The GoGlobal Blog

Author: Taylor Lach

Taylor Lach is a Sophomore Theatre Major and Musical Theatre/Studio Art double minor at Loyola. From the bustling Chicago suburb of Orland Park, she embraced the opportunity to study in London after hearing about the London Dramatic Academy available to theatre students at Loyola. Honored to have been accepted, she hopes you enjoy her adventure as much and she expects to! Cheers!
“There’s a great big hunk of world down there with no fence around it!”

“There’s a great big hunk of world down there with no fence around it!”

-Lady and the Tramp (1955)

Swooning from Shakespeare's sonnets..."Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
Swooning from Shakespeare’s sonnets…”Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

This week, London Dramatic Academy was bomBARDed with Shakespeare. Get it? BARD. Hah.

On Wednesday, we were treated to a performance of Cymbeline at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (an indoor version of Shakespeare’s own Globe Theatre). First of all, the space was incredible! It was a thrust stage with audience on the ground standing in front of the stage, and then two tiers of seating in a U-formation around that. The back half was backstage, but the balcony held musicians-two cellists, a drummer, a violinist. Entirely lit by candles, it was gorgeous! The chandeliers had the ability to lower or raise from the stage so that the scene could be set in a dark or light room. And, in the scene where Jupiter appears in Posthumus’s dream, a HUGE gust of wind blew from the tiring house, extinguishing the candles in a flurry of smoke and wind. Then, Jupiter descended from a hole in the ceiling. It was absolutely fabulous. I didn’t know much about the play itself-other than that it has one of Shakespeare’s most convoluted plots-but the actors made sure to keep the audience constantly engaged and on track. They rolled with the funny bits, played up the cheesy scenes, and threw themselves into emotion when it was called for. One audience member’s phone rang during a scene that was supposed to be sneaky, and the actor onstage turned to the audience and shushed them, “Turn that thing off!” Everyone cracked up! It was hilarious. OH! And guess who played Cymbeline himself! Anyone a “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” fan? Geoffrey, the butler, played him! Joseph Marcell! Once the students noticed that, our attention to the play was turned up to 100. He did smashingly!

NEXT, we went to Stratford-upon-Avon! Shakespeare’s birthplace and home town. We woke up super early on Saturday to take a train down there for the Matinee showing of Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Company. (RSC) Despite almost missing the train because I was getting coffee…(HEY, a girl’s gotta get her caffeine fix!)…the ride was simple and quick. When we stepped out of the station upon arrival, I felt like I was on some sort of movie set! No building was over two or three stories high, everything was walkable, the streets were intermixed with cobblestone sidewalks, 400-year old buildings, Starbucks, outdoor market stalls, and tourists! My professor called it “Bard-Land” because most of the pubs, restaurants and stores are named after Shakespeare’s characters. (Personally, I’d avoid “Iago’s Jewelers”, but that’s just me.) In the center, the Avon river (which translates to “River river”) intersects a beautiful green park. On the far end of the park, rising out of the greenery, is the ugliest brown building in the whole town-The RSC! But, hey. It’s what’s on the inside that matters when it comes to theatres. We visited Shakespeare’s church, where he WAS christened and IS buried! (with a CURSE on his coffin should anyone disturb it!) We saw his schoolhouse, his daughter’s home, and his house! It was so strange to see that old, crumbly building and think…’The man who wrote KING LEAR was a baby running around in diapers RIGHT THERE.’ Madness.

The show we saw at the RSC was a FOUR HOUR production of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark. So, picture everything you’ve ever thought of about Hamlet (even if that is just The Lion King) and THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW. The director decided to set THIS Hamlet in a undisclosed West-African location. That lack of specificity upset a lot of my classmates, understandably, but as I’ve stated in my blogs before-I go to the theatre to FEEL things, not to analyze their cultural authenticity. To me, it seemed like they made up their own fantasy location to include lots of interesting, beautiful, and fun West African elements. The color scheme, beautifully patterned warm kente cloth, the insane percussionists, the ritual battle at the end with sticks and wrestling instead of a swordfight….I was transported into their world. Even if that world doesn’t exist in real life. The man who played Hamlet (first black Hamlet ever at the RSC by the way!), Paapa Essiedu, embraced Hamlets feigned madness by splattering paint all over and laughing and sassing. It was an exciting approach to a character that’s usually taken so obviously dark. This way, Essiedu’s moral dilemmas were at much higher stakes because we, as an audience, could see how much he was struggling. Visually, as well as physically, he embodied madness by smearing himself with paint and feigning giddiness. Then, when he took off the facade and confided directly with the audience in his soliloquies, we could see how much inner pain he was going through and therefore the outward display made sense. ….OK, now I’M not sure if any of what I just wrote is understandable…but trust me! Hamlet KILLED IT. (Spoiler!) I enjoyed the production THOROUGHLY. I can’t believe I sat through four hours of it…it MUST’ve been good!

Well, anyway. Now that I’ve returned from Bard-Land, I definitely think I have a new appreciation for the intricacy and genius that are Shakespeare’s works. To see the very town that cultivated this guy’s mind blew my own. I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE walked these streets. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE stood by this river. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE learned about Julius Caesar in THAT ROOM RIGHT THERE. Then he wrote an ICONIC PLAY about it! GOSH. WILL I EVER GET USED TO THIS?! Nope. I don’t want to. I love traveling. I’m learning that there’s so much out there that you didn’t even know would benefit you from seeing until after you’ve learned your lesson from it.

