On a River Island

River Island is the title of a great store I went in with Ros.  More about that later.  Let's start with Sunday.  Well since about 27 out of the 34 people who live in Thoresby House including my roommate and I think everyone on my floor even, were in various countries including Scotland (most of them), Ireland, and France--it was soo quiet, I loved it, much as I love all of them--and the people who were here did not seem content or interested in making a day out of Sunday, I treated it as a weekday and made myself a personal little itinerary as usual.  As I wrote on Saturday, I went to the Globe Theatre and got a tour of it!  It was fantastic!  There was a big exhibit about the history of it in addition to the tour!  So I had a lot of fun and it was a beautiful day...so beautiful and breezy that I had to hold onto my skirt all day!  After the globe, I decided to do a boat ride as I was passing by one and debating on what to do since Candide was not playing.  I also bought a ticket for July 13 to see King Lear at the Globe so that will be fun even though I got standing room tickets...they were only five pounds and I had kind of gone gift shopping crazy in the shop (it was SO good) so I figured that made up for how I would have bought a more expensive ticket otherwise and been able to sit down.  Don't worry I am doing my christmas, birthday and souvenir shopping for my family for the entire 2009!  Saves money in the end, right?  Anyway.  Back to the boat.  I saw one and it was very cheap and just about to leave so I went on a whim and got on!  I had my lunch in tow so I had a nice lunch listening to a little London tour (hadn't done a bus or anything yet, so it was good I guess!) and being on the boat on such a gorgeous day.  Plus I got some good pictures so it was worth it.  By the end, a little tired, I decided to go home and do some work etc. so I cleaned and waited for everyone to get home etc.  When they did I was so excited to hear about Scotland but people (*ahem* my roommate) were I guess too tired to give more than one word answers but I visited with my friend Matt (I went with him and Jamie to Dublin) and he told me all about the trip and everything so that was good.  

On Monday I kind of was feeling rather lazy.  It was pretty nice outside, but I wanted to work on my project, due this coming Wednesday.  For a chronic procrastinator, I am doing really really well!  I have to write 10 pages and do some designs for a show I chose (well I basically gave myself the whole assignment, originally just a 20 page paper something to do with what we are learning in our internship) and I chose "They're Playing Our Song" but so far, just talking about Hairspray is around 10 pages so unless it is all rubbish talking, it'll probably end up going over and then plus my design renderings and some of hairspray!  I have research and stuff from the 1960s that I am comparing, plus writing about what I have learned in all the departments: Sound, Lights, Electrics, Stage Management/Props, and Wardrobe.  I can see the show and every aspect so vividly in my head by now (I don't even need a script to reference lines!) that it makes it fairly easy to think of clips from the show and compare them with research and talk about how all the departments fit together.  I'll probably make it available in some way for you if you want to see it when I'm done, not sure whether I'll just attach it by email or somehow post it in my blog.  So on Monday I even got a snack wrap for lunch from McDonald's (which if you know me and Mickey D's, you know I step inside McDonald's about once every two years), that's how lazy I was feeling.  But for feeling lazy, I accomplished quite a lot, then went to work, where I followed Ros on Stage Right since she was back and that was fun.  I kind of just can't explain it but by now I can do the plots without hardly (usually) thinking about it and it's just so much fun.  I go through withdrawl when I have even one night off!  I even find myself wishing I was going to work on Sundays....shhhh I would be shunned at the Shaftesbury if I said that!  The "weekend" aka Sunday is taken very seriously there everyone LOVES the day off!  :)  And so do I most of the time, but last Sunday when I was on my own anyway, it didn't feel like much of a day to do stuff with friends like my Sundays are usually meant for.  

Tuesday (that was yesterday I guess) I woke up and did some work on my paper again, it's always a highlight when I catch someone online to talk with who I haven't seen or talked to since I've been here, much as I love it here it's good to talk with PSU and State College friends so that made my day as it usually does when that happens, and then I set out for Hyde Park on the absolutely GORGEOUS sunny day with some reading/drawing materials.  I picked up an Egg and Cress...crees?  i dont know how to spell it...sandwich and some orange juice when I got there and hung out there until I was to meet up with Ros at 2:30 right near there at Marble Arch, which is the far end of Oxford Street, probably one of the biggest commercial and shopping areas in London.  (And unfortunately most crowded!)  Ros and I love to shop together because we are both total shopaholics but the fact that I have to fit things into my suitcase makes me a much more responsible shopper than usual because I know every inch and pound will count on the way home!  Well plus I have to double the price in pounds to dollars which is usually an unfortunately high number.  I have to admit though that I am getting quite bored of my clothes here.  Most people say they brought too much of that stuff to London, well.  I didn't bring enough.  I should have brought my little brown and gold sneakers, among other items I've missed while I've been here that I won't bore you with.  Plus I didn't bring shorts that I can wear on a normal day (they are more lounge/athletic).  So going shopping is fun even just to SEE other clothes than my wardrobe which I have been getting sick of the past four weeks.  So at River Island I found a pair of shorts that I have three tanks with me to match (practical, dad, really) and I absolutely love them, I could never find anything like them in the States.  And then Sarah, who had been at an interview to move up to Deputy Stage Manager on Hairspray (Tinky the current DSM, is leaving early August), called us as she planned (she said she was gonna be stressed about it and in need of us) so we met up with her after some laughs of Ros saying on the phone "yeah we'll be like two minutes!" meanwhile we have each about 5 items yet to try on!  When she said that I was making faces at her that it was not gonna be two min. haha. It was hilarious because then later when Sarah got closer and was calling to see where we were (we were supposed to be making our way up the street towards her) Ros was all frantic about what to say!  I was just laughing and saying answer the phone and tell her we're on the way!  So.  when we finally did find her, we walked up the street, Sarah telling us all about her interview (I think she's got a really good shot at it and so does Ros but she's scared), and we needed to go bra shopping because the Thoresby House washing machine ate one of mine.  :(  So we did that, unsuccessfully on my end (I hate bra shopping with a passion) much as they tried to help me like it.  We then made our way up the street which continued all the way up to the Shaftesbury Theatre eventually and we got some Bagel Nash.  

I started working with wardrobe Tuesday.  I helped with the preset on Stage Right at 6 though because I was not due in Wardrobe (oh man the TOP floor...even farther upstairs than usual can you believe it...i get a workout) until 6,30.  Wardrobe was fun, a bit uneventful, but the people were nice, I didn't get to do a lot, I mean I did go around and do quick changes a little, and I still love stage management because I get to do so much and learn so much.  But it was good fun still and good experience and fun to get to know new people better than seeing them on what I call "rush hour" traffic on the stairs right before the finale all the wardrobe people are going up and down the stairs, causing traffic.

Then today after eating noodle and veggie soup and some great flavored water at a Japaneseish restaurant with a lot of healthy options including some great fat free frozen yoghurt free samples, I saw the show Marguerite on the West End.  It was a musical, more classical singing, not quite operatic.  It was about a romance/affair of a woman married to a very wealthy German general in World War II.  Actually very depressing show, but I suppose I can't expect to always see sunny and happy musical shows, and I figure it's good education, every time I see a show I learn something if not lots of things.  I really liked it, but it just got me a little down because of the topics and death and beatings and the love story but the plot really was great even without a happy ending and it was very captivating and beautiful and romantic and sometimes historically and socially horrifying.

After that I came home, made myself some dinner as my groceries are dwindling and the cupboard is bare, so to speak, but I didn't want to spend more than 25 quid on my day today, which i didn't!  Then it was off to class which of course we watched the British version of "The Office" for about an hour, but this is the last class before the exam that I have to attend (I made negotiations with them, which took quite a bit of persuasion) because it conflicts with work.  Plus I may be working on Spamalot or Dirty Dancing next week anyway so I chose this week to miss work instead of next.  So tomorrow is a matinee day at Hairspray and I plan on getting up and doing some work before leaving around noon for work at 1.  Time for bed I'm shattered!  :)  (see my little word chart to the right for translation!)

~Sam~

PS. I hate my computer (even tho it's a mac) and technology which apparently is mutual because I just lost half the pictures from the globe... : '(  I think that's all I've lost though, although I'm not sure what else was there.  It was because my hard drive was too full at the time of importing and i clicked delete originals from camera stupidly...guess it's good I'm going there again!  Still feel awful for the loss of them though, I wanted to post the one of me in front of the theatre here which happens to be one of the ones I lost!  Plus I think I may have lost a process shot of a prop, but I can reset that up I think.  hopefully nothing else was on there...dont think so.

Shake your fanny muscles

That's a line from the show in the finale that goes "C'mon you Von Tussel's C'mon shake your fanny muscles" which is funny because the word "fanny" over here does not mean what it does in America.  Over here it means... female parts, as my co-workers explained to me so tactfully.  :)  Despite this line, although many of the other "american" lines have been changed for the London show to make more sense to an English audience, or to an English sense of humor, they decided to keep that one, mostly because that part of the song is so fast it is not likely you will catch what exactly they're saying anyway.  haha.On with the week.  On Wednesday I went to see the Sound of Music in honor of my sister who was in it at the State Theatre last week and I (obviously) missed out on it.  Although I probably wouldn't have chosen to see the show otherwise, I'm glad I saw it!  There was a giant pallette that spread across the stage and rotated to become a mountain!  It was a fantastic design solution and was the size of the entire stage, which was pretty large for West End even!  Gretl was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen.  The girl who played Maria looked almost identical to Julie Andrews, but of course they probably intended to MAKE her look like her, but they were very successful.  Also had a beautiful voice.  Apart from the fact that I can recite the whole Violin II orchestration after playing a 3 week run of it years ago, I actually enjoyed the show overall.  Of course, if it weren't for the elderly (and I mean very elderly) ladies behind me sobbing loudly and uncontrollably every time anyone sang or their favorite song came on or someone onstage hugged or the end of a song came, anything bad or happy happened plot wise....if you get the idea, they cried--weeped-- through the whole thing.  I mean really?!  It is maybe something that could get you choked up if you're like that (personally I'm not really-if you know me you know that- haha), but really, sobbing through the entire show was a bit excessive and distracting, but I guess it is good that the show is moving people so deeply, so I got over it.  

