Hello from London!!!
My name is
Alicia Roles I am a third year student at St. Scholastica. I am studying
Exercise Physiology and plan on doing my doctorate in Physical Therapy. I also
dabble in the theatre department at CSS and have been in a few productions. I
have always wanted to study abroad and that is a difficult thing to accomplish
as a science major. When the London trip showed up I was immediately excited to
go -- it was both travel and theatre, what an awesome way to spend winter break!
Our morning
started off with a split of the groups. Being in the theatre group, we started
our morning at 9:45 to travel to Sloane Square for a script analysis workshop
at the Royal Court Theatre. With today being the London Tube's 150th
anniversary, we appropriately traveled via tube to our destination this
morning. The first thing we saw after
coming out of the Tube station was a public toilet. This particular toilet allows you to do your
business for only 50 pence. Insert your
money and the door will open, allowing you to use the facilities for 20
minutes. However, it would be in your
best interest to finish before 20 minutes is up otherwise you become exposed to
everyone when the door reopens!
We began our
tour in the larger theatre of the Royal Court, seating 400 people. The seats
here were the most comfortable seats I have found in a theatre, this may be due
to their design being based on a 1950's Chevy. We learned about how the
Royal Court Theatre runs and I found it most interesting that they perform only
new shows. This allows the literary department of the theatre to receive and
read 3500 to 4000 scripts a year to consider for productions. This means that
members of the literary department could read up to 1000 scripts in a year. The
shows make their way through a selection process where shows are set aside or
moved forward.
The last
stage of this process is called a script meeting. In this meeting three shows
are discussed a week. Those in attendance include an associate director,
producer, visual director and others. All those in attendance would have read
the scripts in consideration and they then discuss them in the meeting. These
meetings ultimately lead to the decision to produce a show or to set it aside.
Our workshop
also allowed us to work through a particular script that is up for
consideration. We had our own script meeting discussing our thoughts on a
particular script. We used the same “grading sheet” that those at the Royal
Court use. This sheet provides options for grading that include immediate
production, production with revisions, meeting with the writer, a rehearsed
reading, a flat out “no” and also “over my dead body”. What was surprising was
that the opinions of the script were all over the board. Although no one chose
“over my dead body” in the rating process.
Me, Becca, Caitlin and Deanna getting a glimpse of the sun after
the Royal Court workshop for only the third time the whole trip!! J
Following our workshop the theatre
group had free time until Richard III in the evening. A group of us decided to
head to Pret a Manger, one of our favorite spots for lunch. It was here that we
met up with Dan because he is lost without his theatre friends... poor
Dan. We all had a bite to eat and then
wrapped up our afternoon with some shopping.
Tonight we attended our last play in
London, Richard III, at the Apollo Theatre.
The theatre was beautiful, with four levels of seating and intricate
painting and woodwork it was like sitting in a piece of art. With our seats up in the clouds, we had a
birds eye view of the show. This
particular rendering of Richard III was performed true to the way it would have
been done when first introduced, with all male actors and proper costumes to
the time period. While the show was not
my favorite, it was still an insightful experience allowing me to feel like I
had stepped back into time.
Caitie, Me, Becca and Deanna
at our performance of Richard III.
That’s it from London for me!
Toodle-ooo everyone!!
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