this week, in review

classes got harder this week, and the work began to pile on. this isn't a bad thing, though, and i'm quite head-over-heels for all of my professors. here are this week's highlights:

1. in high comedy, our teacher kathryn told us two stories. the first one began "well, when i was in 'the lucky chance' [a restoration comedy that i am working on] i was leticia and alan was gayman. alan rickman, you know him? a very, very fine actor, but he just did not play this scene well..." each and every one of us stopped listening around this point and started drooling. the next story began "when i was portia in merchant of venice at the globe". portia is (in my opinion) the greatest female shakespearean character of all time (and in 'merchant' she is by far the biggest character) and the globe is the old globe. where they do all shakespeare, all the time. i love this woman!

2. julian glover did our masterclass on friday. he's was clasically trained at the national theatre, and was a member of the royal shakespeare company. he was also this guy in star wars:and he managed to work in this story to our class: "don't beat yourself up about lines, when i did star wars the only thing i had to say was "fire up the main generators" and i just couldn't remember it! i wasted seven takes!"

3. bada took us to stratford-upon-avon (more commonly referred to as "disneyshakespeareland) to see the royal shakespeare company's production of a midsummer nights dream. we were able to cut through tourist land to pay our respects to billy at holy trinity church, play some theatre games and practice sword fighting on the banks of avon, and eat at the dirty duck (the company's favorite pub) under a signed picture of judy dench. to top it all off, the production was amazing--i've rarely seen a production so unified in its design, acting, and tone. it was magnificent.

too-do-lo!
ellen