I'd meant to do a blog on my last weeks in England but I've clearly been procrastinating because I was afraid that to write about my last moments in the UK over the summer in my seemingly constant depressive state would be to mourn them and that's not what I wanted. I wanted to be in the right state of mind to write this so I could celebrate them. I want the remembrance of them to make me happy as I anticipate my return.
This is my attempt at celebration.
First let me briefly mention the Vale Festival that took place on the 10th of June: it was an awesome music-based event where all proceeds went to charitable causes. This year the charities were focused on bringing more access to clean water and sanitation in countries in need. So this year the theme was 'Water is Life'.
And I finally made my way to Stratford upon Avon! I took the train there on my own and took a tour of Shakespeare's house and later on, Will met up with me and we took in a matinee of Midsummer Night's Dream.
In my last few weeks I got so sentimental I actually took brief videos of my typical walk to campus so here are some clips so you can see:
I hope that wasn't too boring for you...
For my last weekend in Birmingham, I finally took part in a 48 Hour directed by Flo and James. We did a Russian play, The Government Inspector.
I played the Director of Education, Khlopov. When I read for the part in the auditions I tried to channel the head of the Drama/Dance department of UCSB, Simon Williams, who is British and the charming bumbling professor type. It seemed to have been a good acting choice as that was the role I was given.
My friend from UCSB, Karie, had taken a year abroad in Italy. She was the one I visited in Paris for New Year's/her 21st Birthday. The weekend we did Government Inspector she came to visit me with another UCSB friend, so they got to see the show.
Me and Karie
Here are some of the rehearsal pictures I stole from my friend Lauren Baker.
The ensemble!
Look there's Oleanna Dave in the back there with me!
Danny Fisher as the Town Mayor
"Oh deeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaar!"
Warm-ups before performance.
Mom, you said I looked a lot like Dad in this one so I thought I'd post it for you. :)
On the 17th of June was the GradBall and I thought I'd attend seeing as how I was kind of graduating from Birmingham.
My friend Ed and I decided to be each others' dates.
It was soooooooo pleasant!
I think I'll end this portion now on a happy note. I still have much to post with all my Cornwall pictures and such so stay tuned.
But first, some footage of a lip sync performance by my friend Tommy...accompanied by Adam and his DJing skills. This was the man who so famously coined the phrase, "Hey baby, let's vacuum." Basically, the story behind this whole lip syncing to N*Sync ordeal began back in fall term. I was at 69 Alton, the home of David and Tommy, and Tommy had some cast members from Little Shop, which he was directing at the time, over. Some N*Sync came on and I just started lip syncing and dancing for Tommy in that corny boy-bandish way. He loved it and since then we always talked about having a Boy Band Lip Syncing Party which we never actually got around to doing...until my last week.
Catch Adam's "whatthef&*$?!" face which we invented back in December:
Okay, I will leave you there.
No comments:
Post a Comment