Until next time!

xoxo

Taylor

“I will fly, chase the wind and touch the sky!”

“I will fly, chase the wind and touch the sky!”

I could've lain there forever...
I could’ve lain there forever…

-Brave (2012)

What better than a quote from a Scottish Disney movie to preface my Scottish adventures last weekend?

Once again fleeing from the bustle of London, me and two friends hitched a bus ride to Edinburgh, Scotland last weekend. The bus was the whole day Friday, (10 hours!!), but it was the most scenic, sheep-filled bus ride I’d ever been on! It went by in a snap! The best part (besides the sheep) was when we got really close to Edinburgh and began to see the North Sea over the cliffs we drove on. ABSOLUTELY beautiful. I really felt like I was in some sort of fantasy land.

The most fantastical place- and that’s saying something for SCOTLAND- was the hike up and view from Arthur’s Seat in the center of Edinburgh. We woke up and got to the base of the dormant volcano by 9AM so we could beat the rain (and the crowd!). It’s strange to see such a bare, green mountain rising out of a completely urban area, but Arthur’s seat is higher than any of the buildings, so you can always see it. As we began our trek up, the wind grew stronger and colder, but the effort of scaling the uneven stone steps warmed us up good. There were a few paths up to the top, but we chose the steepest and quickest because we were anxious to reach the top. (And honestly, I wanted to act like Merida from Brave and climb up rather than walk up!) Every time we reached a valley on the way up, the wind created a tunnel and the breath would be knocked out of us, but we all lost our breath completely when we rounded the last peak. The views were like nothing I had ever seen before! You can see what I saw in the picture above, but the feeling of the cold, damp wind blowing off the North Sea cooling the sweat off my face after the climb was downright marvelous. I felt like if I put my arms out, I’d fly away! I understood the sentiment of the song from Brave, corny as that sounds, but I really was touching the sky! And I wanted to RUN for some reason; I wanted to spin and laugh and jump and RUN! The air up there was different, it was invigorating-like an applause at the end of a show. When you’re on stage and all you can do is look out and beam into the expansive space before you. That’s what it was! After all this time in the city and getting only stolen moments in secluded gardens, a taste of nature like this was much needed.

After we scaled our way down the mountain (just as it began to rain!), we headed to our walking tour at the Royal Mile. That’s the main street in the old part of Edinburgh, which means cobblestones, billions of shops and pubs, small alleys, a cemetery, a church, and a castle (no biggie). On the tour, which had a guide from America (lol, of course), we learned about the spooky past of Edinburgh. Robert Louis Stevenson was inspired by a local man, Deacon Brodie, for his book “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” The writer of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was born in Edinburgh! Also, the Heart of Midlothian, a small mosaic heart on the ground outside St. Giles’ Cathedral. Because this marks the spot of an old prison/tax collection house, people have been SPITTING on this heart as they walk by for hundreds of years! Of course, I couldn’t look at the thing without gagging from the nasty spit all over it, but it was a cool tidbit of history! Our guide told us of capitol punishment in Edinburgh and how fond the Scottish were of hangings. We stood on the spot of the gallows and discussed many interesting serial killer/wrongly accused/famous hanging stories. Then, we went to Greyfriar’s Cemetery just off the Royal Mile. Cemeteries in Scotland are less sacred places than they are public parks. People picnic, read, sleep, and even just hang out in them! One woman who may sound familiar even wrote quite a bit of her novel series in Greyfriar’s Cemetery…one J. K. Rowling! She must have been inspired by her surroundings as well, because names like McGonagall, Moody, and TOM RIDDLE can be found on gravestones around Greyfriars. And the situation of Edinburgh Castle perched on the cliffside of a dormant volcano just might have inspired another castle perched on a cliffside- Hogwarts! I was incredibly honored to be standing in the same place of a woman who has touched so many lives through her work!

All in all, Edinburgh gave me, Maddy, and Jen a weekend away from the neverending rush that is London. Edinburgh is the one place I’ve visited that really stood out to me as a place where I could live one day! I felt so comfortable there, so welcome, and it had everything that I love! (Hiking, a city, nearby suburbs, a harbor, happy people, Scottish accents, sheep,

I could've lain there forever...
I could’ve lain there forever…

etc) Maybe I’m just longing for the forest preserve back home… Either way, I LOVED Edinburgh, Scotland. It was magical, and friendly, and spooky, and exciting, and relaxing-ALL AT ONCE! Such an astonishing city…I’m really going to miss it.

And now, I quote the song from Brave that was stuck in my head the whole weekend and can actually say that Edinburgh is really like this!!-

“When the cold wind’s a a-calling
And the sky is clear and bright
Misty mountains sing and beckon,
Lead me out into the light

I will ride, I will fly
Chase the wind and touch the sky
I will fly
Chase the wind and touch the sky

Where dark woods hide secrets
And mountains are fierce and bold
Deep waters hold reflections
Of times lost long ago

I will hear their every story
Take hold of my own dream
Be as strong as the seas are stormy
And proud as an eagle’s scream…”

I know this is lame, laugh all you want, but I felt the magic of Scotland when I was in Edinburgh, and I really REALLY want to go back and experience it more!

GAH. Okay, I’ve embarrassed myself enough, off to bed! Goodnight and goodbye my friends!

xoxo

Taylor

“I want adventure in the great wide somewhere!”