At work I learned the sound plots, mostly plot number 3.  There are 3 plots.  N

umber 1 is the mixer, at the back of the auditorium with all the fancy equipment.  Number 2 is at the desk backstage listening for problems and communicating with the mixer.  Number 3 is all about sound problem solving and prevention.  Basically involves learning cues of when people come off stage to spray with an air duster (spray their mics).  If something goes wrong or if number 2 says someone is sounding like their mic is particularly sweated out (sweat clogs the mics), then we have to go hunt them down give them a spray and a flick of the mic, or sometimes change the microphone out for a new one.  We also checked mic. positions with wigs and during quick changes to make sure that hair wasn't in the mics and that they were properly placed, and made sure everyone who needs it has mic tape.  So that's what I did Wednesday and both Thursday shows, got trained and then just basically did the plot while the number 3 (happened to be a dep) followed me around instead.  Other things we do are check every single speaker before the cast arrives (there are A LOT of speakers!) and test all the orchestra individual and cast mics.  People made jokes about an American coming over the system saying "1 2, 345, Link is next, 678910, 12, 345, 678910."  Since there are mics for each actor (some have two

), there are close to 30 or 40 mics that need to be tested.  To save boring details I've learned (soon to come in a side list that you can read if you like) about sound, basically I did that and more, but it wasn't nearly as busy as stage management and props stuff that I was doing before, so when I got bored and in the interval I would go help Sarah or Ros do their plots on the deck.  

On Friday, I decided to make a museum day for myself since it was rather grey outside.  Originally I was supposed to go to the British Museum with a friend of a girl who is one of my housemates, but she was not able to go anymore, so I changed my plans and went to the Tate Modern.  It was kind of good because I'm not a very good museum goer with other people just because of my speed and attention span and stuff, so I had a good time and even took some notes of artists that could be future inspirations for set designs, or just who I liked!  You can see them on a list soon, too.  If you haven't noticed, I'm basically making this blog website into a souvenir and online documentation of my trip.  :)

After I was done with the Tate Modern, I saw a sign saying that I could take a boat ride for just under 3 quid straight to Tate Britain!  I still had several hours before I even had to start heading to work, so I decided to go for it!  And I LOVE boat rides!  No matter how grey it is outside!  Inside the boat was basically like a first class airplane!  It was cool and the coffee bar made the best (and one of the cheapest) cappucinos I've had yet!  The downside was that the stop I was supposed to get off at was not marked "Tate Britain" at all, and was 

not announced, so I asked about three seconds before they left the doc and had to walk across Westminister Bridge and ended up taking the tube there because it was pouring and I was soaked.  Oh well.  Nice boat, anyway.  Got some nice pics because the boat went right past Big Ben and the London Eye and Parliament and all that jazz.  So when I finally made it to Tate Britain, I had a good time walking around the (much bigger) museum, which seemed endless!  Although walking on hard museum wooden floors in flats all day is not a picnic, I made it through both Tates and enjoyed my day of looking at art!  I always feel accomplished for educating myself without prompting.

Then Friday night I was back on the deck at work and I followed Sarah on stage left.  Sarah hadn't done the stage left plot in three weeks so she was all anticipatory of being a little unable to give me help or prompt me as to what to do, and of course I was like "oh yeah that's fine, I'll do whatever you need me to do," but when it got down to it she didn't even have to look at the cue sheet she printed out as a refresher for herself!  I was just so amazed with how worried she was and then how on top of it she was!  Not only did she never look at her cue sheet, but she was able to tell me what to do and where to go when, which I usually tried to finish the sentence for her, which I don't think/hope she minded...I'm becoming pretty confident with the plots now, although I probably wouldn't be even close to being flawless if an ASM wa

sn't with me-which wouldn't happen since I'm work experience.  Occasionally when I'm with Tom he says he's gonna go watch football but then he comes back before the next time I would question what was next.  But I don't look at a cue sheet (they're like 8 pages long haha) so it's all by memory and I get a little mixed up in the order of things on occasion, but they are all so great and help me out and tell me what's next whether I already know or not.

Last night I went with Seth (in the picture on the right) and Pam, two of my friends who live in Thoresby, to a bar/club over in Soho near Piccadilly Circus.  There are about 10 out of 34 housemates here this weekend because of trips to various countries.  It was pretty fun.  Not my favorite night out yet, but it was all right and we met up with Seth's friend Jason there who was cool and it was good to meet him.  Stayed out the latest I have yet, so I guess that had to happen at some point...after all I am still a college student, even though London is not a sleepless town like NYC is ...or Happy Valley for that matter.  Most bars close at 12:30, clubs at 2:30 if you are lucky.  Some of these techno bars/clubs are not really my scene...I prefer like sitting and talking at a bar i don't have to scream to talk to someone two inches from me and destroy my vocal chords soooo yeah.  Plus techno music is not as fun as normal music you can sing along and dance to.

Back to work, which today was two show day.  It just amazes me how good everyone at what they do, all of them.  Really I shouldn't be that surprised.  I haven't really mentioned anything going wrong during shows because nothing major really does/has!  (knock on/touch wood!)  Today and tonight I sat with Sarah in the booth--Ros was off tonight--and she basically taught me how she calls the show, which I have never really been taught before.  So that was really interesting.  I learn a lot from her and I'd say she's probably the best at explaining and really teaching me the most.  It was amazing how she could point out counts of the songs, point to the monitors when we needed to look there before she called cues, and was able to be a little off the wall we danced in our seats to the show :)  meanwhile she was calling everything flawlessly simultaneously.  She knows the cueing by heart now so doesn't actually count out most of it to herself anymore after calling the show so many times, but I was grateful that she took the time and thought to do so during the show for me, although since we were on a clearcom headset system and there are cues to call every few seconds, we had to be pretty quiet until we had a 15 second or more break where she could turn off the mics (clear com in short means whoever you have turned on--which is most people--on cans can hear you all the time if you're calling the show, even though not everyone is on the same channel to each other).  So I had good fun and learned a lot tonight from that and following along with what I have been hearing in my ear the past four weeks over cans and learning what beat or cue makes each LX (lighting) or Auto (moving scenery) cue go and when to start speaking and say Go.  Also she gives front of house "ladies and gentlemen...take your seats in ___ minutes" kind and also for larger roles, people get calls to their dressing rooms well before their cues during the show.  And of course for beginners and clearance and all that jazz.  I am convinced that stage managers over here just sound so much better no matter where they are from in Britain because of the accent in general.  Just sounds so much more authentic to the theatre and i love it!  My two favorite words that people say are "good" (sounds like "goodt" except really short) and "you" at the end of "thank you"...really bright voweled ooo.  Oh and hearing people try to imitate American accents.  There is a cue when Rachael (Amber Von Tussle character) says "Everybody stop liking her!  AHHHH!" and runs off stage, and I crack up everytime Ros tells me that cue cos she tries to say it in an American accent and it's hilarious.  Ros's accent is much more 'common' than Sarah's which is more proper and what you would first think of as an "English accent."  Ros doesn't have a cockne accent, but drops off letters and so it is closer to cockne I guess but not really.  I'm fascinated by the different accents and words and phrases here, as you can probably tell.

Anyway I should get to bed, tomorrow on my personal itenerary (by personal i mean for me and made by me), I am going to the Globe in the morning to get a tour of the theatre, then going to see Candide (the opera, i think?  i dunno i just want to see candide) at another theatre if there are tickets left, and if not, maybe a show at the Globe after I get a tour, although they will probably be standing room tickets which i would not be so fond of for watching a shakespeare play.  But we'll see.  

Keep in your thoughts and prayers a girl in my house who I am friends with who flew home on very short notice-had to pack everything up and tie up all loose ends here-the other day after getting a call from her mom for good because her dad who had been very sick took a turn for the worst and who she has now lost.  Also a guy who works on crew of Hairspray was hit by a car, about a week or two after I got here so I don't know him well, but was hit on his way to work on his motorcycle and has some pretty severe leg damage and is still in the hospital and getting all kinds of surgeries.  So whatever your religious views, if you could think of and/or pray for those people and their families, it would be much appreciated.  On the bright side, both seem to be doing as well as they can be, considering the situations and both have a lot of support coming from friends and family.  

By the way, apparently I might be working on Spamalot now?  Not really sure but hopefully the week after next i'll work on something, but as you can imagine it's kind of difficult to work those things out for someone who is not equity, is unpaid, 20 years old, has an American Visa and hasn't ever worked on the West End (or broadway) previously and would just be an extra body onstage to shadow someone--and someone has to be available and able to teach me, so I'm not expecting anything and just hoping for the best...I know Hesky and others are doing their best to try to get me somewhere else which is way more than I could ever have asked for or dreamed of.

Anyway time for bed......

Cheers!

~Sam~

I've had a perfectly wonderful day....

....but monday was not it.

So I thought I should write today because my life yesterday was a bit like a television episode.  Here we go (don't worry it'll be shorter than usual).

Monday morning.  I wake up and am out of the house by 10:30.

10:30am- After researching places to get your eyebrows waxed (I was in desperate need!), I go down the road past Old Street Station and finally find the place I want, but although the entire salon is empty, they are apparently booked for 5 weeks!

10:40am I walk back, and pass Old Street Station AND my house to a beauty salon i had seen a sign for.  Closed for...demolition?  great.  Walk back past my house again to the tube station intending to go to oxford circus, I KNOW they do waxing at Top Shop, but it's a bit more pricey but whatever i need it.

