-
Culmination of the Semester
I am now back home and have graduated from my Semester at LAMDA. Although I am happy to be here, with family and work and everything, it is still bittersweet, so I am going to fondly look back on the end of that journey. The final few days were very stress-free school-wise, at least compared to the nerves of our final performance on the Wednesday. Still, that doesn’t mean we didn’t do anything. On Thursday morning we had tutorials with a teacher from each department. These tutorials were designed for the full time students, who would be coming back after a break, so in addition to telling us how we…
-
Hotel Cafe Royal ~ Oscar Wilde Style
Yesterday, we had another little midday break in our scheduling, so Molly and I ventured to the Hotel Cafe Royal for an afternoon tea in the Oscar Wilde Bar. First of all, the room is absolutely gorgeous, with the mirrors reflecting all the gold and making it all the more impressive. Not to mention the pianist who not only serenaded us with Disney, movie and musical tunes, he also took requests from Molly 🙂 Upon the waitress’ and Molly’s urging, I did not take the masculine, Oscar tea, but I did take the golden one, inspired by the details of the room’s ceiling. I forget the name and didn’t actually…
-
The Shortest Week Ever
This week we only had 2 days of classes, and a workshop, because we were spending a few days on an educational mini-vacation. Still, this doesn’t mean we didn’t get any work done. On Monday, we had our usual Voice, Acting and Stage Combat curriculum, learning all kinds of things, but my brave moment happened in Acting. You see, we had to become familiar with an Iago speech from Othello, which basically means knowing it off by heart, and then we did a few exercises with it. One of these exercises consisted of going into pairs and reciting the speech while your partner heckled you. I was with Molly, and…
-
Meetups, lines and movies
I have some lines to memorize, some scene work to do and should probably be getting to bed to prepare for my early start tomorrow, but instead, I am writing this post to let you know what has been going on with me. Selfless determination or semi-productive procrastination, you be the judge. In acting/ text, we are working on points of concentration. For instance, we had to do simple tasks, but Debbie would come and whisper some kind of information to us. Sometimes it was environmental, like the time of day, the weather and general atmosphere of where you are. Other times, it was more emotional, like she would tell…
-
Afternoon Tea at Brown's Hotel
The afternoon tea at Brown’s Hotel not only looked spectacular during my research, it was also the one place that was consistently recommended to me, no matter who I talked to. Lucky for Molly and me, it did not disappoint 🙂 I got there early and was brought to our table to wait. I didn’t even have to ask for the comfy chairs by the fireplace, to warm my hands and bones until I could order my tea. I ordered the Brown’s Morning Blend, and it was delicious. At the end of the meal, we also got a little package each to take home 🙂 When the food trays arrived,…
-
Adieu French King
I can’t believe today is the last day of January. I am already done my fourth week in London, which is crazy! On Monday, Debbie had us working on our monologues, and she saw me standing there with my arms crossed, so she told me to stand more open, and to take up more space. Harder said than done for someone who tries to take up the least amount of space and go unnoticed most of the time, but I was determined to try. In stage combat, after we spent most of the class practicing what we had learnt and adding more things to it, we were asked to do…
-
Kensington Palace & Orangery
On Sunday, I decided to cross two items off of my list for London; the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, and Afternoon Tea at the Orangery. Although I had excellent intentions to be at the Palace an hour before it started so I would get a prime spot, I found myself meandering to previously unvisited places in Hyde Park, as well as getting stopped to talk to a boy on a bench overlooking the pond with the swans. Luckily, people weren’t lining up to the side gates, only at the front ones, so I got a prime spot for all of the action. The whole thing at the…
-
Now we’re talkin’
Although this is technically our second week of the program, it is really our first week of actual classes. It is starting to feel like Montreal was forever ago, but London and school are still new and exciting. This week I will tell you a little bit about all of my classes, so that in the future I will just mention them if something scary or amazing happened 😉 Mondays, my little group will generally have Voice, then Acting, before finishing off in Stage Combat. For Voice, we went over a monologue that was luckily from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so I knew what was going on. This is the…
-
Meandering to the Barbican
This weekend, I had all kinds of plans, but I ended up just going with the flow. Which was slightly nerve-wracking at times, but turned out to be pretty awesome. On Saturday, I started off by walking through Portobello Road Market, which is really close to where we are staying. The shops were just setting up as I got there, and they had everything. Clothes, food, china, antiques, cameras, books…you name it, they probably have a shop that sells it. I saw all kinds of beautiful things, but decided I would come back and buy them once my day was done, so I wouldn’t have to carry them around with…
-
LONDON CALLING <3
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had applied for something that I would tell you about later. That thing was to study for a semester in London, and I am so excited to let you guys know that I got in! Come January, I will be studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, also known as LAMDA. Anyone who has spoken to me recently probably heard me going back and forth on the many different programs I was interested in, but I decided to just bite the bullet and do my first choice, the 14 week semester. It is equal parts exciting and terrifying for…