The valiant never taste of death

“Cowards die many times before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once.”

– Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

This blog post brought to you from PARIS! Fall break has begun, and I’m spending the next week here playing tourist with my awesome uncles!

It’s been another exciting week leading up to the break. Monday we found out our scene partners for Stage Combat class and started putting together the fight choreography we’ll be working on for the rest of the semester. We also did mask work in Physical Theatre, a screenwriting workshop, and finished up work on our monologues in Shakespeare class. When we get back from the break it’ll be on to scenes from Twelfth Night, learning the polka in Period Dance, and choreographing our own final pieces for Movement.

Wednesday we went to another show at the National Theatre, Three Days in the Country. I was most impressed by the set design and the acting, though I found the script pretty dated and sexist. Still, it takes a really talented actor to keep me engaged and sympathetic to her character, even when I’m rolling my eyes at the actual words she’s saying.

After our last two days of classes, most of the other LDA kids were gone by Friday afternoon. Since I didn’t leave until this morning, I got the chance to meet up with some Loyola students who are studying at the JFRC this semester and traveled to London for the weekend. We headed to South Bank for drinks, and then went to see Nell Gwynn at the Globe. I’d never really thought about seeing a non-Shakespeare play there, but I’m so glad we went. As one of the first women to act onstage, Nell Gwynn has a really interesting story, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw played her flawlessly (with plenty of brilliant comedic performances from the rest of the cast, too). After the show we went out for late-night breakfast.

This morning I headed off to St. Pancras to catch my train to Paris. My uncles met me at the station and brought me back to our apartment for the week. It’s in Montmartre, and as I type this, I can see the Sacre Coeur all lit up from my window! We spent the afternoon out sightseeing inside the Basilica and around Montmartre, including the Moulin Rouge and the cafe where Amelie was filmed. We’ll be here until next Sunday, so expect plenty of Paris adventures in my next post!