11am Get to Top Shop to find out it is SHAPING and done with only cotton thread....not my idea of a picnic for the extra 3 pounds.

11:15 walk down the street to the guy holding up a neon sign that says WAXING, follow it and find a great place who does eyebrow waxing and the ladies there are really nice.  however, the lady told me that basically for years now, someone who waxed my eyebrows actually waxed off a good chunk that was supposed to be there.  It probably won't grow back by now.  She couldn't believe i hadn't done it myself....That's what i get for being cheap and convienient and going to Supercuts...

11:45 Get back on the tube and go to Victoria and Albert Museum because there is a national Art Library there and i had spent half the morning copying down titles and numbers of books on the online catalog that i wanted for my research project.  When i finally find it and after a very long tube ride, i find out the library is closed on mondays.  I end up enjoying the museum anyway.  Almost had bad luck that the Supremes display (the part I was interested in) cost an extra 5 pounds, but i told the lady i was 19 and so she let me go since 18 and under were free.  Good luck there.

3:00  Bored of being in the same place all day, go back to the tube, find a souvenir shop, realize i forgot my tour book so I can't look at what to do with myself for the next two hours.  Find in my little moleskine book that Harrods is the next stop and towards work.  Go there for two hours.  HEAVEN.  

5:00 Get on the crammed tube to go back to work.  

5:40 Stop at Bagel Nash and get take away dinner.  Not that hungry, not feeling great (Living on motrin the whole day is also part of the bad day).

6:00  Get to work, find out I'm working on sound this week.  Only able to eat half a bagel for dinner (not hungry cos I was sick).  I refrigerate the rest in the DSM dressing room....keep in mind, six flights of stairs up. (3rd floor)

10:30  Stay late, kind of bad at coiling cords on microphone packs.  Go all the way up to find that since all the ASMs have left-sad cos I like saying bye and talking with them, my dressing room is locked.  Go all the way back down, get the key and climb all the way back up.  Get my stuff and go to the tube stop.

10:45 Get to Holborn (the tube stop) by myself since Ros had left awhile before me and realize I left my dinner in the refrigerator and I am hungry.  Damn.  Not going back now.

11:10  Get home.  Walk up to third floor (yay more stairs) to visit Seth like always.  Not home.

11:15  Start writing a blog section about everything (literally everything) I am doing and what I have learned.  Kind of like an extended list to keep track for myself since I've learned so many of the different plots and for those of you who are interested in the details of working at the Shaftesbury.  Also would help me with my paper.  I was on a roll it was great.

1:15am (two hours later!)  Click SAVE on the screen.  The window reads "blogger unavailable."  I lost it ALL and there is no retrieving...trust me I know all the tricks.

1:30am  After talking to my mom and to seth, time to wrap up the day.

2:30am Finally get to sleep.

Whew what a day!  It's really ok though because I am still living my dream in London.  I just thought that would be a funny little bit for you all to read...actually kind of unbelieveable how much bad luck in one day...I'm surprised it wasn't Friday the 13th or something!  (yeah i'm superstitious get over it)

Today was much better...and actually yesterday two good parts that I didn't play up in that little drama I wrote were: 

1) I sat at the mixer on the sound desk and learned SO much about mixing the show

2) Harrods is like a dream.  I was literally drooling and mom be thankful that I had willpower to stop me from buying the Prada/Juicy Coutoure/Dolce & Gabbana shoes that were luring and tempting me around every corner.  It did make me have only one wish for my 21st birthday though so get ready now mom.  :)

Today I learned the number 2 sound plot which was kind of boring, basically it is sound problem prevention and dealing with sweaty actors.  :)  As Ros would say (so much funnier out loud) "Lovely Jubbly (lov-uhl-ly jub-uhl-ly) "

And I got some research done at the V & A museum.

Tomorrow I'm seeing Sound of Music in honor/sadness of missing Steph in the one at the State Theatre this past weekend!  yayy!  And going to class instead of work (BOOOO).  Anyway more later hope you enjoyed the soap opera of the day!  Cheers to no more bad luck in london!

~Sam~

A Brief London Encounter

Left to Right: Terel (Seaweed US & ensemble), Ros (ASM, I've been shadowing her mostly) and me, 

at Tracy (Velma)'s birthday after the show at a club last week.

So I haven't written since Tuesday!  To update, on Wednesday, I went to see A Brief Encounter with Ros, Tom, and Tinky and it was a really interesting show!  It was basically like watching an old movie live onstage.  Very romantic, occasional dramatic things like people hanging from chandeliers and being blown by the wind.  The technical aspects were very cool, since it was based on the film, which I have not seen, unfortunately, there were a lot of projections, and similar to Into the Hoods, the actors would occasionally merge into the projection screens onto videos by literally climbing into the screen slots.  There was trains and the story was captivating and funny although I was confused at points since I have not seen the film.  After that we got food and all  headed to work. 

Thursday was a two show day so I headed out of the house kind of early again in search of a new mag lite, since Sarah gets back on Monday and I need to return her mag lite to her and have my own.  I finally found some and got a good deal on a pink one!  And then I sat at Cafe Nero and wrote some postcards and had a light brunch and coffee there.  I really liked it in there, it was better than most of the Starbucks, actually, as far as service and friendliness...more like the Starbucks in State College in customer service which I really liked.  :)  It's an Italian coffee chain here.  So then I went to work and did Stage Right first show and Stage left second show, following Ros the first show and Tom the second.  After the show, I went out for one drinks worth of time at the pub we go to called the White Hart.  It has pictures on the wall of the cast and crew of Hairspray and shows previous that have played at the Shaftesbury, and at least two tables are always reserved for Hairspray starting at 10:15pm.  I talked with one of the ensemble members most of the time and I really enjoyed talking with him and learning about him more so that was fun.  And I managed to make the tube home before it closes so that was also convenient.

On Friday I went to the Ascot Races!!!!  (Horse races, for those of you who don't know).  I wore my white dress and bought a big flower for my hair at the train station.  All the ladies who go wear these fabulous hats and stuff ...it's fantastic.  You have never seen such a well dressed event.  Men wear tuxes and or vests and ties and tailcoats.  We met a 23 year old boy on the train who owns 60 racehorses and told me which horses I should bet on.  And then of course, I bet on racehorses!  I am a sucker for gambling so of course that was the most fun part for me even though I didn't do that well, but I figured since the ticket was rather cheap and I had brought picnic food to save money, it was all part of the experience.  And I did gain some money and didn't end up losing too much at all--20 quid or so.  After the second to last race, I basically ran to the train station to try to make it to work on time although Hesky knew I might be late.  I was mad I had to wait a whole half hour for the train, which took a little under an hour, and then was about 20 minutes late to work, but I had texted Ros so Hesky would know for sure and it was all good.  They're not strict with me at all, in fact I could probably take more time off than I am if I wanted, I just don't want to!  I just really like it and want to be there as much as I can.  So Friday's show went well and afterwards, Ros wasn't feeling well so she didn't go out and nothing was really happening with people at work, so I went home and went out with Seth, Jamie, Madeleine, and a bunch of other girls who live at the house.  We first went to the ATM at the Texaco, intending to go to this place/club called Zoo Bar in Leichester Square, which had a cover, but I figured since I don't really hang out with them much anymore or really pay at bars and clubs much at all I might as well go and have fun.  So at the ATM we met this couple (probably about 23 or so), and the guy who obviously had some drinks asked us where we were going and when I told him Leichester Square-didn't want to say exactly where, although they seemed nice- he was insistant that we should not go there in general.  He and his girlfriend were both British and they told us that if we went there we would go back to America and say that London clubs sucked because Leichester square was so expensive and touristy.  When we asked him where we SHOULD go, he told us Shoreditch, which is an area with lots of places within walking distance of Old Street.  Since Seth and some other people had heard that that was a good locals place as well, we decided to walk there after saying goodbye to our new friends.  We found this place called Bar Music Hall, which had no cover and no cue!  We went inside to find techno music, lights, and even a few people dressed in drag!  It was not wall to wall people, and had a bar and tables as well as a dance floor and stage.  We danced for awhile and had a good time!  After an hour or two, we decided to move on, but after looking for somewhere with little or no cover that looked good and not being successful, about half of our group decided to head home since it was kind of late and I had been up and about since 8am for the races.

Yesterday was something called West End Live, from 11am-6pm.  Although I had work at 1pm (another 2 show day, Saturdays), Jamie and Seth and I wanted to go to it and I would stay just for a bit, since the shows I liked were mostly at the beginning.  Basically it was a big showcase of West End shows on a concert stage with trusts, etc and shopping tents around of sponsors and some free swag in a bag when you left.  There were big screens and wayyy too many people, standing room.  A little frustrating because of all the crowds, but I'm glad I went.  I wouldn't say it was the best showcase of all the shows because many of them were in minimal costumes and doing things out of context, but it was fun nonetheless.  I saw Jersey Boys, Lord of the Rings, Dirty Dancing, Wicked, and some weird regional theatre perform called Players Theatre.  Then I headed off to work.  I spent the first show with George, one of the elecs guys.  He is as old as me but has worked at the Shaftesbury through high school.  His job is basically to make sure all the battery and electrical special effects of the show run right.  There are rockets at the end that shoot out streamers so of course we make sure that the air tanks for those are working and hooked all of that up.  Also the televisions that have realistic light coming out of them as if it were a screen--we checked those too, as well as the impressive gismo I've talked about setting up before that is on the Hardee Har Hut.  We had more down time though, so I worked on some props maintanence: filing down some barbers scissors with a metal file so that they could be painted and would not be sharp anymore.  The second show, I sat in the top balcony with the spotlight operators and followed along in a script with lighting and spot cues in it, which was interesting.  What a hot day!  It was 32 degrees celcius where I was!  Which is about 90 fahrenheit, I think.  So it was actually pretty chill.  Also on some of my breaks during the first show that I was on the floor for, I helped Ros on stage right and went and visited her.  The elecs stuff is mostly on stage left though.  After work last night, again no one was doing anything collectively, so I went home and got un-sweaty (haha) and then met seth and some of the girls up on Angel at a bar called O'Neill's after getting very unnecessarily lost and making Seth spend about 30p trying to find me calling me.  It was a lot of fun there, though!  I realized that I like DJs that are not techno better because singing along to the songs and knowing the songs and songs that have words are much more fun to dance to.  We only stayed there till about half 1 since everyone was tired and long story short for various reasons I figured out I had climbed over 300 stairs that day and my calves were feelin it.  So we stopped at the Texaco and got snacks (little strawberry cheesecake dish mmm) and went home.

