St. Pauls

13 May 2011

Friday we have finally begun to get into the swing of things. The tube is no longer confusing (except when changing through many lines), the beauty of London has not become less substantial, but more a reality. Today we had a fairly busy schedule with seeing St. Paul's Cathedral and a backstage tour of the National theatre (the place we saw The Cherry Orchard in two days prior) and then of course a show in the evening, again at the National though this one was called The Holy Rosenbergs. 

To be honest, today was not a day I was all that looking forward to, St. Paul's sounded nice, but I was not very attached to the idea and seeing a backstage tour hardly held any sort of interest for me; that was until we actually begun the day (though isn't that how it always is?).

However, upon walking into St. Paul's it was as if I was blown away by the just utter grand divinite in the very building. I am not one to place that sort of reverence on stone and brick, but in this case it seemed almost necessary. There was something holy about the church. During my last visit I was not able to see St. Paul's (though I could not remember why) and I am glad that I got to go this time. 

It was jam packed with people (as many places have been), but even with all of the hustle and bustle you could still feel almost unique in the space. In the back of the church there was an area given and built to honor the United States help during World War II. I am not the sort of person to bang her fist and declare my patriotism (though I do enjoy being an American), but standing in front of the memorial (where there was an area left of the shrapnel that had landed in the church during the Blitz) I felt a sort of pride or in the very least camaraderie.

The actual building is filled with memorials, many to war heroes, but also to locals and even musicians, writers, and poets. No one has been buried there since 1937, though ashes now are allowed to be placed and are still being placed to this day. The shining moment as we walked through the crypt was walking through and realizing, as I looked down, I was standing on J.M.W Turner, an artist that I highly admire. There is something amazing about knowing just under foot (LITERALLY) a man is buried that just recently you were looking at his work and enjoying it. 

I could have spent hours in that church, the reverence was moving and it was calming in a busy schedule; unfortunately a busy schedule was exactly what we had and after a few moments to sit and enjoy the domed ceiling mosaics it was time to move on. 

The backstage tour scheduled at the National was again, not something I was looking forward too, but as our guide took us through the building I was floored and equally impressed by the work that was done there. They have a main work station area that was full of props and people and things that were finished as well as in progress for upcoming shows. It was actually really interesting to see how they worked together with the same space even with multiple shows going on. 

It turns out that at the National the actors get six weeks of rehearsal and if they are lucky they get two dress rehearsals. This meant nothing to me, but listening to Cat and some of the other theater design majors this turned out to be an odd thing indeed. Apparently in America it is more traditional to only get three weeks of rehearsal and then a week of dress, which is obviously different then what they were receiving. The crowning moment (for the time) was walking in to watch a dress rehearsal of an upcoming show One man, Two Guvnors and as we watched a man came onto the stage that I leaned over to Cat because I was fairly sure I recognized. 

Sure enough as we left the rehearsal our guide informed us that our suspicions were correct, James Corden was in the production. James Corden, for those of you who are not familiar with him, is a British actor from most notably (in America) the movie The History Boys. He's not very well known, but Cat and I are big fans and to realize he was only feet away was insanely exciting. Only, it turns out, that wasn't going to be our only sighting for the evening. 

As the tour drew to a close we had about an hour to kill before the play started and we began to wander around the bookshop. It was a nice space and had quite a few interesting reads that I toyed with buying. While looking at one in particular I felt someone step close up and glanced, only to take a double look. The man was quite undeniable another actor (though at the time I thought he was only a model) that I am a fan of; rushing as subtlety as I could to where Cat was looking at a different book I told her to double check, and sure enough...it was Eddie Redmayne. As we were trying our hardest not to geek out I'm pretty sure he noticed our trying not to geek out and when we looked up to see him again he was gone. I like to think I'm not easily star struck, but that was fairly amazing and even now I can't get over the fact I saw two famous faces in one day!

Which is not to say that the show was not amazing. The Holy Rosenbergs by Ryan Craig was actually fascinating and quite moving. It focused on a family both torn apart and forced together because of the Gaza conflict, his daughter part of the UN's report, and his son--killed in the war--on the side of the Israelites. The father merely trying to hold together his family but quite unable too. The seats were terrible, but the inter-workings and the poignancy of the emotions was so heartfelt. I had been vaguely aware of the Gaza situation (it was hard to miss) but until those moments I was not quite aware of the effect it had on people not actually there.