“I want adventure in the great wide somewhere!”

Amsterdam has some PRETTY BIG shoes to fill!Beauty and the Beast (1991)

…and I got it in Amsterdam this past weekend!

Okay, it wasn’t great and wide, the streets and canals were actually quite narrow…but it was an adventure!

After one of the most stressful weeks in the history of stressful weeks, (I’m sure I’ll top it soon) me and four friends packed our bags and headed to Amsterdam!…on an overnight Megabus….which stopped halfway through the night to get on a ferry across the English Channel….and then back on another Megabus…But eventually we got there! What I’m getting at here is that travelling is hard. There were many points during that busride that I imagined how much easier it would’ve been to stay home and remain cocooned in a nice warm bed. Even once we arrived in Amsterdam, since it was about 5 degrees and the line for the Anne Frank House was outdoors for two hours, I continued to dream about getting back home to the familiar and comfy. I couldn’t feel my toes!

This was my sentiment as I stepped into the Anne Frank House…and it quickly dissolved. I had heard of Anne Frank, sure, everyone has. I even read some excerpts from her diary! But until you climb the steep staircase after staircase, clamber up behind the bookshelf, and breathe in the dank air of Anne’s attic, you don’t understand her story. All along the journey up to the secret rooms, the museum was decorated with images and videos of the family and those that helped conceal them. They had interviews with people who had known the Franks before they went into hiding, and some who had met them in the concentration camps they were eventually sent to. When we finished climbing the third narrow staircase, we were led through a secret entrance that opened up into two rooms. These two small rooms plus the kitchen around the corner were all that Anne and her family knew for two whole years. Quotes from Anne’s diary line the walls, “I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know that I am free, and yet I can’t let it show…” “During the day our curtains can’t be opened, not even an inch!” This fourteen-year-old girl was locked in an Annex for two years of her life in constant fear of being caught and killed an I was whining about one uncomfortable night aboard a Megabus! She was a hero. But the thing that struck me most about Anne’s house was her bedroom. There were magazine pictures, postcards, and images from newspapers of celebrities, babies, models, and animals glued to her walls! She was just a regular teenager who wanted to decorate her room with pretty things! I found that so interesting. And kind of adorable. This girl who has been created by the world to be such a legend…liked to tape up pictures of cute couples and puppies next to her bed!

At the end of the tour, a video was shown about how Anne’s story has affected people and pop culture and society. They showed a short clip of John Green reading from his book, The Fault in Our Stars, which has a scene set in the Anne Frank House.  At the end of one of the rooms in the house was a book with the names of all those killed in the Holocaust from the Netherlands. He wrote, “The book was turned to the page with Anne Frank’s name, but what got me about it was the fact that right beneath her name there were four Aron Franks. FOUR. Four Aron Franks without museums, without historical markers, without anyone to mourn them. I silently resolved to remember and pray for the four Aron Franks as long as I was around.” That hit me hardest about the tour. Seeing that book. And seeing the four Arons and the pages and pages of names of people we don’t know. But those peoples’ stories are just as valid as Anne’s, but they just didn’t leave a diary for us to remember them by. I don’t know what to say about it other than that…but I haven’t been able to get that book with all those names out of my head.

Amsterdam doesn’t have a sense of time. The streets are always packed. The pubs? Always packed. The museums? Packed. Market? Packed. Red light district? (YEAH, I AM SURPRISED I WENT TOO.) Packed night and day. It’s crazy! It was fun, of course, because my roomie Chisom and I people-watched the HECK out of that city. We wandered and shopped and art-galleried and ate food and thrifted and had a relaxing, fabulous time. Bikes EVERYWHERE. And if you see something that looks too narrow for a car to fit through…joke’s on you-a car is definitely about to come down that road. Or a Vespa. I’m also pretty proud that I didn’t fall into a canal from all the upward-gazing I did! Amsterdam was something out of a movie. At night, it was even more glorious! Streetlamps glittering along the canals, smoke wafting out of the Coffeehouses, water lapping against the boats, crowds murmuring along the alleys…It was such a sensuous experience! I’m gonna miss that city…

It was JUST as challenging to get home on the overnight Megabus, but this time as I sat in my cramped seat and tried in vain to get comfortable…I remembered all that I learned at the Anne Frank House and thought of those four Aron Franks who don’t get museums. And instead of grumbling into my makeshift pillow, I decided to pray for them.

 

“A day spent with you is my favorite day…”

“A day spent with you is my favorite day…”

“So, today is my new favorite day!”-Winnie the Pooh

 

HEY PEOPLE OF THE INTERNET!! Remember me? Yeah, I know. I’ve been slackin’. It’s been crazy these past few weeks, but I’ll catch up. I’m about to wow you with my MID-SEMESTER BREAK ADVENTURES.

Okay, so first of all, I was blessed with the arrival of three of the most wonderful women on the planet- My BEAUTIFUL mother and her two FAB friends Ann and Carole. (I liked to refer to them all as my MOMS) I had been counting down the days until they finally arrived. When the day finally arrived, I bolted from class, hopped on the 28 bus, and scurried into their Holiday Inn as quickly as I could! Seeing them here, seeing my MOM in LONDON, was just so surreal! This place, which had been so disconnected from home, was being combined and finally everything seemed perfect! I knew what I’d been missing this whole time, why London was amazing, but not perfect: I needed my family and friends here! So, if you haven’t picked up on what I’m suggesting it’s this: GET YO BUTTS OVER HERE PEOPLE, I MISS YOU ALL AND I NEED TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU. xoxo, Gossip Taylor.