This morning we went back to Petticoat market and then to Spitafields market, nearby.  I got a cute little stretchy black dress with pockets...kind of a casual little dress for three pounds (!) and some gifts for people there as well.  We walked back home which was a nice walk and not too too far!  So now I'm just chilling and I might go play basketball with some of the boys in a little while which should be fun!  It's a beautiful day today!  This coming week I will unfortunately not be working on High School Musical...they had some management problems and were not able to sort out getting me to work there...it didn't have to do with me or anything but they are a bit stressed because one week is not much for a West End show that big to go up.  However, I will likely get to work on Dirty Dancing on some scenery automation sometime soon.  I can't work at the automation desk on Hairspray because it is only accessible by a very large ladder which is against insurance and all that for me to climb.  But it should be a fun week, Sarah comes back this week so all the ASMs will be here and Hesky will be filling in for the Company Manager.  So it should be a good week.  I'll be working on my class project a lot as well this week.  Cheers!

~Sam~

Wankers and Skanks

Back again I am of course still loving London...it felt like I came back "home" when I got back from Dublin.  So great to go back to work as well.  I never expected so many people to remember that I went to Dublin...when I got back a surprising number of both cast and crew asked me how it was and it made me smile that they all cared to ask let alone remembered where I was going and in general was gone the whole weekend!  I guess I didn't realize how many people knew I had gone to Dublin!  Never could I have expected or imagined such a great group of people to work with who are all so incredibly kind and welcoming to me.  Sunday I stayed in, as you probably noticed, updated the blog, did some facebook picture uploading, and just relaxed.  On Monday morning, I finished up some of my catching up on things, then headed out in search of a new mag lite, after looking online and writing down several places that might have them (they are not easy to find!)  Mine broke the other day...apparently commonly happens to mag lites and mine is 4 or 5 years old by now but that's okay because I wanted a pink or purple one anyway :)  I am using Sarah's for the moment while she is in Egypt but need to get one before she returns next week, when hopefully I will be off to High School Musical.  It is not 100%, as apparently the office/management there may be having some sort of problems and have not returned Hesky's calls yet.  So we will see.  I am content on Hairspray though, and although it would have been a good opportunity, I am trying not to get my hopes up for it in case it doesn't work out.  Dirty Dancing might work out though, to shadow for a few days, so that would be fun.  Anyway.  Back to my mag lite search...unsuccessful.  I went to about half the stores I wrote down (only to one area, didn't take the tube elsewhere) and THEN almost walked by the greatest store that ever happened to me.  I turned around and went inside.  When I stepped in I literally got the wind knocked out of me.  Three large floors of art supplies, scrapbooking, cards, markers, stickers, books, notebooks, and more art stuff....THREE FLOORS!!!!  I almost died.  And then.  I proceeded to spend the next TWO HOURS in Paperchase.  What a feast.  Not only did they have the biggest card section I'd seen in my life, but they had scrapbooking papers, different large papers for artwork, paints, markers, pens, albums, notebooks, assignment books, travel gear, furniture, design books, watches, wallets, handbags, canvases, random funny gifts, awesome gifts, and art supplies in any brand, size, color, or shape you could imagine, plus a whole cafe on the second floor!  I was in art geek heaven.  Don't worry mom, I didn't spend too much money there (the only thing that stopped me was they don't ship and I didn't want to overflow my return flight luggage quite yet hahaha), but I got some great unique stuff!  So, after spending a ridiculous amount of time there, I headed out (it is quite near to the Shaftesbury) to the Bagel Nash to pick up dinner, then to work.  I helped Ros on stage right again which was fun!  Ros, another crew member Emma and I really have a great time during the down times (there is less to do than on Stage Left).  Yesterday, they spent our longest gap teaching me all the insults and slang in British for different things, which you see some examples of on the list and on the title of my blog today.  We had a lot of good laughs especially at the ones like 'cow,' when they saw my reactions and faces to what they meant in Britain versus America.  After work I came home and enjoyed visiting with my friend Seth upstairs for about an hour since I hadn't seen him in a good while since before Dublin!  

Today I went to Regent's Park to meet with my Academic Project Supervisor.  I'm doing my project/paper comparing They're Playing Our Song to Hairspray in a variety of ways.  I won't bore you with the details, but it will include slash be more focused into chapters than it sounds now but: the idea of rewriting the past versus contemporary scripts, comparison between 60s and early 70s design and fashion, renderings for They're Playing Our Song (original designs, by me) and renderings of a scene from the current Hairspray at the Shaftesbury, and one of my own based on my personal research.  So basically, just met with him about that since he agreed for me to miss this week and last week's class to work in exchange (yay!).  So that went well and then I met Ros to shop later than we'd planned so I took a walk around the gorgeous Regent's Park and Rose Gardens and lake there, then headed to Oxford Circus, where we would shop!  I went about an hour early to do some window shopping warm up of my own  :)  Yes I am a hardcore shopper like that, as most of you know.  So around 15:00 Ros and I met up.  We went to Miss Selfridges, and mainly Top Shop.  It was huge and SO awesome.  We had a lot of fun and I ended up getting two really cute tops and a discount for being a student (but even though Ros and I combined our money to pay for everything so that the discount could be for both of us, the bitchy -excuse my french- lady at the register only gave it to us for the items she knew were mine!  Rude!).  We went to another department store after that.  It's funny, department stores are different here.  They are stores composed of several famous and good name brand sections and are just more of a 'revue' so to speak -haha sorry if you don't get the metaphor, it's what came to mind- of various designers and companies, and are organized that way.  After that we went to Boots, basically the biggest drug store with groceries around here, to pick up some dinner and I took Ros to Starbucks for her first Vanilla Latte (she'd never tried one and we both needed coffee) before we headed off to work, fairly nearby.  

Tonight was actually quite fun I did the preset with Ros and still ate my dinner and hung out in the usual DSM lounge, but I was up in the elecs booth as they call it, with Pete, the same guy I interviewed with, who is the light board operator.  So.  This is where it gets fun because even though we didn't tell over head set because it could cause some debate within the production team,  (so shhhh) I ran the whole show!  There was basically only one button to press, it was just a matter of getting the cues right and listening to Tinky, the DSM who called the show give me LX cues.  It was great fun and I was proud of myself for running the light board the whole time for a West End show!  I only made two very minor mistakes too...very fixable and not a big deal or noticeable.  Good for the first time seeing the board and the second time seeing the show from the audience!  Pete said I did brilliantly :)  good word haha and he said I was doing well with fitting the cues to the music timing, an important part of Hairspray, even though I get 'go' cues on every lighting cue.  Also, since I had been hearing all the cues in my ear (cans...translation: headset) for the past two weeks, I often knew when they were coming, although they are very often and breaks without cues for more than 10 - 30-ish seconds were pretty rare since Hairspray is a very flashy and colorfully lit show.  So that was more fun than I expected since I do not usually 'do' lights or electrics stuff...I'm just better at the artistic and management side and don't choose it and am usually not asked or required to do so unless for a class.  

So that was my past two days...the rest of the week I will probably just follow Ros, I think I'm doing stage right one or two more times, some props maintanence this week, and then some stage left and even maybe up with Ros who will be calling the show one day I think--as I've said, they all (DSMs) rotate around depending on the staff situation, and to keep their skills up in the different positions and locations.  Tomorrow I'm going with Tinky, Ros, and Tom, the three DSMs not including Hesky who are in town (Sarah on holiday) to see A Brief Encounter, a play that someone who once worked on Fame with Ros and Tom is working wardrobe on.  So that should be fun, a matinee.  Cheers!

~Sam~

DUBLIN

Before I go on about Dublin I'll start with Thursday.  I went to work (it was a matinee, 2 show day) and in between shows, Hesky, the DSMs, and musical director, came out for Fish and Chips!  They want to take me out for fish and chips and for curry...two foods English are famous for.  So that was a lot of fun.  Then after the second show, it was Tracy (Velma)'s birthday and she was having a get together at a club (drag shows included every 15 or so minutes) so me and Ros and Tom went over to the White Hart to get a drink there first since it would be less expensive (that's the pub we/they usually go to if we go out after a show, it's right across the way and they reserve tables for Hairspray on weekends and are open til 2:30, which is rare for pubs/bars.).  Then we headed over to SoHo to this very contemporary club, don't know the name, sorry.  I stayed til about 12:45 and then I shared a cab with Leanne, who plays Tracy because I live about half way to where she lives.  So that was good to have someone to figure that all out with.  I got to bed after 1 and woke up at 4:30 to leave for the airport!  I was a little grouchy before I had coffee, but ok otherwise and not that tired.  It took us about an hour and a half total to get to the airport, between cabs and train rides etc.  The flight there was on time and smooth and I got some sleep.  I don't like flying because of the pressure that builds up in my ears is incredibly painful, and landing was pretty awful, but take off was ok on my ears actually.  

