Massive Update

Hey everybody! Sorry it's been a few days since my last update, and that this update is going to be so long. But, I'll include some pretty picture to make it more enjoyable. I'm also not going to do full reviews of shows most of the time now, but instead just give you a snippet about each one.

This is the insane and awesome stage where I saw Earthquakes in London. The stage includes a long and winding orange runway that part of the audience is sitting around in swiveling chairs. The actors also used the areas behind the curtains that looked like windows but functioned as stages (another of which was on the opposite side). I sat on the floor, in the middle of the action, but there were seats above the stage to the left and right. I loved this set up, as you were constantly spinning to keep up with all the chaotic action and dialogue of this fast-paced play. The show itself uses a dysfunctional family as a foil for the deteriorating state of the earth because of global warming due to recent and massive amounts of human activity. I found the first 80% of the play very moving and meaningful, but the end was a little too out there and far too preachy to be enjoyable to watch.

DON'T STOP READING! I know it's a poster for Charlie St. Cloud, but I didn't actually see it. My friend and I found the UK premiere of this movie happening just a short walk from our dorm, so we stuck around to see what it was like. There were a lot of British stars who we didn't recognize, but who all the girls around us were screaming for. The only one I knew was Anna Popplewell (from the Narnia movies), and that was mostly because I'd met her once before at Disney World. We saw Zac Efron further down the blue (who knows why) carpet, but we had to leave before he made it to where we were. Overall, kind of exciting, and I'll have to go to another premiere for a movie I'm actually interested in.

The thing we had to leave to go to was Design for Living, a production of one of Noel Coward's plays. At first, I was kind of wishing that I'd stayed to see Zac. I found the first act of this show to be fairly boring - well-acted - just not very entertaining to watch. However, once we got to the end of Act II, things started to look up substantially. There's a brilliant scene between the two lead male characters, Otto and Leo, where they are both extremely drunk and frickin' hilarious. Both these guys are comic geniuses! They continued this hilarity through the third act, which made the end of the play a riot to watch. At some points the actor who plays Leo would do something so totally random that you would see the cast members try to hold in a laugh for a minute, and then actually burst out in what I assume to be (because of the uncontrollable nature of it) real laughter. Amazingly the actor who plays Leo will be coming into one of my classes, and I'm SO EXCITED!

And wait... THERE'S MORE!

I went boating! It sounds very lovely and picturesque, and parts of it were - mostly the parts where we weren't in the boat. Did you know that it is REALLY DIFFICULT to maneuver a row boat? It's practically impossible. But, Regent's Park is absolutely beautiful, so even though I will never be able to use my arms again, I'd say it was worth it.

On a final note, I made my fall break plans! Hooray! Be excited! It was really difficult and time-consuming so you better be jumping up and down! Now you can look forward to incredible posts about Venice, Rome, Athens, Mykenos, Santorini, and Dublin!