I felt so proud of this temporary home as I led the ladies throughout London. We took a bus tour (VERY COLD), but it was amazing to see the city all at once-how all these historical and iconic landmarks are blocks from one another! We went through Kensington Gardens, Kensington Palace, the Borough Market, the Tower Bridge (and London Bridge), the Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Harrod’s, we saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace…GOSH. We knocked it all out in three days! We were EXHAUSTED. The legendary free breakfast at the Holiday Inn was a godsend, though. (THOSE CHEESE PACKS, AMIRIGHTLADIES?!) And sneaking around the hotel was fun since we would have to pay extra for me to stay. Gosh, I wish I could go into more detail of what we did….let’s add a few bits:

We slummed it “off the beaten path” (ANN) and ate with the locals at pubs all over London! We became a part of the secret of the London whodunnit “The Mousetrap.” We stopped at almost every Starbucks in London(Free wifi!). We went to Hillsong’s London church which was BEAUTIFUL. We walked like 8 miles each day. We saw Billy Elliot! We got killer souvenirs for the fam back home. We got nasty paella from the market…We took FUN pictures with silly poses and gestures! We only got lost a few times…GOSH it was amazing. I hope you ladies had as beautiful a time as I did.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL. We went to PARIS for half of the week, too! Let me detail our arrival for comic relief. We took the high speed train to Paris. We bought a Paris Pass on the train to get us into museums and on the bus tour. We got off the train. We had to walk with our luggage to pick up our Paris Pass at the check-in point. The check-in point was like 10 blocks away. We DRAGGED our luggage to the check-in point. We got our Paris Pass. We dragged our luggage 5 more blocks to the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour. We took the tour around with our luggage. Once we saw everything-PARIS IS BEAUTIFUL- it started to drizzle, so we decided to get a cab to our hotel. We hopped off the bus in front of Notre Dame. It started to POUR SLEET AND RAIN AND SNOW. This was a STORM. We had our luggage. And, thank goodness, some rain ponchos. We ran in the billowing sleet across the steps of Notre Dame dragging our luggage through the cobblestone and puddles toward the nearest cluster of cabs. I remember squinting up through the rain at the breathtaking facade of the Cathedral thinking-“I am NEVER going to forget this moment.” That madness is the kind of madness that only happens this this crazy bunch of ladies! It was hilarious! And when we finally got a cab and got into the hotel, the rain and snow had stopped!

Anyway, Paris was so elegant. We popped into the nearest restaurant that evening and had a great time chatting with the manager, Mina. He was very proud of his English translation of the menu that he had recently completed! The dinner was like nothing I’d ever eaten. Like Lumiere says in Beauty and the Beast, “After all, miss, this is France and a dinner here is never second best!” We got churros (of all things) from a market down the street for dessert and then prepared ourselves for the next day, which was MY favorite day of the whole break!!

DISNEYLAND PARIS.

I’m not gonna go into it because I’ll discuss it for years, so if you want to know about it specifically, call me. Let’s just say: it was MAGICAL. My heart is pounding just thinking about it, I have to wrap this up!

The last day was spent in Versailles, France! The Palace of Versailles was built on the outskirts of Paris by King Louis XIV as a way to keep his visitors in a sort of ‘guilded cage’ while discussing affairs of state or even just while popping in for leisure. The whole palace is built in a sort of radiating design from the center room-the King’s chambers. See, Louis was pretty full of himself and called himself the Sun King. He basically believed that Apollo was the most powerful and important Greek god because he controlled the sun and everything relies on the sun and rotates around the sun and needs the sun to exist. Yeah. He thought he was that important. So, the whole palace and the gardens around it are representative of that idea-SUNS EVERYWHERE. The place was UNREAL. It was so ornate and guilded and decorated to the very last detail, I couldn’t believe someone lived there! I took a class that focused a lot on the details of Versailles at Loyola (HONR102 heeyyy), so it was crazy to see all the information I’d studied at school IN PERSON.

I was so heartbroken to see my ladies go on Saturday morning, but it was the very best week of my life! I regret not a minute of it! (except maybe the part where I was travel guide…XD) My Mom, Ann, Carole, you were all the perfect adventure companions. I don’t know how I could ever thank you all enough for such a fantastic experience!! Like Carole said on our last night- “Same time, same place, ten years?” I don’t know how I got so lucky to have such a wonderful Mom that she’d let me do all this, but I’ll spend the rest of forever trying to deserve her! I love you three! I miss you like crazy, but I’ll be home soon!

 

(CHEMIN VERT)

 

xoxo

Taylor

“Happiness is a state of mind! It’s just according to the way you look at things.”

“Happiness is a state of mind! It’s just according to the way you look at things.”

-Walt Disney

A sign to my immediate right said: "Please don't touch the water."
A sign to my immediate right said: “Please don’t touch the water.” So, I guess you could call me a rebel.

I’m writing hot off the heels of my Dramatic Criticism class, where weekly, us students get together with our instructor to painstakingly point out all the flaws in every piece of theatre we see. I find it hard to take part in this class because it’s SO much easier to nit pick personal dislikes than it is to appreciate a certain director or actor or designer’s personal vision for a play. I know they’re just opinions…and I know we’re supposed to be critical (not mean!)…but if we artists don’t defend each other, who will?

