Macbeth!!!

I've seen a lot of good plays here in London. Wicked included, which was amazing and fun and a musical with awesome music and singing and acting. Which is my favorite. But tonight I saw a post-apocalyptic version of Macbeth starring James McAvoy. And that was absolutely insane.

So, let me give you a little background history. Jared and I went four times to wait for day tickets for this play, because all the other tickets were sold out. They only sell 10 day tickets a day. And today, we finally got them.

In this theater, for this show, you had the stage, and then the normal audience, and then more seats where the backstage area would normally be. And we were back there. Most of the time, the actors entered and exited from behind us, marching or running down the aisle between our chunk of seats and the other.

The play started out with a bang. Literally. I didn't know it was starting, and there was this loud crash of thunder, and I jumped, and all these people in rugged, dirty, clothes with sawed-off shotguns and flashlights came up the aisle and onto the stage. It was great. And from there on, I was in awe.

Seriously. I think I watched most of the show with my mouth agape.

The lights were amazing. Lots of strobes and bright lights and some scenes with just flashlights. And the sounds were awesome. Drones and high-pitched things and, at one time, a loud, creepy radio.

I'm totally obsessed with the costumes. There were a lot of olive and brown-colored jeans, ripped-up sweaters, combat boots, and puffy, dirty vests. They were just amazing. The set was great, too. Lots of dirty chairs and dirty, shabby-looking tables and things. And the floors had grates in them.

And the grates were for the rain! Yes, it rained! A few times, rain came from the ceiling! And there was this amazing scene, where Macbeth is standing on the table, imagining Banquo's ghost, crushing plates and getting food all over the floor, and blood squirts down from the ceiling, all over him.

But at the end was the most amazing raining of all. As Macbeth is getting killed, it starts raining blood! And the blood starts pooling around Macbeth on the floor! Just imagine that for a second. It was INSANE!

And here we are, on the topic of Macbeth. James McAvoy was phenomenal. So, so, so, so, so, so good! He pulled off the language, and he knew what he was talking about, and he acted with such great emotion, and his voice sounded like it was straining, and he played crazy so well. And he did stunts, like sword/machete fight and slide down a ladder. And jump up on tables. And eat chemical potions, and hit himself in the chest, and spit all over. And fall. And throw himself backward. And run. A lot.

We had an acting class last night on how to act Shakespeare, and there were so many things we had to remember, just on how to first start reading the script. So, when I looked at James McAvoy and thought of all that, and also how he could remember all those lines, I was just blowing away. I also forgot who he was during the performance. I just thought I was watching Macbeth up there. Which is also a great sign.

The girl who played Lady Macbeth was really great, too. She played crazy super well. All of the acting was good, actually. But James McAvoy blew me away.

Oh, the Witches! I haven't talked about the Witches yet! So the Witches were these three women in freaky, scary gas masks who would come up from trap doors in the stage. It was great!

This show was such a spectacle. So incredibly amazing. And I love theater! And it's just so bittersweet, because I want to see this play again! Right now! But it's not a movie. And I can't rewatch it 17 times. So it kind of sucks. But it was totally and completely worth every second we spent waiting for tickets.

I've never loved Shakespeare so much.

                                                             Here's the poster. So cool!

Plays and Playwrights

This has been an amazing week for us and theater. Monday we saw this incredible play by Simon Stephens called "Port," which, next to "Wicked" is my most favorite play I've seen here. Or ever, actually. It was just incredible. It took place over a 14 year period, and it was about this girl's life. Her mother left her, her grandpa- who was her second home- died, and she had to live with her father who she didn't get along with and take care of her brother.

Anyway, I won't say anymore, because if you ever get the chance to see it, you have to. It's funny in some spots but it's really sad. I was tearing up a lot in the Second Act. Although there were these obnoxious people behind us that kept laughing at the saddest parts, like when the main character was being pushed around and getting stuff thrown at her by her husband. I think it was nervous laughter. That's the downside to live performances, I guess.

So, this play was great. The sets would come up from the ground or the ceiling, and the main actress, who was basically the play and was in every scene (and was so so so amazing!), would walk from one to the other and change her clothes and hair while she walked. It's too much to describe. But it was amazing. And Simon Stephens will be coming in to talk to us this semester! So I'm super excited!

Over the past weekend, we read "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches," which is probably the best play I've ever read. I had read it in my undergrad, so I was super excited to read it again. And my friends and I did a reading as we always do, and it was fantastic. So we spent like two hours in class on Monday discussing that play, which I really, really enjoyed. Read that play. It's incredible. Absolutely and incredibly incredible. 

Tuesday was another great day. Our professor for our Film Analysis class is a pretty well-known playwright here. Her name is Rebecca Lenkiewicz, and we saw one of her plays, a scary adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw." She already gave us each a published script book of that. And then yesterday, she pulls out an analogy of four of her play scripts that was just published. She signed one for each of us, and it's ours to keep, which is incredible! And for our assignment, we have to adapt a scene from one of her plays into a screenplay. She's going to give us her own feedback on it, so that we can actually get practical advice, not hypothetical. So I'm super excited for that! And for my new book of scripts.

