London: Thursday

As usual, Erica woke me up today. For the first time, I asked for five more minutes. After getting up and getting dressed, we made our way to class (and the walk gets shorter and shorter every time). In class, we each presented a picture and description of a painting that we picked at either the National Gallery or the National Portrait Gallery. Like I've said, I picked "Child with a Dove" by Pablo Picasso. After that, Nancy, our local Londoner, presented a powerpoint about Pantomime, a type of theatre found in the UK around Christmas, telling the story of a fairy tale with children and parents composing most of the audience, because the show we were going to see later on in the evening is one. We then talked about War Horse, which left me with a lump in my throat and a headache - yeah, it's THAT good. We then had an hour to eat lunch (I had a homemade sandwich from EAT.) and then meet the group at the Holbourn station for the Underground. From there, we rode all the way out to Middlesex University (a sister school to SUNY New Paltz) for a tour, which really means advertisement. Don't get me wrong, I have had an unbelievably great time here in London, but I'm ok on coming here for an entire semester. Anyways, from there we took the Tube to Stratford and made it to the theatre with 5 minutes to spare. By this time, though, I still had a horrible headache, and had taken two huge Tylenols, housed glasses of water, and even tried Coke incase it was caffeine withdrawal. But, despite my headache, I had actually become excited for the show. We all needed a little comedic relief, and that's just what we were about to get. The show was awesome - nothing too heavy, lots of double entendres, wonderful costumes, and lots of audience participation. It was so fun to watch the actors crack up with us and each other.
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Aladdin
The playwright was trying to show that in order to find true love, you have to be yourself, and no matter who you try to be, you won’t succeed unless you’re yourself. Also, that there is more to life than money and things. The play was done wonderfully and I thought everyone did a great job. I’m so glad they put the plan on, and they should definitely keep doing it! I was on the second row, so I felt that I had tons of interaction with the cast, and fellow audience members. The only problem that I had with my seat was that I couldn’t see what was on the floor of the stage, like when the old man was looking for gold coins on the ground. The play’s structure was a traditional linear structure. I was definitely manipulated emotionally because I laughed the entire time, maybe not so much by the playwright, but definitely by the actors and their ability to improvise. The most successful performance was by the villain because he was hilarious and witty, and the genie because he was talented and awesome. Also, by Aladdin’s mother because she was absolutely on top of her game and stayed completely in character the entire time. Dynamic performers were distinguished from mediocre ones based mostly on their ability to connect with the audience. The cast for this show was definitely non-traditional, and looked for specific races and genders for specific roles. I don’t think any of the spectacles covered up flaws because I don’t think there were any flaws, and if there were, the cast went with it. It wasn’t a formal show where flaws aren’t allowed. The only sort of design that impacted me emotionally (made me laugh) were the costume designs (outrageous and over the top, especially for Aladdin’s mother) and the music designs (which included contemporary music and hip hop). The design of the production definitely supported the intent of the play. The one thing that impacted me and will stick with me is the way the actors connected with the audience by listening, responding, and being witty enough to create a relationship with us.
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By the end of the show, I was hungry and exhausted. We took the Tube to Charing Cross, and then walked to the pub on our block. I was even more exhausted (falling asleep on the train), my headache was full force, and I was hungry. We weren't going to the pub to drink, we were going to get our favorite dish: french fries and garlic mayo. When we got there, literally 3 minutes before ten, the kitchen had been closed down. Eric and I went outside to tell Erica, and after standing there for a few seconds, the manager came out and said they'd be more than happy to start up the friers for us. So, luckily, we got our fill of garlic and grease (which magically cured my headache) and then headed home. I took a shower, organized my things from the day, made our plans for how to get to where we're going tomorrow (The Globe Theatre, or some place like that), and am now updating my blog. It's off to bed now. Two more early days ahead of us, then sleeping in Sunday until High Tea, and then sleeping in on Monday until the bus comes at 12 to take us to the airport. Cheers :)