So, that’s why the title is what it is! Just enjoy theatre, feel what you feel, if you go into the show wanting to find something wrong with it…well that’s just no fun at all!

ENOUGH! Let me tell you about my adventures this week now!

So, this weekend me and my roommates went on a guided bus tour to Stonehenge and Bath! (So, I guess you can say we got stoned and took a bath…..sorry. Okay, I had to. Stop. I thought it was funny!) On the way to Stonehenge we passed miles and miles of  beautiful farmland separated by hedgerows and stone walls! The whole place really looked like a giant green patchwork quilt. The air was so fresh I could’ve bottled it and sold it to Chinese people who spend their lives breathing in smog! (MAXWELL.) Anyways, this is the crazy thing about Stonehenge…it was constructed between 3000 and 2000 BCE by prehistoric tribes of people. We don’t know WHY. The two types of rock used for the monument were blue stone and sarsen stone. The sarsen stone was dragged from 20 MILES AWAY. DRAGGED. BY PEOPLE. THESE 30-TON SLABS OF STONE. And the blue stone was taken from 3 miles away! WHY on EARTH did they drag these things all the way to THIS spot?? It blows my mind. And the blue stone is volcanic rock so it’s slightly warmer than the sarsen stone. The blue stone is in the inner circle of the formation, so scholars suggest this was a place of healing. Oh, what’s even more remarkable-The arrangement of stones matches up with the solar calendar AND the lunar calendar. (Yeah, big deal, Taylor, they can see the sun and moon, what’s so impressive?) WELL, voices in my head-People in that time lived only to be about 20. The lunar calendar is 18.5 years. Do you know how intelligent these prehistoric people had to be in order to track the movement of the moon over generations and then BUILD a giant stone structure that perfectly aligned with it? SO INTELLIGENT. I have one explanation:

 

ALIENS.

 

Okay, I’m kidding. (OR AM I) But seriously, though, how did they do it? This kind of mystery is so fascinating!!

 

After my mindblowing Stonehenge experience, our chipper tour guide, Alice, corralled the group on to the bus. From Stonehenge, it was another winding road through the countryside (past a LOT of sheepies!) to Bath! The best thing about Bath (besides how it has the only natural hot spring in the UK) are their building regulations! Since historic Bath was built with nearby quarries’ limestone, all new projects must use the architectural style and materials of historic Bath! That way, the whole town looks like this amazing, synchronized civilization! Tall, thin, yellowish buildings nestled in the valley emerged as the bus rounded the last hill. Rows upon rows of them became more detailed as we got closer, revealing the subtle differences and quirks in each. The cobblestone roads shined in the rain when we arrived, making the whole town look like a movie set. We toured the Roman Baths, which was a Roman temple and bathhouse built around an ancient hot spring. It was beautiful to see the hot water making mist in the cold winter air…I could imagine the allure of such a place before central heating became a thing. We all got to taste the water, too, which supposedly heals people because of it’s obnoxious mineral content. (Let’s be real, though, it tasted like pennies and playground equipment-and my sore throat was the opposite of healed!) But hey, it’s fun to pretend! After that, of course, we headed to the local Lush and bought ourselves a couple Bath bath bombs! (They’re bubbling concentrated soap bars that fizz in your bath to make one feel super fancy whilst you marinate in your own person soup-incredibly necessary after a long day in the rain.)

Alrighty, friends-that’s all I’ve got for you today! (PS- I SAW RALPH FIENNES IN THE MASTER BUILDER AT THE OLD VIC AND I CAN’T WAIT TO TELL MY FUTURE CHILDREN THAT I SAW VOLDEMORT PERFORM IN PERSON AND MY LIGHTNING BOLT SCAR DIDN’T EVEN BURN OKAY RANT OVER.)

Okay my mother and my two other favorite women are coming to grace me with their presence tomorrow and I MUST go to bed now so that the day comes sooner! SO FAREWELL! I can’t wait to fill you all in after my mid-semester break adventures!

Cheers!

Taylor

 

“Sometimes the right path is not the easy one…”

“Sometimes the right path is not the easy one…”

-Grandmother Willow, Pocahontas

Especially when that path is through a wall on your way to Hogwarts!
Especially when that path is through a wall on your way to Hogwarts!

Hello family and friends!!

I know it’s been a while, but time moves differently when you’ve got 9AM-6PM classes every day and a strong affiliation for napping.

I’m here to fill you in on some of my adventures that I’ve painstakingly wedged in around all the hard schoolwork we’ve been up to here at LDA. But, Grandmother Willow said it right up there- the right path…ain’t always easy, folks. (Is anyone else catching on that all my titles are Disney quotes? I thought that was super clever…)

So, last Thursday I saw the most INTERESTING piece of theatre I’ve seen in my entire life. Okay, so the audience is seated on steep bleachers and the stage is on the floor in front of them. The ENTIRE place is pitch black the whole show…EXCEPT what handheld lighting equipment the actors used to tell the story. It kind of reminded me of Tron. Like, lasers and beams of light showing hallways and doors. Oh, did I mention there was no dialogue? No SPOKEN dialogue. It was sort of comic-booky because there was a monitor that scrolled one line of text at a time on the wall behind the performers. The dialogue wasn’t even that important, though, because the story was being told through meticulous, nuanced movement and LIGHT. Gosh, it was clever. It was about a future where the entire population is equipped with chips in their brains that allows for constant communication, but constant surveillance by the government. There’s a resistance movement to it, and the main character is charged with crushing the uprising, but he finds out that he may empathize more with their cause. He’s given the choice, then, to betray the government and take them down from the inside, or to crush the rebellion like he’s told. It was inspired, apparently, by the Edward Snowden scandal. (The lead’s name is literally Dearden.) It was called “Light” and it won some stuff at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year.  It underlined the importance all the LaCoq movement work we’ve been doing.

