Before I get to midterm break pictures, I should update a bit on stuff in London from before that.
October 23 we went to see a show called Rachel. It was really fantastic. To put it simply, it was about the challenges that African Americans faced around the turn of the century, even in the North. A little less simply, it was about a girl named Rachel who loves children and can't wait to be a mother, but eventually realizes that she does not want to bring any children into a world in which they will discriminated against and hated. That's still pretty simple. It was a really complex, and at the end, a very dark show. Fantastic cast, costumes, and set. I really enjoyed it, despite the depressing plot.
October 25 we all took a day trip to Bristol that was organized previously by the program leaders. During the day we visited a couple museums: one for the SS Great Britain, the world's first steamship, that was decent; and M-Shed, which is about Bristol's history, which was amazingly boring. After that we had time to ourselves to explore, I went and found a couple Banksy pieces (he is from Bristol!) and then climbed up in this tower and looked out over the city. BUT at night, we had a show to see. Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs), by the Kneehigh Theatre Company, who are apparently well-known for their completely bonkers and amazing shows. This show was definitely bonkers and amazing. It was a reimagined, modernized version of The Beggar's Opera. Which is really old and was apparently very popular in its time... It was a musical of sorts, taking familiar old tunes and adding new lyrics to them to fit the plot. All the actors were amazing and they could all play an instrument as well. The set was crazy as well. There was a trailer video for the show. I'll post it in a separate post when I'm done with this.
October 29 we saw 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. Oh man. Let me preface my opinion by saying it was an objectively good show with objectively good acting and whatnot (incredibly shocking and gory, but I digress). But oh my god. It was in this little Globe Theatre miniature look-alike thing. And our tickets were for the standing area. So a) I could barely see anything and b) I got very distracted by being extremely uncomfortable the entire time. While waiting for the intermission, I found myself getting angrier every time someone came back on stage and it wasn't over.
I suppose I'll add in that last night we saw a show called John. I liked it for the most part. It was a short show compiled of real-life interviews. It mainly focused on the title character, who had a rough childhood and struggled with drugs and alcohol for much of his life. In the middle it took a sudden and weird turn to being about the logistics of running a gay sauna... before tying it in with the fact that John was gay and had been fighting his sexuality his whole life. I liked the beginning and ending, but the middle part was so out of place. They could have made that transition better. Also, it was physical theatre, so it was more about the movement than an extravagant set or anything like that (though the set was pretty cool too - it rotated almost the entire time). The choreography was really cool, but also got distracting sometimes.
As for British Life & Culture:
The Wednesday before break, we took a field trip to the Imperial War Museum. It was actually incredibly fascinating. I went through the World War I exhibit, which was EXTREMELY comprehensive. Almost a little too much. I learned a lot that I had previously not known. It seems so nonsensical to me that an entire continent (and beyond) would suddenly go up in arms just because one man was murdered. And it was the first major war fought with more advanced weapons, so nobody quite knew what they were getting into. Crazy. After that, I checked out the Holocaust exhibit. I am always fascinated by World War II, so that exhibit was especially interesting to me. Quite upsetting, as any Holocaust-related thing is bound to be, but very intriguing.
The week before that, a previously-homeless woman (and her dog!) came in to discuss what it's like to be homeless in London. She was housed during the Olympics when they were "cleaning up the streets" and luckily got to stay in her flat afterwards (not everyone was so lucky). It was really fascinating to hear her stories, but also really sad to think of the various reasons that drive people to being homeless. She had a very good spirit about it all, though.
I've mainly been doing computery data-entry type things. But a cool thing: the last few weeks, a few artists were setting up their residency, leading up to a viewing during the week I was gone. They built a log cabin inside the gallery, which was awesome (and quite loud). I never got to see the final result, but it looked awesome in pictures. Go to degreeart.com and check out their blog, or check out their instagram @degreeart. Since I've been back this week, they've been busy taking it all down so the next resident can move his stuff in (Nick Lord, he makes beautiful paintings, look him up!).
A few weeks ago was the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park, which happens to be really close to where I'm living! I got a few tickets to go for free one night and bring some friends. It was a lot of fun and SO COOL to see so much amazing art. I would have bought some if "affordable" didn't actually mean 100-5000 pounds. DegreeArt's booth looked really cool, definitely one of the best. One of my friends told me it was their favorite before knowing that it was my gallery! I will post some pictures I took there in a separate post.
I believe that's about it! The big things, at least. And all I can remember for now. ;) The rest has been writing papers and going to pubs and cooking food, pretty much. I hope you enjoyed this long overdue post!
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