It's been a long time...

Blake here!

So...it's been over a week since our last post and there has been a ton of stuff keeping us from blogging. Here's a brief breakdown:

Thursday/Friday/Saturday: Internship work. A lot of internship work. Office stuff, working from home, being in the theatre, etc.

Sunday: Valentine's Day. Spent traveling to Exeter to help manage a Live Canon show called Valentines and Verse. It was a really interesting show with love poems and songs, followed by a dinner at the theatre's restaurant. At this dinner, guests could order a poem, and an actor would go to their tables and perform them. It was remarkably cheesy, but well-received and a great way to spend the day.

Live Canon presents
Valentines and Verse
Directed by Helen Eastman
Following the success of Pimms & Poetry, Live Canon return to celebrate Valentine’s Day with the best of English love poetry. Featuring live a capella music, sparkling performances and the poetry of John Donne, Thomas Moore, William Shakespeare, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Emily Dickenson, Christina Rossetti, William Blake, Vita Sackville West and others, this is a fantastic way to hear, see and experience poetry.
A special Valentines Menu is available pre-show, or dine with us post-show and order a poem to be performed at your table.
“What an extraordinary art form poetry is, and what justice Live Canon does to it!” EXTRA, EXTRA
http://www.livecanon.com/

Monday: Class followed by Sister Act: The Musical. I went by myself to this one while Sara worked, but it was a blast! Imagine the movie we all love rewritten to be a Broadway spectacular. The show ended with a 30 foot tall, disco ball Virgin Mary. I loved it.

Tuesday: Class again followed by Les Miserables. After paying an arm and a leg for student tickets (which are the cheapest full view seats) we landed in the fourth row for this classic musical. Sara was not really a fan, and I was slightly bored, but I could definitely see the appeal and was blown away by several scenes in the show. Also...we cast Marlowe! So we are off and rolling on that production.

Wednesday: A trip to the Imperial War Museum for class. It was really interesting to see how England displays its war history. It is definitely not the "look what we did" attitude of the U.S. which was refreshing. It took a historical approach with well crafted exhibits and really showed the impact of war on culture and society. One of the most interesting things was the amount of children there. This week was half-term break for young people here and flocks of them went with parents and grandparents to all the museums in town. We had a long discussion about their presence at the war museum, a little concerned that the displays of tanks and guns may be glorifying war in their minds, while really trying hard to make adults see the history. Something to think about...

Thursday: After a very short run to my intern office, I had a glorious free night. I practiced up for what was to come on Friday...

Friday: The Rocky Horror Picture Show!!! After working in the office and rehearsing all day, I literally ran home (grabbing McDonald's on the way) to get ready for Rocky. I quickly transformed myself into what would be called a "butch Columbia" (one of the characters from the show). Once I was all made up, we ran to the tube (in full costume) and made it to the theatre in plenty of time to mingle with the other crazies. One woman actually gave me a hat to wear with my costume, which I gratefully accepted. So...the premise of a live Rocky Horror is yelling things at the screen during the movie. I'm going to count this one as "Theatre Seen and Done" because it really was an event. Well, apparently the good people in London do not obsess over the movie as I do, so I ended up (with help from my roommate Jeremy) providing almost all of the audience participation. I had a British girl ask me to take a picture with her because she thought I was a "legend" for knowing the movie so well. I even think Sara liked it (at least a little). I can't wait to do it again!!!

Blake and Sara with friends Jeremy and Mollee at the Rocky Horror Picture Show! We had a blast!

Saturday: I took a car trip to Chipping Norton. It may have been the quaintest place I have been to in my life. While there, we browsed in a local market, found a wonderful local restaurant, and took some time to explore.

This is the Chipping Norton Theatre. The entire city was lines and lines of this style of old hillside buildings.

I stumbled across some truly amazing scenery. This beautiful church was just down the road from the theatre, completely hidden by trees until you are right up on it.

We were here to perform the children's show Pick 'n' Myths. I am stage manager for this show through my internship, so I was responsible for moving into and preparing the space, finding and looking after props, and keeping the actors comfy. The show was great with about 40 kids with their parents and grandparents clapping and singing along.

This is the set--imagine 40 people sitting on the floor and chairs while three actors tell stories from Greek mythology and play music to accompany.

The show will be travelling a few other places while I am here, so I will revisit it shortly.

As you can see, I have been very, very busy. There is no reason why it should ever be this long between posts again. So look for another soon.

Cheers!