DAY 2

Class:

We recapped “A Winter’s Tale” from last night, namely the directorial decisions that Mendes made. We mentioned the importance of time in the play, as exemplified by the ticking clocks and Leontes’ constantly annunciating the word time. The placement of the intermission, as well, was an important directorial decision. Mendes ended the first act after Time’s speech with a beautiful image of Perdita and Florizel holding hands at center stage, and doubled the Shephard as the character Time. This flowed well and eliminated what we thought might be a tedious extra character. The very ending of the play stood out as well, as it seemed Hermione may not have forgiven Leontes completely.

Additionally, we discussed Time and the Conways by JB Priestly, which we will be seeing tonight at the Lyttelton Theater. Priestly’s reputation is to write a fairly ordinary play with a curve ball thrown in, and director Rupert Goold is a young English director who is well-known for his innovative changes to play endings. It should be an interesting show.

Tour: The National Theater

We went on a tour of The National Theater building, which includes three total theaters: the Cottesloe (small black box), the Lyttelton (medium sized theater with proscenium, seats about 800), and the Olivier (largest round theater modeled after Epidorus theater, seats about 1200).

Group outside the National Theater

Over 75% of the costumes, props, and sets are made in-house for all shows performed at the National Theater, so we got to see the wood and metal shops where this happens. Unfortunately photos were not allowed. After our tour, our witty English tourguide took a quick bow, and we dispersed until the evening.

Show: Time and the Conways at the Lyttleton Theater

The show was in three acts: the first set in 1918, the second in 1937, and the third back in 1918. All action happens in one room of the Conway house, and Priestly attempts to make a statement on the flow of time in a family’s history. Regardless of the message of the play, most would agree that this was one of the most technically advance plays we’ve ever seen: the powerful images that ended each of the three acts were extremely memorable. The company tonight seemed to gel better than the the company did last night, as it seemed they had been interacting with each other for years. More on this tomorrow, after our guest lecture with Paul Ready.

The opening scene of Time and the Conways at the Lyttelton Theater.

Quote of the day: “Oh. I thought she used a gerrand.” -Nate Brown

DAY 1

Tour: Covent Garden and the Surrounding Area

After checking in at Langdon Close (below), we hopped on the Tube (The British Subway) for our first taste of London.

A typical dorm at Langdon Close

Professor Clum led us on a Guided Tour of Covent Garden and surrounding areas, which included the Covent Garden Market, Royal Opera House, St. Paul’s Church (aka The Actor’s Church). We walked across to the South Bank, where we learned the John Clum criteria for a space to be considered an official city: 1. It must be on a river or sizeable body of water. 2. You don’t have to drive to get around. Durham, it turns out, is not a city by either account.

Clum means business

Professor Clum leading our tour.

Blue or green plaques around the city mark the spots where famous people have lived.

Trafalgar Square

Class:

We started with the very basics. We decided that theater is built around acting, and we continued to attempt to answer the following pregnant questions:

-Why do actors and acting fascinate us?

-What makes a great play?

-What are the challenges unique to theater as opposed to other arts?

While we will continue to answer these questions over the next two weeks, we made some good progress in class.

Additionally, we talked about the different theater cultures in London and in New York. Professor Clum informed us of the many advantages London theater has over Broadway– the more comfortable, thought-inducing spaces; the national funding and consequently cheaper prices; the philosophy that drama is taken seriously as something other than entertainment.

Show: The Winter’s Tale at The Old Vic.

After a delicious dinner at ‘Tas’, we walked to our first show at the Old Vic. The Old Vic Theater, formerly the site of the National Theater Company, is a bit smaller and more cramped than most theaters in London. Nevertheless, the lavish interior and ornate moldings made it a great place to see a show, and we will get to go back on Wednesday to see “The Cherry Orchard.”

Professor Clum waiting for us at the Old Vic.

“The Winter’s Tale” and “The Cherry Orchard” are actually part of a Sam Mendes and Kevin Spacey’s project Bridge Project, in which an American company and a British company were combined to form a sort of all-star cast, which will perform Shakespeare and Chekov on consecutive nights. Thus, we saw “The Winter’s Tale” tonight, and we will be seeing the exact same cast in “The Cherry Orchard” on Wednesday. Professor Clum even thinks the set will be the same (at least for the first scene). You can read more about the Bridge Project here: http://www.oldvictheatre.com/whatson.php?id=47

I will, for the most part, refrain from offering any critical commentary on the plays. Yet I think everyone agreed that Simon Russell Beale gave an incredible performance as Leontes, starting with tangible jealousy in the very first scene of the play. His jealous, maniacal performance in Act I gave way to a remorseful one in Act II, when he somehow managed to gain the sympathy of the audience despite his earlier evil doings. Ethan Hawke’s performance was at the very least memorable, and he showed off his linguistic abilities by switching in and out of multiple accents throughout. More to come after our class discussion tomorrow.

Autolycus's (Ethan Hawke) entrance

Quote of the day: ‘When directing a new play, treat it like it’s a Classic. When directing a classic, treat it like it’s a new play.’ -Clum

WELCOME

Hello there, and welcome to the MALS London 2009 blog. This informative, succinct blog will serve a two-fold purpose:

1) To reflect upon our experiences in the classroom, theater, and in London over the next two weeks.

2) To get our parents/family to stop annoying us for updates.

The Blogmaster

My name is Dan Lerman, and I have been appointed the blogger for our class. My blogging resume is very lengthy and impressive, culminating in my receiving the ‘Blogger of the Year’ Award in 1978… so, yeah, I know what I’m doing. In the mean time, expect daily updates on our lectures with Professor John Clum, impartial accounts of the productions we see, and various other observations about London-town itself. The high-quality photos are taken by Nate Brown, and the low-quality ones are taken by myself (the iPhone camera is discrete, but not so great). If you have any questions or comments, please email me at LermSlice@gmail.com.

Cheers,

DML