DUBLIN DAY 1

We got there at about 9:30am, went to our hostel around 10:30 and stored our luggage.  Then we went to Temple Bar area for lunch at a cafe where I got a tomato and pesto panini.  We took a Hop On Hop Off tour bus of dublin the rest of the day.  We saw things like the Christ Church, Trinity College, St. Stephen's Green, and some other sites from the bus.  Jamie wanted to go in a Viking museum that Matt and I weren't interested in for the price, so the two of us went to the tourism centre and got information on going out to the coast for our second day in Dublin, to see some of the green of Ireland.  After meeting back up, we got off the tour bus at the Guiness factory.  It was like a huge museum, I swear they should have one for Starbucks, it was pretty cool, they showed us how the beer is made, and you could read about the history of it and stuff.  It was a seven floor factory/museum.  Although...I did find it unappetizing that beer is made from like wheat and barley and stuff...   but anyway.  At the top was the Gravity Bar, where we could look out a 360 degree view of Dublin and get a free pint of Guinness.  Let's just say...I'm not a fan of the taste.  I really don't mind the aftertaste, which is kind of odd, but the actual drink is a little much for me...I got a half pint and personally it tasted like Triaminic and coffee.  (Sorry Guiness lovers).  But it was cool because they really take care making it there and it's kind of like coffee I guess in that way.  

After that we went by bus back to our hostel to check in (we couldn't before 2pm) and met some girls in our 16 person mixed gender bedroom who were on a similar internship program in London and were from Villanova.  We had dinner at a place called O'Shay's and I had Shepherd's Pie, which was much different from the kind I'm used to, but still very good.  After we had dinner we went over to Temple Bar to begin our night out!  Starting with some delicious Haagan Daas ice cream, we went from pub to pub, listening and enjoying live Irish music and enjoying the diverse atmospheres of each place.  After a while we even started to learn some of the folk songs that all the Irish there were singing along to!  We went home about half 1 and got to bed at a decent hour for our second day in Dublin!

DUBLIN DAY 2

First, Jamie and I woke up a little earlier to go do some shopping before going to get our tickets to go out to the coast before 11am.  So after eating the hostel's breakfast, which was decent, we went to Henry St. and shopped around a bit.  Then we met up with Matt and got our train tickets to go on this tour out on the coast for the rest of the day!  The tour would take us to some of the most beautiful parts of the coast, by train and by coach, with time for stopping and exploring at almost every site.  It was well worth it!  The tour guide, whose name, he explained to us, was like the word U-Haul, except it was Me-Haul (that's how it was pronounced).  He gave a great tour and i got some great shots from the train of the landscape and bay.  We stopped at some small towns periodically and at a lake.  Mehal's nephew, Sean was there as well and we befriended him quickly.  He is 18 and had just finished boarding school the day prior in Ireland, but was originally from Germany.  He had an Irish accent in English, but spoke German fluently as well which was cool since I speak well enough German to converse with people, although we didn't much since he had excellent English. He described his school to us much like Harry Potter, with the teams and sporting and castle like areas and landscapes.  He knew a ton about Ireland, about history and about movies and film.  Just was one of those people who knew a lot of random facts about almost anything you could ask or talk about so it was great to talk with him.  I skipped a rock finally at the lake we stopped at!  It was my last try, and I did it!  Very exciting, haha.  When the tour was over, I asked Sean to come meet up with us later on, so we exchanged numbers and went for dinner.  We went to an Italian restaurant near our hostel and Temple Bar called La Taverna di Bacco.  I had a salad and Pasta Carbonata.  It was delicious!  After going back to the hostel to get ready for the night, we met up with Sean and one of his buddies, Tony, who was Russian but recently moved to Dublin from America.  Then we went to a bunch of different pubs and ended up close to St. Stephen's Green at a pub we enjoyed a lot with more locals than tourists.  I had been taking pictures of interiors and exteriors of pubs because for the show I am Asst. Designing in the fall at school, we will need those as well as some other specific research photos that I seeked out while I was in Dublin.  At the end of the night, the five of us came back to the hostel and hung out in the lounge til about 2am (it was freezing outside!) when Sean and Tony hailed cabs home and we headed to bed.  Our flight was at 8:10 this morning, so again we woke up at 5:45 (the airport in Dublin was about 30 min from our hostel) and got a cab there.  The flight went pretty well and by the end of it all, we ended up home (at Thoresby house) around 11am.  It was a really great trip and well worth it!  Today I will spend posting pictures (hopefully on facebook as well this time), unpacking, grocery shopping, and just chilling out.  Happy Tony Awards Day!  I am sad I will miss them and hopefully will watch them online, or on the tape when I get home in a month.  What a wonderful weekend in Dublin it was!  I am excited to get back to work and London life!  Dublin is a great city, but I love London because it is so large and although Dublin has a very distinct culture, London's culture seems more diverse to me, which I like a lot.  And, it is less tourist populated than Dublin seemed to be.  However, we were only there for two days, so hard to pass judgement.  I will post pictures soon and write again in a few days!

~Sam~

"Plastic little spastic!"

That's just one of my favorite lines from the show that happens to be a cue for me when I work on stage right.

Yesterday was supposed to be nice out, but since it looked rather cloudy I decided to go instead to the the Design Museum, a museum that has exhibits based on all different interpretations of the word design. (Genius, right?!)  So I take my Dublin book with me, (I had planned to go sit out and read if it was sunny), and found my way (Yes dad, I used a map, believe it!!!!) to the Design Museum which happened to be on the River Thames with a beautiful (and close) view of the London Bridge!  So of course I end up sitting and soaking up the soothing-ness (is that a word?) of the water along with the sun that was beginning to shine before going into the museum, which by the way was SO cool.  A little small, I would have liked more, but SO cool anyway.  There was an exhibit by an architect, a Vogue photographer, a Hong Kong invention/creation exhibit, and a practical technology inventions exhibit.  It was all genius and I loved it!  Plus I'm always proud of myself for doing educational things on my own will and enjoying them.  :)

After that, I shopped in the gift shop (have I said, gift shops are my favorite part of being a tourist?  seriously.)  and got some food from the cafe because I was starving.  Then it was even more beautiful so I went and read my whole little Dublin book in the beautful sun overlooking the river and bridge.  Probably the most gorgeous day yet, I so enjoyed it.

Then I had work which was great as always!  I get to actually do more and more of the cues each night when I'm learning a new plot, so that day I was excited that I got to reel in the rats on the part in Good Morning Baltimore when she sings "the rats on the street, they'll dance round my feet" and little rats come crawling out.  I like doing 'important' jobs like that so that was fun.  

Today I woke up pretty late on accident (I don't mean to waste the day), but then I made my way over to Charing Cross, which is near the theatre that Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is playing at.  I was not about to leave this city before seeing that show done as a West End production because I had only seen it done in one venue of community theatre before, and I just wanted to see it since Thespians are doing it in the spring.  After I got my very well priced, fourth row centre stalls seat, I went across the street to Top Shop, one of the best and well known places to shop for girls my age-ish over here.  And I ran into Sarah who I work with!  It was so funny to see her of all people in London!  She said, "it figures you would be shopping!"  haha.  She's still around this week, just not working, before she leaves for Egypt so it was fun to run into her!

As far as the show goes, let me tell you after seeing Joseph, I was just rushed with joy, because although I had criticisms (as always), in general I had a great time at the show, and the way it was done gave me more than full confidence that Thespians will do it justice in the Spring (not that I doubted it before, since I proposed it...).  For some reason the simplicity of it, of course with some technical spectacles added, and just the overall way the show went, I couldn't stop smiling and thinking about how successful and fun it will be in the spring.  

The show tonight was great fun again!  Two donuts and a dodgeball went flying into the pit!  One of my favorite parts of working stage right is during the dodgeball scene, they throw the four square balls off stage and I catch them!  All the way from the other side of the stage!  Everyone was impressed with my catching skills because apparently they don't usually straight away catch them, and I told them my dad had three girls so he darn well made sure they were athletic!  :)  Also tonight was funny because at one point I totally didn't understand what Ros was telling me, between the music and trying to decipher her accent, so I actually told her that I couldn't understand because of that and that sometimes when I ask her to repeat stuff that's why, and she laughed and felt so bad!  It was funny, and she said, "that explains your blank face sometimes" and I said, "yes that would be it."  We laughed about it and I felt kind of bad because Tom and Sarah I rarely if ever have trouble understanding and I felt bad telling her but I was glad I did so she didn't think I was just dumb for asking her to repeat things so much, because once I understand what she says, I can do it fine.  Haha so that was a funny story of the night.  I guess people say there isn't a language barrier, but when you're working backstage over a loud show, or just in general, there kind of is!  And occasionally I'll have to ask what a word or figure of speech means (mainly so I can add it to the list haha).

Tomorrow night 7 of the stage management crew are going out to take me for Fish and Chips, we even are getting a reservation, that's on our dinner break tomorrow between shows, then it's the lady who plays Velma's birthday, so that's somewhere over in covent garden after the second show.  All should be fun.  More later!  Cheers!

~Sam~

The London Eyeball and other adventures

I never know how to start these blog entries.  Someday I'll come up with something creative.  As you can see my list of British words and phrases is becoming quite lengthy because now I've told many of the people at work that I have a blog where I write phrases I learn, so they try to use and teach me new ones.  It's funny and then at the end of the night when we are all (by 'all' i mean no more than 4 other people at once haha) changing it's like a little review session, they say "Ok so new words for today were...."  It's so cute.  

