaid in the haunting narrative. Like with House of Shades, I ran into an issue where certain taller shadows got cut off from view due to the balcony seating above the stalls. That aside, there was nothing I could find issue with in the production, and I would be more than happy to be involved in a staging of it later on in my lifetime.

I fully admit to this being the nontheatrical highlight of my trip, as well as being the place where I wasted the most cash. I had my full week’s worth of money when I went myself (on a Tuesday), and by the end of that day was left with 1/4 of that money remaining in my bank account…
It would be almost embarrassing if it weren’t so totally worth it.
There was so much good food, so many stalls, and so many cool clothes. I was more amazed at the even cooler people. Oh good lord and the vibe of the place. the energy was electric the whole time. The style was beautiful, and the store owners even nicer (when they weren’t desperately trying to get you to buy something.)
I bought food, snacks, jewelry, toys, and souvenirs. Had I the funds, I would have gotten a permanent mark of London in the form of a piercing or maybe even a tattoo. Camden town alone has me fully considering moving abroad to somewhere in London. Nothing could be more Me than Camden Town, and I dream of the day I get to go back.
While the city is alive in the tube, and Piccadilly circus feels a bit like a calm time square, the west end abounds with theatre after theatre, and the City sprawling with buildings scraping the sky, my people can be found in Camden. (and also maybe the west end… I’m becoming a theatre nerd… how tragic)
These almost religious revelations were actually made on my second trip to Camden Town, as the first trip was not alone and much shorter. The first trip was actually with a friend of my mother’s who live in London. Patrick Hoy was a wonderful companion and guide to London and I was happy to have his assistance more than once on my trip here to London. But I am forced to admit, the short time I spent in Camden that day was chump change to the full day from start to finish that I spent wandering around the market, making temporary friends, and utterly shattering my bank account In Camden Town.
It was a trip I will never forget.

This might be a long post as this is much closer to my forte than acting…
On the day prior to our trip to Stratford, we had the chance to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum, also known as the V&A museum.
I took that as a personal opportunity to go to every museum in the vicinity. Those being, the V&A, the Natural History Museum, and the Science Museum. When the group plan was primarily to look at art and culture, I spent most of the day actually looking at dinosaurs and spaceships.
In my opinion, it was a day very very well spent.

That being said, the primary educational purpose of the trip was based on the small and out-of-the-way theatre section of the V&A.

In that section I found a few items of particular importance to the shows I saw:
Costumes from the Lion King, Sarabi and Scar, the puppet from Warhorse, and two-stage models for Sweeney Todd (one of which was a different set with buttons for lighting cues.)
These items bring to mind several shows that I saw on my trip to London, those being Lion King, Life of Pi, and The Woman in Black. While the first connection is obvious, the other two might be a bit odd for those uninformed. For the sake of brevity, I will restrict myself to discussing just the first.

The Lion King pieces give me a chance to talk about what I consider one of the more important, but lesser discussed merits of the show. the cultural awareness and diversity. While it might be easy to just assume Lion King on stage could be as vague as the movie when it comes to culture, on the contrary, it is genuinely one of the most diversely influenced and informed shows I’ve seen thus far.
The costuming makeup, and even broader, the set, props design, lighting, and direction, take clear African inspiration and influence. It’s important to note that it does so from very specific tribes and African cultures, rather than just Africa as a whole. Furthermore, on the diversity of culture, it also has Asian, and British cultural nods, as well as the clear American touches, having come from an American blockbuster movie.

I would like to point out in particular, the design of Scar, as seen above. while the layman could potentially notice the Asian influence, one such as myself so obsessed with Japanese culture would gush at the design and recognize its roots immediately

As a whole, Scar is based upon the long-gone aristocratic samurai class, loyal to their lord, but renowned in their own right, his bone-constructed armor directly mimics some kinds of armor worn by samurai, while underscored with African patterns and color connotation. Furthermore, his mask takes the most influence from No Theatre masks, while also taking influence from broader African religious masks. If you got the chance to see it up close, one to see how the mask intentionally displays different emotions depending on the angle, much like masks in No theatre. To accentuate this, Scar’s mask is one of several in Lion king meant to articulate with a remote control hidden in the actor’s palm, allowing movement of the mask to look up and down as well as lurch forward over the actor’s face, or rest proudly back on top of the actors head. A personal favorite moment for me is scar uses this to lazily rest his (mask’s) chin upon his hands as they lean forward onto his cane, very similar to both actual lions laying about, or scar at his most sassy in the movie. It’s a particularly well-desingned piece of costuming that allows the actor to not only portray vivid emotion but heighten it to fantastically dramatic levels.

As for Sarabi, both the character and the costume are a bit simpler.

