It's odd to go from counting down the days for months to actually being in London, but we're definitely here. It's still kind of surreal, and I find myself constantly having "pinch yourself" moments because even the mundane, ordinary things are made that much cooler simply because we're in London. I don't know if I have ever been more tired in my life than I was our first day. I'm not very good at sleeping anywhere else but a bed, so I hardly slept on the plane, and we hit the ground running as soon as we got here. I have been to London once before, and I vaguely (and I do mean vaguely) remember taking the tube. Mostly I remember how crowded it was, and I found my memory served me correctly as we got on the Piccadilly line to explore some of London with our professors. The tube was fairly easy to navigate with our leaders guiding us, but the adrenaline and excitement hit us when they left us in the middle of Leicester Square by ourselves. We took the tube to Embankment with the mission of finding The London Eye, The National Theatre, and Shakespeare's Globe. Predictably, the first was the easiest to find, as you could see it from a mile away.
The National Theatre proved a bit harder to find, though it was only a short walk away. The theatre had a lot of fun advertisements for their show, Everyman (which we're seeing June 10th!), including a huge wall with finger pointing down painted on it, and a spot indicating where to stand if you want your picture with it (like I did).
After most of us got our photo shoot in, we realized we couldn't find The Globe on the dinky little map we had, so we had to make like real tourists and ask for directions. It ended up being about a fifteen minute walk down the Thames River. When we finally found it, we made our way across the Millennium Bridge and back on the tube to Earl's Court.
That night, some of the girls and I went to go see The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre. We had gone to the TKTS booth earlier that day and got pretty great seats for only twelve pounds. I've never been to a "scary" show, so, as a horror film buff, I was very excited to see this production. At this point, I had been up since 8:30 the previous morning, and as much as I hate to admit it, I was very close to dozing off during the beginning of the show. It wasn't boring by any means, but it was like most horror movies in that it had a relatively slow beginning. However, after the woman made her first appearance about half an hour in, I was wide awake. It was so new and wonderful to be terrified like that in live theater. We were also on the balcony, and even though it's a small theatre and we had a wonderful view, I can't imagine how much more intense it is on the floor. The actors make entrances and exits through the audience, include the woman in black. I can pretty confidently say that I would've had trouble sleeping for the next week if she came up close to me in that audience.
The following night we saw The Father at the Tricycle Theatre. I don't think I've ever cried more in a show. It was one of the most beautiful, honest, heart-breaking shows I have ever seen, and a reminder to me of why I love theatre and why I want to act. I could sing it's praises all day long, but that would be a very long blog post. So I will end it here.
I can't put into words how excited I am for the rest of this month!
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