What else…I went to the Vaults (a spooky underground music/party venue) for a Valentine’s Day Ball! My roommates and I dressed up and danced all night to weird folk and jazz bands. Everyone was decked out in “fancy dress” which is what the English call costumes. Some people went ALL out and had fur and masks and feathers, they looked fantastic! I felt like I was conjuring demons with like wiccan as we spun around throwing glitter and feathers. Wait, no! I know what it was like! It was like the nightlife of the Renaissance Faire back home! Like, if those people had a club, it would be like this. Gosh, it was cool. Alexa even did a love potion spell with this lady dressed as an owl!

I ALSO went to the worlds GREATEST outdoor marketplace. It’s called the Borough Market and it’s in the heart of London, but it’s full of foreign cheeses, wines, fruits, veggies, pates, fish, meats, pastries, breads, oils, sweets, candies, and anything else you could possibly imagine. Now, when I picture heaven, that’s what I think it’s gonna be like. Food everywhere. And everyone wants you to try their food! They just leave little trays of it out on the counter and you can walk up and eat as much as you want! and the SMELLS. Oh my GOODNESS. You’re hit with warm cider brewing, then you turn and get sharp smell of cheese, then crisp baked bread… then garlicky oils…then meat pies! I can’t emphasize my love for this place enough! I’m taking my mom and friends when they visit for spring break for SURE.

WELL, I had quite a few adventures this week, but they weren’t easy to cram in to my busy schedule. Sitting here reminiscing has reminded me how important it is to push through the exhaustion and hit these fun and exciting experiences. Sometimes I just have to stop and remember WHERE I am! LONDON. How could I possibly nap in a place like this? With all these experiences and places open for me?! Oh, I’m just getting started. A week from tomorrow marks my mother’s arrival and the beginning of mid-semester break. Let the adventure continue!!

Cheers!

Taylor

Just Keep Swimming!

Just Keep Swimming!

-Dory, “Finding Nemo” (2003)

It was harder to get on his back than I thought...
It was harder to get on his back than I thought…

Picture this: You’re sitting in a well-lit, white room. It is large, about the size of a high school classroom. The windows are large bay windows that open inward and let in a lot of light, but there are also florescent lights on the ceiling. the floor is a grey, smooth, plastic dance floor. Backpacks, coats, shoes, and chairs are stacked to one corner near the door. You’re a college drama student, and you’re sitting crosslegged on the floor. In front of you, eight of  your fellow students strut about, pretending to be various zoo animals (complete with sound effects). You think…

This.

Is.

Amazing.

SO, there you go! That’s what I did yesterday, how about you? … Okay, before my parents catch on and stop funding my education, let me explain WHY we were acting like animals. I mentioned in earlier posts how PHYSICAL this program at LDA is: how we have Movement, Physical Theatre, Acting, Stage Combat, and Stretch Yoga on top of all our other classes. It turns out, performance is a pretty PHYSICAL, bodily endeavor. It’s not just about voices and facial expression; every move you make and your relation to space and others in the space tells a story. A line of men at the front of the room staring at the audience means something completely different than that same line at the back of the room facing away. How are you able to tell a young woman’s walk from an old man’s? Or a timid person versus a relaxed, comfortable person? Ursula said it best, people- “Body language!!!”

So, in Physical Theatre, I learned about the neutral mask and how the body has eight stages of tension. Each stage of tension communicates a different emotion and state of being for the character, and it also has the ability to affect the audience. When you’re watching a really suspenseful film and a woman is hiding, breathing shallowly, and has her eyes wide and darting, don’t you get a little anxious yourself? These stages of tension range from utter relaxation (amoeba) all the way to complete anxiety (catatonic). One can’t stay in catatonic long, or the terror is hard to break out of. (That’s how powerful body language can be!)

In Movement, which is my favorite and least favorite class all at once, my body is literally pushed to the limit. We find our body’s momentum and weight and learn to use it to move in and around space creatively in this class. I’m making it sound like a dance class, but in reality, we don’t learn routines, we MAKE them in the moment. One exercise we did today were these rolls across the floor that resembled somersaults, but we had to straighten our legs as they swung over our head so we could catch our momentum on our toes and slide back onto our tummies. It’s really hard to explain, but we do things like that-weird cartwheels, frogjumps, starfish rolls, handstands, and lots of creative jumps and turns across space. It’s really fun, but really frustrating at times when you want to keep working and just nail a move, but your body is just exhausted.