Her Shoowa-patterned garment allows billowing movement to show grace and yet strong, while also obscuring the actor’s human form in some way similar to most of the costumes in the show, allowing the suspension of disbelief and acceptance of the idea that this is a lioness. The Mask sits simply on her head very similar to the other lionesses, but hers stands slightly apart. While acting like a simple water urn balanced on their heads, hers, in particular, is shaped in a way to allow the impression of a crown or similar royal head dressing befitting the queen of pride rock. Another good detail is the expression on the mask. While the other lionesses have a separate mask/head-dress for after the death of Mufasa, complete with sorrowful look and ribbon tears flowing from the eyes, Sarabi has just one mask. it holds a calm and contemplative look, that portrays regality before Mufasa’s death, and a stoic acceptance when grieving. her tears even are able to be torn off dramatically at a later point as well, letting her return to her calm nature while yelling at Scar.

as for the War Horse puppet, it’s very interesting to see the progress made in puppets in theatre, with the titular horse almost designed in a scant and revealing way like lion king, and the contrasting recent Life of Pi taking an opposite approach of complete immersion while retaining the stylized design sensibility.

as for Sweeney Todd… I just personally love Sweeney Todd, and seeing horror theater (which was genuinely awe-inspiring as a horror fanatic) in The Woman in Black was a fantastic experience, only making me more set on seeing (and dreaming of eventually performing or producing) Sweeney Todd on stage myself.

Stratford-upon-Avon has to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. This quaint town is full of so many friendly people and so many wonderful things to do! This is also the home of THE William Shakespeare! Exploring the places where one of the greatest writers in the history of literature was such an honor. We spend so much time idolizing these people and making a grand image of them in our heads, when in reality, they were normal people.

Shakespeare’s birthplace was such a humble place and seeing it up close and personal made me think about what it must have been like when he as a child. His father was a glove maker and his mother stayed at home and kept the house. What were Shakespeare’s dreams? How hard was it for him to achieve them? We also had the pleasure of seeing where Shakespeare died. The house was no longer standing, as it was torn down in the 17^th century, but it was such a cool feeling being in a place where history was so important. We then visited the church where Shakespeare was buried.

It was such an intimate little church and was so filled with the holy spirit. I found myself just thanking God over and over again that I was even there to witness all of these amazing things. Ending our amazing study abroad trip with Stratford was wonderful. Stratford also had many other things to do that were super cute and pretty cheap! There was a ghost tour through an old pub and hotel that was so scary but really a lot of fun! There was also a butterfly garden that I was very interested in going to and loved every minute of! My final activity in Stratford was riding the big Ferris wheel with my little group of friends. It was such a simple thing, but it was so fun and meaningful. My life has forever been altered by this trip and I cannot express how much gratitude I have. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Thank you.

The Victoria and Albert museum is one of the best museums I have ever been to. I know, I have said that about every museum we have gone to, but they just keep getting better! Our assignment for this post was to find an object in the museum and relate it to a play we have seen. I knew exactly what I was going to write about the minute I saw this tiara.

It was designed in France by Rene-Jules Lalique around 1903 and is made from horn, cast glass, and enameled gold and fire opals. The tiara itself is not particularly dainty. It is a commanding piece with a strength found within it that I had to write about My Fair Lady. Cass and I saw My Fair Lady recently and absolutely loved it. It is a story about a woman who is taken from the streets and transformed into a refined woman of society. Eliza Doolittle is a cockney street girl who has a particular wit about her and is a fearsome thing to behold. She is taught to speak “correctly” by phonetics professor Henry Higgins. Higgins spends the entire musical critiquing Eliza and telling her she will never make it. Eliza eventually becomes just the woman Higgins dreamed of. She is cunning, bright, elegant, and a perfect vision of society. Higgins realizes too late he is in love with her. In the play Cass and I saw, Eliza leaves without Higgins at the end, contrary to the original ending of the musical. This was a powerful move and such a refreshing take on the complicated relationship between the two. Eliza leaving showed that she had outgrown Higgins. He had never treated her right and the changed ending didn’t feed into the toxic idea that she should still love him through it all. That is why I believe this tiara is perfect for Eliza. She is a strong and beautiful woman who is full of sharp edges and unexpected curves, much like this piece. It is a tiara fit for an independent woman who has her head on straight. It is perfect for our Eliza.  

As far as food goes, London has so many options it will make your head spin. Out of all of my food adventures in London, the weirdest and most interesting would have to be a savory pancake from My Old Dutch. When my friend Ben told me we had to go eat there, I was intrigued. A savory pancake? What could that mean? Was it meant to be eaten like a normal pancake? Was it going to be the same texture as other pancakes? Would I hate it? I had so many questions and so few answers, but I decided to just go for it. We arrived at the restaurant and I was so pleasantly surprised. It was such a cute atmosphere and there were flowers and cute little signs everywhere! The menu was huge and there were so many strange pancakes to choose from. There were sweet pancakes, savory pancakes, mini pancakes with chocolate sauce, and so many more that made my mouth water! I landed on the spinach and tomato pancake and excitedly waited for my order to come out. When it came out, it was on the absolute biggest plate I had ever seen. The pancake was HUGE. It was covered in yummy cheese, bacon, spinach, and baby tomatoes and my heart soared. The pancake wasn’t as think as American style pancakes. It felt more like a giant crepe than a pancake. It was very thin and large, so I was stumped by how I was going to even eat this. I ended up folding it over and making a kind of cone sandwich thing. The only thing I could want more from the delectable pancake was some sauce. It felt a little dry, but some hot sauce fixed that problem right up. This was definitely the most unique food experience I have ever had and I LOVED it!