Anyway yesterday (sunday) was my day off and everybody else's as well!  So there were 10 (!) of us, some of my friends who live in Thoresby house with me and we all decided to go to the London Dungeons and the London Eye.  That's a giant giant ferris wheel for those of you who don't know.  You can see all of london from it!  First were the London Dungeons, which is basically a haunted house that tells all the stories and myths about the "scary" bits of London and it's all...you know, haunted house like.  But I don't know, I wasn't that fond of it.  I mean, it was fun to do with all those friends and everything so I'm glad I went, but it wasn't really my thing.  And when things are live (movies and tv are different, scarier) I'm very critical of the technical aspects and don't really get too scared.  The makeup was unimpressive...just huge clumps of cheap red makeup and sometimes some white.  Obviously they do their own and are not trained on how, which is disappointing, for the fact that it was the price of going to a west end show (about 20 pounds, but we got a deal by getting the London Eye ticket at the same time, so I don't really know).  And of course as soon as I walk into the room with the chairs I see the speakers on the backs and stuff so I know that when it goes dark there's really no one in the room speaking, it's a recording.  And the acting wasn't the greatest of all, although I won't say it was ALL completely terrible...I'd just say that their auditions probably aren't very picky and the scripts were kind of lame, at points I was rolling my eyes.  Hope you enjoyed that little review of the London Dungeons.  

The London Eye review is much more optimistic!!!  Even though I didn't get to see it at sunset like I tried, because we had so many people, everyone was getting tired of waiting so we finally just got on.  It was a GORGEOUS day though so I got some great pictures!  Don't worry, they are soon to be published here.  We went out for dinner at a place called Giraffe and I had great Chicken Schnitzel Kiev and mash and cleaned my plate!!!  (aren't you proud, mom?!  ...It's quite unusual for me)  I haven't really been out to sit down places much at all, so it was a nice change and not terribly expensive.  Then we got some Ice Cream, although at first I thought it was Gelato, based on flavor and look, but it turns out it's texture was more like ice cream.  I forgot how much I missed Stracciatella flavor though!  We came home completely exhausted from our 9 hour tourist day!  It was great fun though!

Today I did some random little errands, flying solo as usual at daytimes since everyone works.  I went back to Samuel French to get a script for my project.  I'm going to do a design for They're Playing Our Song (late 60s setting) and compare it to Hairspray.  What's really ironic is that when I checked it out on the broadway online database it said it first played at the Shaftesbury in London where I work!  And I also went to a bookstore near Tottenham Court Road called Waterstone's and got a little book called the Dublin Encounter, by Lonely Planet because I love my London one and because this weekend (drrrummmroollll)  I'm going to Dublin!!!!  I'm very excited to do some traveling but sad that it means I'll miss working three shows this week  (Friday and Saturday).  It's funny, I just want to work anytime I can.  I kind of wish that we could pick when a class time would work for us because it kind of defeats the purpose that I miss work to go to class, when work is what the class is based on.  Like I almost went to Dublin only on Saturday so that I could work Friday night!  But I'm going with Jamie and Matt, who wanted to leave Friday since they don't work then, so I agreed.  We have our flight and high rated hostel in the centre of the city already booked and I'm excited to see Ireland!  It will be great fun.  I won't have internet though, because I don't want to take my computer, but expect a long post (maybe several) when I return.  I'm also excited to go to Dublin because the show I am Asst. Set Designing at Penn State in the Fall, "A Man of No Importance," takes place in Dublin!  So I'm hoping I can maybe be of help in the research area.  :)  Lots and lots of photos!

And also today I went grocery shopping and felt like I bought a lot, but turns out not really once it's all in the fridge.  Work was great as usual.  Sarah is off now on holiday, but Ros, (short for Rosalind) another DSM is back from holiday in France now and so I met her tonight and she's great.  I am shadowing her on Stage Right this week, which is fun but weird because just as I just about had Stage Left cues and tasks memorized, I switch and learn a whole new plot.  The stage right is must less hectic though so there is actually some downtime and some time (and space) for dancing in the wings.  During the last number, "You Can't Stop the Beat," which of course everyone knows the choreography to, and I pretty much even know it by now, they do the first chorus (dancing in the wings) regular and then the second chorus they pick a theme out of a hat and have to dance the theme.  Today was "stiff joints" so we did the dance pretending like our joints were stiff.  It was hilarious.  The cast must think we're crazy when/if they can see us from onstage.  It was so beautiful outside today but inside the theatre, although I think the audience has air, it was sweltering hot, and my friend Terrell who played Seaweed all last week, had to come off stage during the finale because he was so hot and dehydrated.  Everyone was sweating, including me and I wasn't even doing as much labour as I was used to on Stage Left.  

I'm excited because Ros invited me to come see a show that one of their mates who used to work on Hairspray has a show that's going up and I think I'm gonna go see it for very cheap with them next week which will be fun and also Ros wants to take me shopping in Camden when she found out I don't have company during the day so that was nice of her especially on the first day I met her!  And she takes the tube home and so does one of the dressers, so now I have people to walk to Holborn (the tube stop I take) with, even though we split off there and take different trains.

Time for bed now, I need to start waking up a little earlier than 10:00!!!  I can't get used to this luxury of more than 4 hours a night or I will be dead meat when school starts again!  More later, maybe pictures soon!  

~Sam~

The opposite of 'dodgy'

So I've just been having a blast.  What else is new, right?! haha.   I had my first two show day and I am still working on Stage Left, and getting the hang of things so that there are some things I can do before being told now...I'm trying to learn fast so that I can impress the people 'in charge' of me...since the connections I am making may be the most key thing I am doing, although I am learning a lot and the people I work with are quickly becoming my friends.  Most of them are mid-late 20s and up so it's a lot of fun, I feel like I get on better (did you see that british phrase i just used?!) with people older than me ever since I was younger anyway.  I think it's an oldest child thing but I don't know.  I enjoy having the daytimes off too!  Although I wouldn't even mind it if I worked two shows a day everyday...I just can't wait until I have everything memorized that I have to do!  (the tasks of the ASMs)...or moreso the order and cues over headset--that's the hardest part.  On Wednesday I had the whole day off because I have class at night that I'm not allowed to miss :/   I wish I could just work though, it's kind of dumb because even the advisors say we don't miss much in the class.  On Wednesday I got out of most of the main part of the class (it's 18:30-20:30) because my academic project advisor talked to me and the other 6-ish students with 'weird' internships...aka. film, theater, fashion, etc.  Turns out that the project is due July 5.  I'm not sure yet, but I want to take a play or musical also set in the 1960s and do some designs for it (more likely 2D renderings, since materials for model building and time for measurements, etc are not very accessible/realistic) and then write a paper to back up my concepts, maybe design a couple costumes, and compare it to the set and style of Hairspray, also set in the 60s.  I may even compare my 1960s research to what I see on the Hairspray set/costumes.  I figure that will be a good portfolio piece, as well as be a good project, and realistic to complete in 3 weeks or whatever it is, especially since I have daytimes to work on it daily.  On Wednesday, I went to the Samuel French bookstore, something I had found and written down in my little black book of things to see in London.  It was great!  I got some free papers about events in theater in the upcoming weeks, and read a book about the making of the Lord of the Rings musical, which was cool since I've seen it.  I think I'll probably go back there for some of my research, at least to pick up a script.  Then I went to Piccadilly Circus and kind of just took myself window shopping and (shock!)  didn't even buy anything!  Oh!  Except...I did find a little dessert shop that had Moevenpick Ice Cream!!!  It's the best ice cream, based in Switzerland, and you can only find it there and in countries surrounding.  So that was delicious and I ate it on the steps of the statue in the center of Piccadilly before getting back on the train.  Then I had class that night which would be dry to write to you about.  When we got back, I went with my friend Seth grocery shopping up on Angel to Salisbury's, which was great...a large choice finally!  Seth has this awesome film/fashion internship with some celebs so we both love our jobs and I enjoy hanging out and talking with him so it's become my ritual that once I come home from work (usually about 10:30pm) and change I go upstairs (he lives on the third floor) and take some snack food with me (work usually makes me hungry since I eat at weird times) so that's fun.

Thursday was the double matinee day.  Found out that people who work/act at the Shaftesbury get a discount at the Bagel Nash, my favorite (coincident) place!  So that's cool and I went there and got food (on discount-!) to take away on my lunch break, before coming back to the DSM lounge and watching a British comedy with Sara and Tom, the DSMs.  Running the second show was good, and after a long day I was glad to come home and sleep, although I had lots of fun.I dont think I've ever mentioned how many stairs there are in my theater!  If you see the pic of it on the slideshows, you can see its a huge building, but there are tiny little staircases going up and the dressing rooms and other random rooms are on every floor and it's quite a climb!  Especially on a 2-show day!  On the West End, different shows have one weekday that they do a matinee on, usually at 3pm, and then have night shows at 7:30pm every night but Sunday is totally dark throughout West End theatre.  And then most shows also do a Saturday matinee, but it varies/is random which weekday they do.  Ours (obvi) is Thursday and Saturday.

Today I stayed in the morning to do some random stuff, then Seth called me when he was out of a meeting, and I met him at Piccadilly Circus, and went shopping with him...there were a few things he was looking for, and then of course sometimes I ditched the boring men's sections to look at stuff....found an adorable little gray blazer on sale at H & M which I just had to get because I convinced myself that since sales 'tax' is included in the price here, it's cheaper or just as good at getting it at the H & M in NYC, which is where I would usually go...8% sales tax...yuk.  Plus it matches the chic hat I got at the street market.  :)  Enough boring you with my wardrobe shopping and fashion sense....

Then we came back to the house, me low on blood sugar, and Seth tired, and I did laundry (you can go ahead and gasp if you want here)  and then at 5 I left again for work.  I went to Aveda and got an Iced Mocha, before work because I was kind of tired, and ran into Harry, the cute little stagedoor guy, if you recall.  So that was good.  At work today, the DSMs switched around a bit so Sara was on my side (I dunno if it's with or without an -h so I'm switching it up), which was fun although Tom is great too.  I'm sad Sara is leaving on holiday to Egypt for two weeks soon so I won't see her the whole time I'm here, but same is with most of the other 4 DSMs...they rotate on holidays.  After the show she took me for a drink which was nice of her and I enjoyed talking with her for a little while, and so then I got home around 11.30.  That's about the end of my saga for today...thanks for reading!  Oh and by the way, it's about 60 degrees here, maybe going to 70s soon, but just thought you should know what the weather is like since it's probably getting hot?  More later!

