6 weeks in -- Finally here!

Hello everyone!

When I first came to London at the beginning of September, I told myself I would start a blog both for my own benefit of documenting my experiences, and also to let everyone back in the states know of my happenings across the pond. However, when I did arrive, I was completely thrown into settling into life in London, getting acquainted with the other students on my program, and getting used to the rigorous schedule laid down by my school here. Now, six weeks in and after much request from friends and family from home, I have finally began a blog! Since I am going to be here until at least April, better late then never right? At first I was extremely opposed to the idea, as I felt documenting my experience would be much better actually written down in a journal or something similar, but I have no time for that either. So, here I am, and here you are. Hopefully. Hey there.

For those of you who do not know, I am studying at the British American Drama Academy, a conservatory-style actor training program which specializes in training students from colleges in American in Shakespearean, classical acting. The program is either a semester or year-long, and I have decided to do the year-long track, much to the dismay of the money Gods high above. However, I have made it work, and I am here! There are 42 other students on the program. From what I was told, about 150 people applied auditioned and 43 of us got in, which is kind of exciting. There are kids here from all over the country, from Los Angeles, to Seattle, to Dallas, to Chicago, to New York, To Philadelphia, to Maine to Montana -- everywhere you can think of. I have had an absolutely amazing time so far getting to know each and every one of them. The way the program is set up, we are broken up into three groups of fifteen, and we take all of our classes together with the other 14 in our group. This is huge aspect of the program, learning to work as an ensemble and learning to trust all others in your group, as you would in a cast for a show or something of the like. When you trust all of those in your group, you are able to go places you might not be able to in your classes, pushing yourself places you otherwise might not feel comfortable. When you trust your group, you know they wont judge you as you work as an actor and as a performer, which is extremely important.

We are on an extremely rigorous program, 5 days a week, 9-6 every day. We are taking eight classes all together -- Shakespearean Acting, Voice, Movement, High Comedy (Learning about the Restoration period and style of comedy, very different from the comedy of today), Stage Combat, Theatre History, Dramatic Criticism, and Modern Physical (more modern day comedy, and mask work). All of the classes are absolutely amazing, and I feel myself learning so much from each of them every day. The teachers really are masters of their craft -- directors, actors, and professors who have been a part of the theatre world for decades. The style of teaching, at least as far as the theatre goes, is much different here then in the states. Very complicated to explain -- just different. It has been amazing learning about acting and the power of theatre from a whole new perspective.

Another pretty amazing part of the program is that BADA takes us to see shows every week, an extremely important part of being a theatre student. With school so far I have seen some pretty phenomenal shows, unlike anything I have ever seen. So far they have been:

Lolita, with Brian Cox
Troilus and Cressida, at the Old Globe Theatre
Mother Courage and Her Children, with Fiona Shaw
All's Well that End's Well
A Winter's Tale (In Stratford-Upon-Avon, with the Royal Shakespeare Company!)
Judgment Day
Inherit the Wind, with Kevin Spacey (more on this in a bit)
Enron (about the Enron scandal, extremely fascinating from a British perspective)

Also, I have also been spending all of my money on theatre tickets as opposed to other unnecessary things such as food and living expenses. These shows have been:

Breakfast at Tiffany's, with Anna Friel (from Pushing Daisies)
Calendar Girls
A Streetcar Named Desire, with Rachel Weisz
Vanya, a modern-day adaption of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, extremely brilliant

The theatre in London is on a whole new level then in a states. There is no way to compare the two, they are just different. Everything here I have seen has been absolutely phenomenal in its own way.

Whew. I am tired. I think this is all I can write for now. I just wanted to get the basics down. Getting six weeks in in one post is difficult, but I promise to write much more and way more often, to flesh more things out and get more of the experience down for anyone who is willing to listen. Now that I am here, now that I feel like a true Londoner, writing I feel will be much, much easier and much more often.

The absolute basic basic: I am having an absolutely amazing time. I find myself changing so much as an actor, and as a person, since I have been here. The change only continues every day. London is truly an amazing city, and it has opened my eyes to so much theatre-wise, and world-wise. I hope I discipline myself to write about what I experience here, because it is one of the most important experiences I have had thus far in my life, and will be for the rest of my life.

Talk to you all soon!!!

Here are some pictures thus far. The beautiful pictures of the park are the path I walk every day to get to school, a 45 minutes walk, but very lovely! The ones of us holding tickers are when we got up at 6 am to buys the last tickets to see Rachel Weisz in A Streetcar Named Desire. Hands down the best thing I have seen so far. Also, Anna Freil in Breakfast at Tiffany's. The last is when we took a day trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon, and saw where Shakespeare was born and raised. It was amazing. Enjoy!