Tower Hill

11 May 2011

It has been a pretty busy week, which is part of the reason why I haven't been constant with blogging, that and our internet is shoddy at best. It cannot handle 11 students on it all at the same time, which is what tends to happen. We return from our busy days and all want to just relax on our computers, but if we all do, it bogs down the network (or this is what the house manager Fabio stated during that first meeting). 

In a nutshell this week has been walking a ton, seeing areas of London I have never even imagined, and watching a lot of shows. Like a lot of shows. One every night since Wednesday.

Tower of London being protected by a metal bowman.

Wednesday started with a class meeting going over our itinerary for the day and discussing the Tower of London (which we would shortly be going off too) and the show that we would be seeing that evening, The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov. Going through the tube, we got on the Piccadilly line to Tower Hill (appropriately named) to come out of the station with the menacing old castle spanning across the horizon. This was not the first time I have seen the Tower of London, and I do hope it is not that last (there is always still so much to see there, I feel), but every time I love just looking up at it, realizing the immense history that oozes from it's very stones. Weddings, funerals, tortures, beheadings; the Norman Tower is a place of tragedy as well as awe. 

We saw the crown jewels first, which were ridiculously expensive and hugely sparkly (yes, sparkly); nearly every surface was covered with some sort of precious stone or metal. I also learned that the fur ring around many of the royal crowns and robes is actually hundreds of tails of the rodent ermine. It is a special breed that is albino and the only spot of color they have is the little black dot at the end of their tail. They are extremely rare and hard to come by, so having so many of those black dots implies wealth and prestige because one can afford the luxury.

A guard at his post where the Crown Jewels are kept.

Finishing up our tour of the crown jewels we were left to wander around the area (which is quite large, as you can imagine) and a gentleman came up to us in costume that proceed to act in character of a warden of the prison as if it were 1614 (I believe). It came to pass that one of our group was decidedly visiting Sir Walter Raleigh, a prisoner there, for the tobacco that he was growing in the gardens of the prison (because he paid enough money to be allowed to grow tobacco). He was fairly amazing, almost seamlessly playing the part of a 17th century prison warden and being a fabulous guide in letting us know where the exhibits were. He and Cat were improv'ing which brought up a pretty fantastic blunder in which he asked if we were from the "Colonies" and how difficult it must be for us to live with the "red-skin savages"; her response "we should have let them keep their country" which left our guide speechless. 

It was both humorous and eye opening. In the States we are all aware that what we did to the Native American's was terrible, but as American's we forget that while much of it was going on we were still under British rule; and [particularly] while that man was playing in character they would not have seen it as wrong. His pause reminded--me at least--that our views are not all encompassing. 

The Real Diagon Alley as seen by "muggles".

After a longer chat and some wandering around the Tower a bit more it was time to go on a walk about London. It lead us to a very special area that was used in the Harry Potter and the Philosopher (Sorcerers) Stone movie. Diagon Alley was quite beautiful, the shops nearly as fantastical as one would imagine in the books themselves. The most wonderful part was the contrast with the newer buildings so close by; they fit together quite nicely but with Diagon Alley looking so classical and renessicence in conjunction with the tall metalic city-scape it was quite an experience. 

After a very quick dinner, we were off to the National Theater to see The Cherry Orchard where we had to cross a rather large bridge at night. Now I don't have many height problems, but I do suffer from a combination of agoraphobia and anablephobia; it's not specifically either one of them, but I cannot handle the wide open sky and tall things shooting up into the air.  The combination of the two makes me nauseous, light headed and extremely anxious and the bridge we crossed had all the right components to give me a start. It was a very long walk over the bridge but I managed to make my way.

An example (this is not London) of what would set off my phobia.

The Cherry Orchard was not what I was expecting, but I did enjoy it. The premise was a family where the mother, who has been abroad, comes back home to Russia because the cherry orchard they own can no longer be kept up and they must either pay their debts or it will be auctioned off. It is set right before the Russian Revolution and there are many illusions to what will soon be happening because of it. 

Now, tonight I will not be going on about it, but the National Theater is becoming one of my personal favorite places because of the sightings that have so far happened there. Luckily we have another show that will be previewed there and in the next few days Cat and I are planning on on seeing a different one that opens up next week. But more on all that in my next post, for tonight I must sleep and hopefully catch up the rest of my days tomorrow!