~Sam~

More adventures in London!

Art Is Not A Crime

London at first sight

Hardee Hars (in the Stage Left) Hut

Today I had the day on my own because everyone else works during the day, and I work at night.  This is kind of unfortunate because I won't really get to do much with my friends anymore, but I'm so excited about my internship that I think it won't be too bad.  And I don't really mind spending quality time by myself...only one person to make decisions (although I'm bad at that) and you don't have to care when you get lost...plus I like to try to pull off the whole "I live here (until you hear I have an American accent)" thing...which doesn't so much go with the being lost part but whatever.  It is fun to hang out with friends though so I'm sad I won't see them as much anymore.  Anyway I started my day off by going to Palace Court, where the Center for Study Abroad is.  After I got lost about a hundred times, (most frustrating because I was lost but I knew I was seriously steps away from it...and I was) I found it and signed up to go to the Royal Ascot and Brighton Beach...since I had not been able to sign up for trips until I knew my internship schedule.  After that i wandered Kensington Gardens, got a tomato and brie sandwich which was not as good as I'd hoped for considering I am in love with Brie, and tomatoes for that matter.  After not knowing where I was (again) for awhile I finally found a tube stop and got on to Woman in Black to see if I could get tickets.  (Random, I know, but i figured I should see some straight plays and it was crappy weather out).  So for 20 pounds I got tickets but had an hour to spare.  I went to Leichester Square, which is essentially the Chinatown stop, one tube stop away from where the theater was.  So I walked around there and then went back to the theatre and by now it was raining a lot.

The Woman in Black was very good!  The sets were functional and appropriately and wellaesthetically (I just made that word) designed and there were only two speaking characters in the show.  It was a horror show, (not the kind of Rocky though) and a bunch of English highschoolers were there and were shreaking left and right...haha but I did not think it was bad.  I got chills one time though and was startled a few times.  It was good...I like mysteries...just not in movie form...in book or play, but I like to avoid the gore and stuff that will traumatize me haha but Woman In Black was excellent.

Anyway.  After the show, (west end matinees are mostly at 3pm and are on one varying weekday plus Saturday for most shows), it was off to work.  So I went to the Bagel Nash (mya favorite little place, mostly because of the name) for dinner and after getting the most stupidly lost I ever have (I later realized that the Shaftesbury theater was literally in view from where I was), I made it there early.  I go to work at 6pm, or 18.00.  :)  When I got there, straightaway Chris told me some very exciting news that some of you might find ironic.  :)  ...

He told me that the same company that produced Hairspray and Dirty Dancing (his last show) on the West End and some others, are producing High School Musical through Disney, new to Broadway or West End in the fall and that the American design team was coming over for a few weeks to work on it while it's in rehearsals in late June.  He then offered me to assist the designer(s) on the team in addition to working on Hairspray!  This was very exciting to me and I am incredibly thrilled to (hopefully) end up with two West End credits on my resume, one as run crew and one an assistantship in Design!  And since Disney seems to be taking over the world including the theatre world, working on one of their productions could definitely benefit me in the future.  Although I don't know all the details on the second, it sounded like it was worked out enough that I will do it even though the whole thing is not all worked out yet.

I shadowed Stage Left with a guy named Tom tonight and it was crazy but a lot of fun!  I got a cue sheet and he showed me the ropes and what he does at what time.  It works like clockwork and is seriously a whole machine in itself.  It is crazy and the space is...about slightly bigger than the backstage area of the downtown theater and more even on both sides for those of you who can imagine that....tight at the least.  It's like playing tetris and I find it amazing how everyone knows exactly what to move where, what clips and pins to attach where, and when and on what angle and when to "page" the curtain for the actors (sightlines are similar to Schwab, but better, still not great) or collect props from actors, or watch for loose dodgeballs...all this by memory and more.  Most of the stuff gets shuffled around and flown in and out for storage.  Plus most of the finale we spend resetting the show (and/or dancing) for the next night and are able to leave immediately after the show.  It was a lot to learn and it blows my mind that I may eventually know it all too.  The longest show I ever run was 3 and a half week run, and even then I still used a sheet to check back on when I was ASM, which is basically what Tom is, just called a DSM.  He even knew and was able in advance to tell me exactly where I should stand so that I would not be in the way.  I have never been more impressed with the inner AND outer workings of a show.  And they all do it with such ease and low stress and are so friendly and fun.  Basically it's my ideal future work environment there and I'm so grateful for the opportunity.  The cute little stagedoor man (sometimes a lady) even grins and shouts out "Hello Sah-m!!" whenever he sees me come in or out.  And the cast does the same and there does not seem to be a division between cast and crew or any divas around.  Anything that would be considered something a "diva" would want, is done for them anyway, no problem.  For example, one of the things Tom gave me to do today was to page the curtain and hold my hand over the corner of a set piece that Velma had hit her knee on once while she is wheeled on a laundry cart, then hold out my hand to help her down.  Nice treatment, right?!  I was impressed that they do that for her every night, especially when I saw that how she hit her knee was basically just the driver of the laundry cart just veering off too much.  I met Micheal Ball tonight (he was off last night) and he is great and very friendly as well!!!  For those of you who don't know, he's the big name actor on the West End in the show that all the fans are after.  As soon as he saw I was a new face at warmups he introduced himself and talked with me.  The girl who plays Lil Inez (Natalie) is also very sweet and the guy standing in for Link (Neil) while he is on holiday is also great.  There is one other American involved in the whole production, who when I met her said, "Hey we don't need any more Americans around here!"  Her name is Johnnie and she plays Motormouth Mabel.  She was born in Pennsylvania, and when I made a face that I didn't know the town she was born in, she said "And you call yourself a Pennsylvanian?!  psh!"  haha, it was near Pittsburgh though.  She's funny.   Overall, I love it how everyone seems to get along so well and have so much fun and do their jobs so well there. 

That's about all for today... tomorrow I've got the day and night off because I have class from 6:30-8:30 which is disappointing because I want to work, but I suppose I should get more than an empty bank account and some great experiences for my parents money (aka....college credit.)  Maybe I will spend some of my daytime in solitude (haha) tomorrow posting some pictures.  Just haven't had time to post pictures AND write.  Oh and the Har dee Har Hut is a piece of scenery/the toy shop in Hairspray in case the title had you boggled.  There is a really cool machine domino effect on it that I helped set up tonight.  Learned more about automation and the use of air tanks....and the similarities between it and steaming milk at Starbucks.  What can I say?!  I make good connections.  :)

Goodnight!

~Sam~ 

Welcome to the 60's!!!

Where can I even start?!  Before I go on about my internship, I should tell what I've been doing since my last post.  Yesterday morning, Jamie and I went to the Petticoat Market, over by Liverpool Street--a very large market...every time we thought we were nearing the end, it started to look like only the beginning!!!  I bought a very cute olive green canvas bag with leather trim and buckles (better than that sounds, haha...it matches my rain coat) that fits a lot of stuff into it since my other larger bag's zipper is starting to break and I needed a bag that closes.  I also got a hat (surprise!)  that will win any future hat contests in Props class...yet it is still a messenger hat and matches several outfits.  I got a shirt that is silk and black that will be very useful too and it's cute...i couldn't resist.  All together it only came to 14 pounds...don't worry mom, I'm a good shopper!  We spent several hours there, ate street cheeseburgers (a cheap, and surprisingly good lunch!)  and came back home.  I of course do not want to sit at home, so Matt and I decided to go to the Theatre Museum!  Sounds great, right?  Well.  When we FINALLY found the place, slightly over an hour before it was to close according to Matt's guidebook...we basically went round and round with signs pointing to the "theater museum," which looked like apartments and lacked signage!  Finally, after Matt told me his guide book was two years old....we found the demolition sign!  But the cloud had a silver lining...we found a street show to watch and enjoyed the time outside while it was chilly, but not raining.  Weather here is spastic.  Like State College.  Not that I'm homesick at all...I'm not quite the homesick type (sorry mom), but if I was, at least I would have the weather.  After that we came home, made pasta dinner and played cards, watched an episode of the TV show "Weeds" and chilled out for the night.

Today, we got up early and went to the Tower of London!  Jamie, Kat and I enjoyed the tour by the Beefeater and the various reinactments which happened throughout the place every so often.  We saw the crown jewels and the Tower Bridge as well.  I have never seen so much gold in one room in my life.  And of course my favorite part was the gift shops, as always with these historical sites.  :)  

Then I came home, talked with my friend Seth who's got a really cool internship working for people like Amy Winehouse and some other famous people whose names I cannot spell and we all know I don't write in what I can't spell...most of the time.  I made pasta (leftovers in the microwave) and left for work at 5...trust me traveling TO work in Rush hour is not the greatest, but I made good time...I needed to be there around 6 and I took the bus, got there around 5:40 by the time I walked to the bus stop a few blocks away and all.

When I got there, I did the same thing that I did the first time, told the stage door guard that I was here to see Chris Hensky (short for Hesketh), the stage manager, who just got off of stage managing Dirty Dancing on the West End that opened at the Aldwych not too long ago!  When he came to meet me, I put my stuff in the office he told me I could "treat like home," and he took me around to meet literally everyone involved in the production.  Not only did I meet most of the cast and crew individually, but after warmups was introduced to the entire cast and crew onstage!  It was exciting and they were all so friendly and welcoming.  Hensky (that's what he is called for short) had to do some other tasks so he handed me off to a girl named Sarah, who is a "deputy stage manager"*  and she showed me the props and what she does.  She was very nice to me and explained so much to me.  Apparently, it is a law that you put down/test the safety curtain while the audience is in the house in the UK.  This is something that Kat and I had wondered after seeing all 3 shows put down the safety curtain in the interval.**  

Then Chris took me out to the box office where I got my row F stalls*** comp. ticket for the show.  I went back up backstage and hung out with/followed Sarah until 7 minutes-ish till curtain.  The show is called from one of the show boxes that used to have seating!  And strictly by use of monitors too!  The theater has tight backstage storage space...something I am very used to.  