Today, our screenwriting professor and head of the department here, Mark, brought in this playwright/screenwriter named James Phillips. He's pretty young, and is sort of this up-and-comer, but actually gets a ton of work, as it seems. He started out as an actor, but directed his first play here when he was 23. Which is unbelievable.

One day he randomly decided to write a script, and it ended up being produced and winning a few awards. And now he gets comissioned to write plays, and he's written TV and short films, and has written a feature he's hoping to get made. In the course of our talk, he mentioned at least three plays he'd just been commissioned to write. He was really interesting, and he was so great to listen to, because he actually likes writing.

He told us some really good advice. One thing he said was to enjoy writing. He said it's so easy not to enjoy writing scripts when it's your living, and the process can make you pretty stressed out. But don't be stressed out. Enjoy it. And if people make you angry or stressed out, walk away. Even if there's money involved. Just leave. He also said don't be afraid. Creative people make mistakes all the time because they're afraid. So don't be.

At one point when he was talking, he mentioned how he can't write without thinking, and he spends months thinking about what he's going to write, years sometimes, before actually starting. Brandon looked at me, and he said that I'm the opposite way. And Mark said, "Stacy can't think without writing." Which I think has to be the most accurate statement anyone has ever said about me.

Seriously. It's so much easier for me to express myself when I'm writing, rather than talking. And I just thought it was great he said that. Because I realized that it's so incredibly true.

This week has made me realize that I really would love to be a playwright if the opportunity came up. Obviously I love movies and TV, but plays are great, too. And it reminded me that when I first applied to this program, I applied because it was writing for the stage and screen. And I guess I had forgotten about the whole stage part until recently. So, I'm really grateful to be taking these classes and writing a play and seeing amazing shows and meeting all these incredible playwrights.

Because you never know. Maybe some day I'll be a big, famous playwright living in London.

Spring!!!!

Tuesday it was spring here in London. And it was amazing.

We haven't had spring in the UP in so long, I had forgotten how amazing it is. But it was 57 degrees, and everyone was out in the park with t-shirts on, and I sat on a park bench between three red British phone booths and wrote my screenplay outline.

Then, Charles, Jared, and I went to play frisbee in a park called Torrington Square, and it was packed with people. And we went the whole time without hitting anybody. It was so beautiful. It was sunny, and flowers were blooming, and it smelled like spring. It was, by far, the most lovely day we've ever had here in London.

I really hope it gets like that again. But, like the UP, there's one day of spring, and then it's 30. But I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I finally bought some rainboots yesterday, after talking about buying them since January. I've been dealing with sopping socks for so long, I finally broke down. So I bought some rainboots, which they call Wellies. Which is the cutest thing ever. My receipt-- advice slip-- said, "Wellies."

So, school is great. We've finally started writing our features and our one act plays, so I'm super excited about that. We had a master acting class Thursday night, and we got to learn acting from a British actress, Emily Bruni. We learned about the 7 stages of stress which are: neutral, California, shock, suspicion, farse, tragedy, and catatonic. We had to see what our body did in every stage, and then we did improv with it. It's hard to explain, but it was really fun.

So, yeah, it's been great. The classes have been really interesting, and I've been writing so much over the past two days!

We're on a mission to get day tickets for "MacBath" starring James McAvoy, so hopefully that will happen next week. We spent three days trying, and no dice. So, fingers crossed for that, too.

Anyway, that's about it for now.

Bye from London!

I Love London Something Fierce.

I know I haven't blogged in a while. I just haven't had time.

And by "a while" I mean forever. And by "haven't had time" I mean I juts haven't. Because I'm too busy. Because I love Europe.

London is INCREDIBLE. Incredible. Seriously. I feel so at home here. I LOVE it. LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

We do so much walking. We walk everywhere. Which is great, because I despise driving. And there's always something going on. We have to choose what to do, which is something I've never had to worry about before.

So, yeah. London is great. So great.

And I've been to Paris, which was beautiful and sparkly.

And I've been to Rome, which was pretty and historic and there were ruins everywhere. It was amazing! Mike came over and we went on a trip there, and we walked like 20 miles a day on the craziest cobblestone I've ever seen. And it was great and fantastic!

But I was so happy to get back to London!

I love it here!

And, oh yeah, I'm in school. So I've been doing a bit of writing. Lots of outlining and planning and character outlining, but some writing  of scenes, too. Which is great. I'm so excited to finally start writing my feature, which is what we'll be doing soon. We're also going to be writing a one act play.

We've been watching a lot of movies, too. We get an allowance to see movies for this one class. It's been good.

Anyway, my classes are great and I'm learning a ton. So, yeah. It's basically been the best thing ever.

I'll try to update more, but I'm a little busy. I'm keeping a journal though, so I can always go back and write that up. Type it. Cause it is written already.

But anyway, yeah. That's me. That's what's happening.

Ciao.