That brings us to the animal exercise! OKAY, so in Acting, we were broken into groups and assigned plays and characters that we’ll be playing for the midterm presentation. I got Top Girls, by Caryl Churchill, and my character’s name is Patient Griselda. (I’m not going to bother trying to explain Churchill’s complicated structure, but it’s quite a read so I recommend it!) Anyway, we learned that each character has a specific plane and pattern of movement that endures through the scene. The specific term for what we did was Laban Movement Analysis; it’s this way of annotating and recording dances and ballets, but it works for actors as we try to understand our characters! My character has a sort of gliding movement pattern, she’s light, flexible and sustained in her personality and her actions. Our teacher, Kathryn Pogson, told us that a great way to see exaggerated examples of these Movement forms was to head over to the London Zoo and find an animal that exhibited these traits. And YES, OF COURSE we all acted out the animal movements right in front of the enclosures so that EVERYONE around knew how crazy acting students are. But it really did help!! It’s amazing! I found a White-Naped Mangabey Monkey who reminded me so much of Griselda, and upon acting like the monkey in class, I feel like I got a better sense of the way Griselda carries herself! (And let’s be real, it was super fun to crouch and flit about like a monkey all day.)

So, before you go make any assumptions about how weird acting school is, remember that all this insanity is for a purpose! My sore biceps and hyper-awareness of posture will lend to character building and performance. It’s only week four, but I can already see how each of these classes are lending important tools to my actor toolbelt. I’m dead-tired and incredibly sore, but I see and feel myself getting stronger and stronger each class.  I’m confident that by the end of this, I’ll be eager to get onstage and show you all what I’ve learned…right after I’ve taken a four month nap!

Cheers!

Taylor

Today’s Special Moments are Tomorrow’s Memories.

Today’s Special Moments are Tomorrow’s Memories.

-Genie, Aladdin (1992)

Will I ever upload a flattering photo? The answer is no. These are way more fun.
Will I ever upload a flattering photo? The answer is no. These are way more fun.

I  type this as I rock out to my Disney Jams playlist with my roommates, feeling like I could take on the world because I’m in LONDON. (Okay, maybe I’m the only one rocking out, but we all do feel pretty awesome.)

The reason I’m in such high spirits may have a small bit to do with Saturday’s class trip to Brighton, United Kingdom. It’s this charming, bustling, hip beach town in southern England. Picture the setting for a British Nicholas Sparks novel. Pebbled beach, colorful lanes of cafes on a cobblestone road, an entertainment pier…BOOM. That’s Brighton! It started as this little fishing town back before the US was even an idea, and King George III (Y’kn

ow, Mad King George? The one who wouldn’t let Washington’s dreams come true?) had a son who didn’t know what to do with his time. So, he decided to take over an apartment complex in the middle of town and make it into a fabulous beach getaway palace. George, Prince of Wales, sort of built the world’s first Epcot, with a palace inspired by Chinese culture and stables inspired by Indian culture! The inside of the Royal Pavilion was floor to ceiling dragons, gold, and Chinese porcelain. George was great at hosting parties and even better at eating; he once had his French chef prepare a feast with 100 courses! He had the kitchens built close to the Great Hall so he could take his guests on tours of the huge facilities. Kitchens were commonly in separate buildings in case of fires, but George was a glutton for gluttony and wanted his friends and guests to know! It’s assumed his obsession with being a sort of “emperor of the world” at this time of Britain’s great power may explain his desire to create a Chinese/Indian-style summer home. Unfortunately, he was such a restless designer and architect that he only visited the finished product three times before his death. Some say it’s the journey and not the destination, anyways, am I right?

OKAY, there’s my informative section, now on to the fun stuff: My evening in Brighton. So, after our teacher set us loose on the beaches, we intelligent adults took off our shoes and socks and sprinted across the ice-cold pebbles into the waves. Of course, the waves came up to meet us (VERY QUICKLY) and we all were soaked to the knees in frozen sea-water…but it was SO worth it! We all became instantly giddy; running, jumping, splashing, spinning, singing, and looking generally like Disney Princesses. Don’t worry. A lot of it has been documented in photo AND video form so others can enjoy our little episode. After about a half an hour, most of us realized we couldn’t feel our feet and figured the pebbles and shells could be tearing into them, so we dried off, warmed up, and basked in the sunset for a while. Then, we went to the entertainment pier where some of my fellow classmates were crazy enough to go on huge roller coasters. It was amazing, they were being suspended 100-feet in the air above the ocean! I didn’t have the guts to spend four pounds on getting my guts thrown around, but they seemed to have fun! The class split up and took over Brighton’s nightlife after that, invading dive bars, themed bars, Australian bars with pantsless Rugby Teams (from whom we learned a number of interesting drinking games), and dance clubs. Everyone we met was so interested to hear about where we came from, they were helpful, excited, and generally cheerful. I REALLY loved the Brighton vibe. I’ll DEFINITELY be going back, (maybe when Mom comes to visit?)

Well, ANYWAY, I had a KILLER time in Brighton. Touring the Royal Pavilion was AMAZING and really showed off the insane wealth and influence of historical England. I really got close to my friends here, and we all got a chance to just unwind and act like little kids after a very stressful week . (Which is a favorite pastime of mine: acting like a kid.) Next week, I’ll go into detail about all the interesting theatre I’ve been seeing here, just so you don’t think I’m spending all my time frolicking about. 😉

 

Cheers!

Taylor

You’re weird. But I like you.

You’re weird. But I like you.

-A Bug’s Life (1998)

We're mad. Entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret: All the best people are!
We’re mad. Entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret: All the best people are!