I saw the show.  It was energetic and fabulous.  Of course I've seen the production before, but watching it knowing that I was about to become PART of it made it all the better.  I met Sarah back at the stage door, where it felt pretty cool to bypass the fans (there weren't too many standing there since Michael Ball had the night off), and buzz in the stage door with my pass.  I got my stuff and found out that I had the daytime off tomorrow again and would be called at 6pm again.  Found out my dresscode and that I can leave my blacks there and change if I need to (I will only need to be in blacks to do certain jobs).  I know that at first I will be shadowing people in all departments, and when I learn stage management (my main one), I will be given jobs backstage on the floor with props to do.  But I will also spend time in sound, makeup, costumes, and maybe other things, although those were the ones they mentioned.  The only thing I'm not allowed to do is shadow the people who run all the automation (all the scenery is automated, which means it moves onstage my machinery, not stagehands) because I would have to climb a ladder the size of the one at the Playhouse to get there, which is not bendable by equity laws and liability, but I am lucky to be doing what I am so I am okay with it.  Maybe somebody can just explain it to me from the floor for the interest of ....a follow up THEA 280 (tech direction) class!?  :)  Anyway I had a fantastic night and they told me the most important things to know were the key codes to backstage which I already know, and the location of the pub across the street.  I get out of the show at like 10:15pm, no clean up or anything so that is nice.  Okay enough of a novel I am off in search of what to do tomorrow on my day off...not many other people have daytimes off any day but Friday. 

 Oh and fact of the day....need a good comeback for somebody?  just tell them they have "acne of the soul!"...a quote from hairspray.  :)

~Sam

Chicken, Pesto, and a Ring in the Hood

I am so enthralled by London and I have no doubt that every day for the next two months that I am here, I will see and learn something new about this amazing city.   Our Fleet Street adventure that I mentioned was surprisingly very successful!!!  We were able to acquire meat pies (sans the crawlers, for those who have seen Sweeney Todd) and I got a chicken one with potatoes and veggies in it.  Actually quite good!  We got some good photos and had some good times!  We even came across an old church with a museum downstairs which we enjoyed exploring.  When I say we, I mean Jamie (my roommate), me, and my other new friend Madeleine, who lives across the hall and is taking classes through Arcadia instead of the internship program.  The three of us, plus our other friend Matt who lives next to Madeleine, tend to stick together most of the time and I enjoy hanging out with them.  We had to then go to class at 14:00 (My goal is to be able to automatically translate military time by the end of this trip), which was a guest speaker, part of orientation and it was incredibly long and dry.  It was about British political history, but for 2 and a half hours, it was not so great.  I made some great art on my notebook paper while the guy was talking though!  (Annnddd this, ladies and gents, is why I am a theatre major and do not sit through many lectures.)  After the lecture, Jamie wanted to go back to the house for awhile, so I went with my friend from School of Theater at PSU, Kat, and her new friends.  We went to Platform 9 and 3/4 (Yes!  Be jealous!  it exists!)  even though I'm not really all about the Harry Potter, it was still kind of cool to take pictures with the half of a luggage cart in the wall.  We went to dinner at a Thai food restaurant (my favorite!).  

Basically as soon as I returned to the house (Kat and her friends live on the other side of London, kind of)  Madeleine and Jamie and Matt were planning to go see an old tube stop which....(drummmrollll) was filled with graffiti art!!!!!  This.  Is basically my dream.  Because if you don't know, I'm kind of really into graffiti art and I take pictures of it everywhere and get books about it, and I think it's beautiful.  So I was basically in heaven and we took probably a hundred pictures with this incredible deserted tube stop (think the size of a whole subway station stop).  It was beautiful and I loved every moment.  Basically it was like standing inside one of my favorite graffiti books.  And maybe even the highlight so far.  Best of all....free!  After that we went back to the pub called Offside, tried to meet up with some other friends, but it didn't work out.  We came home and watched the TV show Weeds on the computer (no British cable unfortunately in our house) and I fell asleep during it because as you can tell I had had a very busy day.  And I didn't even throw in the mileage I probably walked.  :)

Today was also quite eventful.  It started out with going to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, which turned into coincidentally a dress rehearsal for the Queen's birthday!!!  This meant the palace band, and a lot more people and excitement!!!  I got great video and still footage which I will post soon.  My new 15x zoom camera came in very handy.  And I learned that you can play instruments on a horse while wearing big furry hats and very high boots that I would be surprised if I saw someone able to walk in them.  I think the Blue Band should change their uniform.  :)   After that, we ate lunch at a cute little place one of us found in the tourist book ( I was with Jamie, Mad. and Matt ).  I had a chicken and pesto mayo sandwich/panini thing and it was delicious.  Then Kat and I had planned to go try to get tickets for Dirty Dancing because Christopher Henskth (Hensky for short), who I will be working under, supposedly worked on the show and I wanted to be able to compliment his work when I meet him on Monday.  So I left my little crew and took the tube to meet Kat at Covent Garden, the nearest tube stop to the theatre.  However, when we got to the theatre, it was sold out for both afternoon (there are 3pm and 7:30 shows here, with dark Sundays only) and evening.  And I couldn't find Christopher's name in the program I looked at.  More research I suppose is needed there on my part.  Still wanted to see it though!  We were bummed, but decided to wander around the corner anyway to see if any theatres popped up.  Unlike New York, not all Broadway (West End, in this case) theatres are close to each other and many of them are across town, and the theatres are scattered across London, which is best explained as a horizontal city, while New York is a vertical city, if you can see what I mean.  Anyway, what did we come upon but the theatre for the new musical "Into the Hoods," a hip hop version of Sondheim's Into the Woods, except featuring DJed music of today's hip hop artists.  As we both miraculously agreed that we wanted to see it, we walked up to the box office and got third row center student tickets for 22 pounds!  We had an hour or so to spare, so we walked outside and saw the Lord of the Rings theater.  Although both of us had plans to go out to pubs, etc. with our respective groups of friends at night, we agreed to forgo our plans and try to get evening tickets, but knew it was shot in the dark.  Don't get me wrong--I am not a Lord of the Rings fan by any means, but it is supposed to be an absolute spectacle of scenery, so I was intrigued.  Again, we walked up to the box office and got tickets for the center orchestra level (halfway back) for 25 pounds for the 7:30 show!!!  This was just like one of our regular New York trips that we take with some other PSU friends....except in another city!!!  And let me tell you this city revolves around theatre, even in comparison to New York.  Every restaurant I have seen gives special pre-theatre going prices and quick menus.  And there are so much more shows to see here, and more new experimental theatre that is actually On [Broadway/West End], vs. New York where most new theatre is small and off-broadway.

First of all, Into the Hoods was the best thing I have seen in a very, very long time.  Basically a hip hop ballet of sorts, I have very little to critique about it.  And if you know me, you know that is rare.  This show was the most innovative and genius production.  It was family friendly.  3 Kids were in the show, and danced almost as well as the other older dancers!  They could break dance and do the hip hop routines and had great facial expressions, as did the rest of the cast.  Since it was a ballet basically (with hip hop dancing and music), there was little talking except for a narrator through the speakers.  The projections were amazing...for example you would see the animation/movie of an actor walking down a staircase and at the right spot and time the same actor would walk through the screen down the "stairs!"  I can't imagine how much work this show was on the part of the production team and on the endurance of the dancers, who were constantly dancing and moving with little time offstage.  The plot was creative and followed an urban version of Into the Woods.  A movie sequence with the actors in it preceded and ended the show.  The dancing was not short of breathtaking, and energy did not seem to lower at any moment.  All I can do is hope this show will move to New York and that when it does that you will go see it when and if given the opportunity.  And I know it would do well there.

We ate dinner at a cute little cafe, and I had chicken and pesto pasta...not realizing I had a sandwich with the same ingredients earlier!  :)    

Lord of the Rings was a great experience and I am so glad I went to see it.  Although the plotline went completely over my head, as I am not an avid fan or follower as I said before, it didn't seem to matter because most of the time my mouth was dropped watching the spectacular technical aspects.  These included full cyc firework and realistic thunderstorm projections, and branches in a circle that spun and moved up and down and in and out like a giant claw hair clip...best way to explain it.  Also (not Kat's favorite part, but I thought it was still cool) a giant spider with several legs and "venum" that shot out at the audience.  There was also a storm with dry ice fog filling the auditorium, wind and "leaves!"  The best way I can describe it is Wicked and Cirque de Solei mixed together... on crack.  Trapeze artists and all included.  Lighting alone must have been millions of dollars, if not billions....and after taking lighting design class this year, I know that for sure.  It is a feast for any lighting designer's eyes.  Also the stage was on a turn table which spun and probably 10 platforms rose to different levels, could move separately, and/or spin at the same time.  In my opinion, this should be installed at Penn State.  :)  Also what we later discovered was soft foam, the entire procenium and surrounding ceiling and boxes was covered in overlapping branching.  I can't even imagine how much of this they made because the theatre was incredibly large and the branches were also used in great amount on stage as well in some scenes.

The tube ride home now was crazy because it is the last night that you are allowed to drink alcohol on it (I was originally going to go to a gigantic party happening on one of the lines, but saw the show instead) and many lines were inconveniently closed or delayed and it was crowded and people were crazy and many of them drunk.  But, I made it!  And my day of theater and chicken and pesto is done.  It was an incredible day and as you can probably tell, I love it here.  Photos/footage to come soon!  Thanks for checking up!

~Sam~