Jan 22- Day 13

Today I woke up late (like 11am) to discover to my surprise that my roommate had managed to score front row tickets to see Ian McKellen perform in Waiting for Godot for only 11 pounds. Generally those seats are closer to 50 pounds. (Not in weight Lou. Quit laughing.) Basically, we saved roughly $80+ american dollars to see one of the greatest actors live on stage. Naturally, his performance was ridiculously amazing, and it was a pleasant surprise to me when I figured out that Vladimir was played by Roger Rees, the sheriff of rottingham from Robin Hood: Men in Tights. I was basically loving every second of it.

Did I mention the stage was less than a foot away, and the actors less than 5 feet away from me? I could basically stand up, reach out, and touch their ankles. It was awesome. It was amazing. It was super freaking cool.

And the lighting! From where we were I could see just about everything. I can't describe without showing the set, but I don't think I'll find photos of the set until after the show officially opens next week (because it was previews we were able to get tickets for so cheap.) But there were two lighting things I liked a lot. Well, three actually- the pattern they used for the breakup gobos for the tree, the deep smexy blue they cast on the back wall along with the bright white 'heavenly' light hidden behind a door whenever the boy appeared onstage, and then when they had a light at the perfect angle and the actors standing in the perfect spot so they were nicely highlighted in front of the tree while discussing hanging themselves. They and the tree were in color and well-lit on one half of the stage. The other half? A perfect, crisp silhouette of the actors and tree's shadows, larger then life casted on the back wall. Whether this was intentional (as I'm assuming it was) or just a by-product, the back wall that had been constructed had some kind of gold colored piping on the black stone/brick, which were mysteriously set at the perfect intervals and height to appear to be decapitating the shadows of Vladimir and Estragon. It was a beautiful onstage image that I would love to replicate sometime.

After the show Jon, Rachel, and I fanpeople'd and snuck to the backstage door to meet the actors. Unfortunately, there was a loud and very obnoxious group of Californian study abroad theatre kids already there, who basically swarmed the four actors as they came out. We managed to get a few autographs and crash the CA group pictures. As far as I know of, I was the only one to shake Sir Ian and Roger Ree's hands. So there. Sir Ian McKellen had a chauffeur drive him away after he finally managed to break free of the crushing mob of Cali kids, but Roger Rees was great. He stayed and took pictures with them and signed whatever they wanted, made jokes, kept the atmosphere light, and then hitched his backpack over his shoulder and walked off down the street and into the night. Assumeably his actor status is just enough to be exciting, but not enough to prevent him from using the Tube. Had he been the last one out and not the first, I probably would have followed him as far as I could and asked him questions about being a professional in the theatre. But ah well. While I didn't get everything I dreamed of, I did get more than I had hoped for, which is always fantastic.

Other than the theatre awesome amazing beautifulness, I went grocery shopping for nearly everything needed to make spaghetti and a casserole minus the brocolli and hamburger. Seems I probably offend people when I cook meat in the kitchens (at least I feel like I do. Inevitably at least three vegan/vegetarians will appear whenever I'm cooking and ask what I'm making and I feel guilty telling them I'm browning cow.) and that the english don't have bags of frozen broccoli or fake cheese.

Tomorrow we go to Hampton Court for class. No idea what time we'll be back, or if there will be a blog entry. However, there is an 80% chance of a salami sandwich and an egg in a basket in my future bfast/brunch plans tomorrow.