The past week!

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I meant to start blogging over a week ago... I've much to catch up on!

I arrived at BADA after a half-day of flying, waiting at JFK airport, flying some more, and getting through immigration at Heathrow. I met up with a few other students at BADA, among them Parrott - the first familiar face I had seen in a day. BADA transported us to our flats. I met my roommate, James, as well as other SP students at and nearby the flats. Spent the remainder of the day getting organized and getting to know the other BADA kids.

Not much of interest Saturday other than wandering with Rachel and Parrott toward Piccadilly Circus - to find a wonderful show called The 39 Steps. Went back to the Landward to gather a few other friends and managed to get student rush tickets for 12 pounds each. Celebrated Parrott's birthday at a nearby pub (by the name of St. James... a name I don't normally associate with a half-pint of London Pride!) and enjoyed the show thoroughly - it's slapstick based on the Hitchcock film (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026029/). On our way back from the show we walked through Hyde Park and passed an event called BBC Proms, whch every seemingly everyone in London attended.

Sunday was orientation, which began with a bus tour of the city. Our tour guide was a former cop with a lovely sense of humor who knew more about London than I could ever imagine knowing about Painesville or Saratoga Springs. We saw all the essential sites: Tower & London Bridges, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, and got a general overview of the city. The rest of orientation was led by Stewie, operator of the Landward, and Michael Dobson, academic chair of SP.

Monday introduced classes to my London life. They are:

-Shakespeare's Tragedies (M 10-1) with Boika Sokolova. We'll be looking at Titus Andronicus, Richard II, Macbeth, Coriolanus, and Othello.
-Acting Styles: Comedy (Tu 11-1; Th 11:30-1:30) with John Jones. We're working on monologues now, but will also look at The Beaux Strategem, The Importance of Being Earnest, among other texts.
-Sheakespeare's Contemporaries (Tu 2-5) with Nigel Gearing. We'll work with the plays of Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, among others.
-Theater and Culture (W 11:30-1; Th 2-4) with Christopher Cook. We start with Ibsen and the shift into theater as we see it today and will look at works of Strindberg, Beckett, Sartre, Albee, and all those other amazing playwrights of the late 19th and 20th centuries.
-Acting Shakespeare (W 2-6) with Eunice Roberts. We work with sonnets, Twelfth Night, Henry IV Part I, and Macbeth.
-Dramatic Criticism (Th 9-11) with Christopher Cook. We see a show each week (courtesy of BADA) and discuss it in class, and keep a journal of all things performance, theater, etc. Our show this week was The Merchant of Venice at The Globe; we saw it as groundlings, so that was a new experience.

So Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are a bit crazy but I get Fridays off...! I used my first Friday getting my life in order a little (orgaizing papers, homework, seeing more of London than I had seen before) and going to Soho with friends. I hope to spend other Fridays going to Greenwich, Oxford, and other fun and exciting locations nearby and far away (I must start planning my Paris holiday...)

Which brings us to today! I'm seeing The Bacchae featuring Alan Cumming and Subway with my flat. A bunch of us planned on seeing the former Thursday, but only half of us could get tickets. The half who saw it loved it, so I'm excited.

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