Hello once again from my cluttered kitchen table in Kensington, London!

I’ve officially completed a whole week of conservatory theatre training and I have one word to describe that experience: EXHAUSTING. My mind was poked, prodded and stretched in my acting, audition, speech, dialects, Shakespeare, and dramatic criticism classes. My body was pushed, pulled, and exerted to the brink in stage combat, movement, Alexander, yoga, and period dance. AND THAT’S ONLY WEEK ONE! “But Taylor, how on Earth did you make it through all that?” Well, voices in my head, I wouldn’t have were it not for the insane group beautiful, colorful, and glorious friends I’ve met. It kills me that I can travel halfway across the world and find people who fit so beautifully with my personality. They inspire me to be a better actor, person, and friend, but they do so in a safe, encouraging way; always leading by example. There’s something about being thrown into another country that bands people together strongly and quickly, and I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to experience this phenomenon.

So, what else was so exhausting about this week? Well, beyond our MILLIONS of classes, we take trips weekly around London to visit historical cites as a group. Another shoutout here for my new wonderful friends for taking the stress away from getting lost on the way to the Rose Theatre! (Which, in my defense, is incredibly hard to find-it took archaeologists until the mid-1980s!) The story of the Rose Project is that corporate UK wanted to build on top of the cite, but when scientists found the remains of this famous Elizabethan theatre in the ground, actors and theatre enthusiasts from around the globe flocked to the cite to ensure its preservation. What you should care about: I stood in the same room that once held Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort), DAME Judi Dench, and SHAKESPEARE HIMSELF. Some students even did a soliloquy or two while we were there just to say, ” I performed Shakespeare on the site of the performance of HIS first play, how was your Thursday?” It was such a fabulous and momentous day. I also got Ben & Jerry’s that day too, which made me almost as excited.

I also attended the huge, incredibly beautiful, but unbelievably crowded Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A museum for the natives). There was so much to see that I forced myself to just choose one exhibit this time and fully immerse myself in note-taking an sketching. So, I dove into the Fashion exhibition, which displayed clothing dating all the way back to the 1550s. And I don’t mean replicas or costumes, I mean ACTUAL CLOTHING. Some sweaty woman from 1675 actually fanned herself with that ivory and lace fan as she sat in her horse-and-buggy on her way to the opera. Some newly-wed gentlemen from 1730 actually thought that forget-me-nots embroidered onto his waistcoat wasn’t too corny for his wedding. It was amazing to see! My next goal is to get the curator to let me try on the shelf-like horizontal bustle of 1600s courtly women.

Alright, I’m rambling and I need to go read Twelfth Night, so I’ll be on my way. Let me finish this week off with a quick haiku for all my friends and family back home:

I’m loving it here

My new friends are so crazy

Also,  send money

(LOL JK, send food)

Cheers!

Taylor

Adventure is Out There!

Adventure is Out There!

Up (2009)

…and it’s up to you to go and find it!

What happens when you let a bunch of Theatre students roam around London on their own.
What happens when you let a bunch of Theatre students roam around London on their own.

I’m posting from the pristine, pastoral, and impossibly populated city of London, England! It’s not yet registered that I’m here, and my laptop refuses to change time zones (much like my sleeping schedule), but it’s been almost a week and I’m here to report on all my adventuring.

I’m part of Fordham University (New York)’s London Dramatic Academy, which means I’m using Heythrop College (London)’s facilities, but Fordham University’s program while still remaining a Loyola Chicago student. If that doesn’t confuse you, you’re doing better than I. Our first few days consisted of orientation and grounds/neighborhood walks, and fortunately for me, we’re in the most beautiful(AND EXPENSIVE) neighborhoods in London: Kensington! We explored Kensington Gardens, which is where Prince William and Duchess Kate live (no big deal), where J.M. Barrie was inspired to write Peter Pan (See the movie Finding Neverland), and where I WALKED AROUND. WHAT?! I also befriended a few swans. (Did you know every swan in London technically belongs to the Queen? Lucky Lady.) Our faculty-guided tour concluded at the Royal Albert Hall, named after the most well-rounded Prince of England; He organized the World’s Fair right there in Kensington known as the Great Exhibition. He was a fan of math, science, history, art….basically everything. That’s why the Albert Memorial across the street is such an ecclecticly-designed monument. He was a fan of everything, so the designers threw it all on there.

The next day, I had to pleasure of being let in on one of London’s greatest-kept secrets: The KILLER in the longest running play of all time, The Mousetrap. Mum’s the word, I made a promise I wouldn’t spoil the ending for anyone. Let’s just say I never saw it coming. It really was “premeire British,” as the LDA director Kathy put it; a real parlor-room mystery drama.

Finally, on Sunday, I did the tourist circuit around Westminster. I’ll need to go back to take it all in, one trip is definitely not enough, but it was beautiful! The buildings are older than the USA! And, of course, I popped into a phone booth for the required tourist picture. Unfortunately, it didn’t take me down into the Ministry of Magic like in Harry Potter…Then, I was reminded of my Loyola Honors Program repertoire when I visited the National Gallery’s Impressionist exhibit. There’s nothing like a little Manet to finish off your day of touring London.

I wish I had 10000000 words to keep retelling my adventures, but I have to get to my homework. (LOL I already have homework.) I can’t wait to post this weekend about my classes. Wish me luck!!

 

Cheers,

Taylor