Mar17-19: a quick update

hey-lo, my battery is dying and sleep beckons.

My week's been alright, alternating between classes and Birmingham and I'll give a real update tomorrow. Today I organized all of my emails, saw the dinosaurs, saw the ocean fossils, traveled through the world, sent in my NSO group leader app, and did none of the things I planned for today.

It was a fairly good day.

Edit:


Mar 17
I went to Birmingham one last time, listened in on the director/designer meetings, ate some food, but for the most part was really bored. I did get to see the first dress rehearsal of Laborintus though, which was really cool. The first half is a really weird atonal orchestra piece. The student orchestra had been split up into four corners on different little platforms, with four conductors conducting the piece all at once. It was super cool to watch the ways that the conductors styles changed- one man was really flowy and his arms waved about a little wildly while he kept time; another man was really quick and precise. Apparently that's how they developed the original "surround sound" but I think I'm too used to it to really be able to tell.

The second half was all about this strange happening piece written in multiple languages. I didn't understand it at all, but it looked interesting! Something at the end involved angles and a bunch of doorframes and the actor climbing into a cage to "sail off" into the unknown. Like I said- weird.

Mar 18
more classes, and a theatre production called "day at the racists." Basically it was in Earl's Court, in a tiny little pub theatre, and was all about a political party of the new government, and how the wording and phrasing of ideas and beliefs can totally belie the true meaning. Annie and Alison got excited when one of the characters turned out to be a lesser actor from Harry Potter. There was a discussion afterwards with the director and scriptwriter, and another lady who I didn't quite understand why she was there. I got an autograph copy of the script from the author with the writing "you're reading too much into it" for my professor. Take that english and theatre professors who think every little thing has a hidden subtextual meaning! It's not always true!! I have proof!