Jude Law Lunacy

Yesterday was the much awaited matinee performance of Hamlet featuring Jude Law in the title role. We were all worried that he wouldn't show up to perform since he hasn't been performing in all of the matinees. However, I was plesantly surprised to see the curtain rise on his bowed head and could tell straight away from the hairline that it was him. We had really horrible balcony seats as the play has been sold out, which reallllyyy sucks when you're used to the front row!! We were basically viewing the top of the actor's heads rather than their faces which I found really took away from the emotional connection the actors generally have had with the audience in the other productions we have seen.

Since Hamlet is my favorite play by Shakespeare, I really had my hopes up to see a moving and intense production. Unfortunately the performance fell very flat for me. The costumes and the sets were all very drab in gray and black. This made Gertrude's telling Hamlet to "Cast thy nighted color off" completely irrelevant as it looked as if the whole court were still in mourning rather than just Hamlet. The actors did not seem to have any chemistry with eachother. There were some stand out individual performances. Kevin McNally as Claudius did a good job. But it was pretty much The Jude Law Show. He even had his own individual curtain call. Some in our group didn't enjoy his performance but I enjoyed it very much. He played Hamlet in kind of the same air as Mel Gibson's Hamlet. I felt he was a very active and animated Hamlet. And if nothing else, he's at least the hottest Hamlet I've ever seen!!

The Jude Law Lunacy kicked in around 10pm when a group of us headed back to the theatre to get Jude's autograph since he didn't come out between shows. It was madness. We waited for over an hour with the group accumulating as the night wore on. Luckily I had a front row spot so I had an excellent view and received one of the first autographs. He was very polite when I asked for a picture. He wasn't able to take individual shots due to the size of the crowd, but when he was signing something over my head I turned around and got one with myself and his arms! It was madness trying to get out of the que. I pretty much had to push people out of my way to be able to breathe again.

Overall, I felt it was a bit ironic that I live so close to Hollywood and all of the movie premieres that go on in Westwood, yet this was the first time I've actually stood and waited to meet an actor/actress. Go figure.

On another note, today I went to an Evensong service at Westminster Abbey. It was sooo extremely beautiful inside. The service was very different from what I'm used to and not very personal, but I think it may be the most accoustically pleasing building I've ever been in. The choir sounded beautiful.

London Baby!

It's good to be back in London. And have non-sketchy internet access!! I just ordered my Harry Potter set on Amazon to be delivered to the hotel. I'm really missing Jamba Juice. There aren't any smoothie places here! I thought I found one but it ended up being a strawberry milkshake. Boo. I'm off to go walk off my dinner around Big Ben.

Oh, P.S. It's really odd to be walking down a cobblestone street and hear the rapper Pit Bull blaring out of the speakers of a car that is racing down the street!

Stratford

So Stratford upon Avon has been an interesting experience. The whole town is a bit of a mix between old and new. There are just as many seniors (if not more) walking the streets of Stratford as there are UCLA students. There are Tudor style buildings erected during Shakespeare's lifetime and modern buildings. There's the White Swan, an old Tudor-style home turned hotel. And there's the Stratford upon Avon Holiday Inn (where we are staying)! Everywhere you go here there seems to be that stark contrast between old and new.

The same rings true for the performances of the Royal Shakespeare Company. While the director keeps the setting for Julius Caeser in the time period for which it is written, she uses other devices of the 21st century such as projection screens in order to generate the massive amounts of people needed for the crowd scenes after Caesar's assassination and the war scenes of the second half of the play.

Classes here have been more varied in that we have heard from the costume designer for the Royal Shakespeare Company, assistant director of As You Like It, and the actor who played Brutus in Julius Caesar. We are scheduled also to hear from two more actors within the week. It is nice to be able to hear their perspectives on the play and the preparations that go into the productions. I like that we are getting a more hands-on experience here in Shakespeare's home town!

On a side note, I went to Oxford University yesterday. It was beautiful! It was a mix between city and countryside. Definitely a college town. I liked the atmosphere and it was cool to visit England's oldest college. Unfortunately I didn't make it early enough to see the inside of their massive library =( but the bookstore was quite massive in it's own respects. I'm hoping to get the chance to visit Cambridge as well once we get back to London next Tuesday.

The Globe in the RAIN!

So the Globe was really cool. We saw As You Like It last night, however it is an open air theatre and it was raining!! So I got completely soaked and now I think I'm getting sick. I have to give it up to the Londoners though. It was still a packed house! The set up was really cool too. The stage has platforms that extend out and enable a lot of audience interaction. In the Globe there are "groundling" tickets which means you stand out in front of the stage, as people would have in Shakespeare's time. So the actors were kind of in and out of that whole area.

On the way home we walked over the Millenium Bridge (the one the death eaters destroy in the new Harry Potter movie). And the bridge leads directly to St. Paul's Cathedral. So naturally this made me want to read some Harry Potter and watch some Mary Poppins! lol

Today we had a paper due and a test, oh my! I think they both went well... We have a free day tomorrow and were going to do a Harry Potter tour but found out the cheap ones are only on Sundays!! So now I have to figure out what to do... And Sunday we leave for Stratford upon Avon! So it should be a good weekend as long as I don't get sick!

Word to the Wise:

When you meet Ethan Hawke, get a bloody picture!! So at our first Shakespeare performance on Monday night of The Winter's Tale, my friends and I were standing around talking after the performance and just happened to stand there so long that the actors started to emerge. I spotted Ethan Hawke who played Autolycus, the lovable thief, and pointed him out. One of the girls was brave enough to get a photo while Ethan politely said "Hey, how's it going?" to the rest of us. He was very polite but didn't seem like he wanted to stand around and chat so I didn't ask him for to take another. =(

On a side note, Shakespeare performed live is amazing. It was the first performance that I've seen of his live and I was kind of hit during the middle of the play by the realization that this play has been performed on stage for the last 400 years. The combination of the talented actors and live audience was extremely powerful. I can't wait to see more!

So class has started. Most days we have lecture for two hours and some days there is also an hour discussion section. Today we had a Shakespearian actor named Ben Crystal come in and work with us on our acting skills! You could tell he loved The Bard and his works. He was particularly adverse to modern academics making their own interpretations and prefered the Folio's created by the actors of Shakespeare's time.

I haven't had a ton of time to do much else besides school work but I have been to Westminster Abbey. It was awesome! The groundskeeper pointed out a Viking tomb and through the hole in the door you can see Henry VIII's tomb. I also went to the British Museum which has a lot of cool Egyptian artifacts. Tomorrow it will be Picadilly Circus which is the equivalent of Times Square and we will see a performance of As You Like It at The Globe Theatre!!

UCLA Blog Address

Oh yeah, the link to the UCLA blog is: http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/bards-blog.aspx

I just read it and it gives more info about my trip and also has one blog up so far.