We are officially on Easter break, not due to return to school until Tuesday morning! For the past two weeks, we have been working INTENSELY on Brecht's The Trial of Lucullus, a strange, little known radio-play. It follows Lucullus, a tyrannical general, as he travels through limbo and is put on trial to determine if he'll be sent to Hades or the Elysian Fields. I am bowled over by how amazing this process has been. After the play was written to be performed on the radio, it became an opera. While that score is a little intense, German, and inaccessible for this two and a half week process, we have a wonderful man named Stefan Bednarczyk on our team. Stefan wrote us a musical in about 6 days (while ill!). He took pre-existing tunes, the Brecht text, and his own genius to compose new songs for our show. Brecht is all about alienation, identifying the theatricality of the work to the audience in ways that don't always make sense or keep the play cohesive. As such, Stefan has drawn from a multitude of styles. We have Amanda as an old lady singing a country song. Ricky gets to sing a rousing musical theatre style song about his military conquests. Nearly everyone received a song or two. My song is Funiculi Funicula with new lyrics. I play Lucullus' cook, called to the "court of the dead" to earn Lucullus some sympathy with my song about cooking pasta inside a fish and other culinary triumphs. It's hilarious. Or at least I hope it will be. The lyrics are hysterical. With Stefan/Nick's permission, maybe I will post a recording of my song before I come home. For a short play, it is incredibly detailed writing and must be very precisely performed. When I'm not playing the cook, I am a juror of the court of the dead. The jurors are described as being handless and mouthless, incorruptible. This manifests itself in our costumes; we are wearing blindfolds. Today was the first day we really rehearsed with the blindfolds, and WOW do they make things difficult. Many things that we are supposed to do in unison by virtue of our peripheral vision now require a different kind of psychic awareness. We'll certainly sync up again with some rehearsal, but it adds an interesting layer of challenge to our jobs as actors.
SIDE NOTE OF INTENSE AGGRAVATION AT OUR HOUSING BUILDING, NIDO:
We were told upon move-in that we would have to move rooms later in the semester. Well, that day has come and gone. 11 days prior to leaving London, we were forced to pack up and move up to the 14th floor. We were really hacked off (to use a British phrase) about it because after we signed the paperwork the lady at reception calmly told us "Oh you no longer have an en suite kitchen or fridge, so you'll have to use the communal ones." WOW. What great hospitality! NOT. All's well that ends well, but Nido throws nonsense in our face at every turn. When we signed the paperwork for our new rooms, they handed us keys for our new mail box, kitchen cabinet, and fridge compartment. Bridgette received 2 cabinet keys; neither would open the fridge. She had to have several arguments with reception, until they finally admitted that they didn't have a fridge key and would replace the lock and give her a new key this afternoon. When we went to pick it up they told her they couldn't understand why her key wouldn't work because theirs works just fine. WOW. Obviously. It isn't the same key. Theirs works because it is NEW and designed for the fridge lock. I can't believe these people. Their SINGLE job is housing people, and they don't seem equipped to do that. Some of the employees we have talked to haven't been aware that they have communal kitchens that require keys. Can someone please give these people a tour of their own GD building!?!?
I have 9 days left until I leave London. I can't believe it. I am LOVING this rehearsal process, Nick, Stefan, and my classmates are BRILLIANT and to be working on little-known material and new music really makes it feel like a groundbreaking project. It feels like we are sailing uncharted waters and have a lot of liberty to take creative risks, which is so fun. It's been a weird couple weeks though because I love every minute of rehearsals, then come home and realize how much I miss my family and friends in Cleveland. I'll see lots of you in a week and a half!!!!! Lots and lots of love.
SIDE NOTE OF INTENSE AGGRAVATION AT OUR HOUSING BUILDING, NIDO:
We were told upon move-in that we would have to move rooms later in the semester. Well, that day has come and gone. 11 days prior to leaving London, we were forced to pack up and move up to the 14th floor. We were really hacked off (to use a British phrase) about it because after we signed the paperwork the lady at reception calmly told us "Oh you no longer have an en suite kitchen or fridge, so you'll have to use the communal ones." WOW. What great hospitality! NOT. All's well that ends well, but Nido throws nonsense in our face at every turn. When we signed the paperwork for our new rooms, they handed us keys for our new mail box, kitchen cabinet, and fridge compartment. Bridgette received 2 cabinet keys; neither would open the fridge. She had to have several arguments with reception, until they finally admitted that they didn't have a fridge key and would replace the lock and give her a new key this afternoon. When we went to pick it up they told her they couldn't understand why her key wouldn't work because theirs works just fine. WOW. Obviously. It isn't the same key. Theirs works because it is NEW and designed for the fridge lock. I can't believe these people. Their SINGLE job is housing people, and they don't seem equipped to do that. Some of the employees we have talked to haven't been aware that they have communal kitchens that require keys. Can someone please give these people a tour of their own GD building!?!?
I have 9 days left until I leave London. I can't believe it. I am LOVING this rehearsal process, Nick, Stefan, and my classmates are BRILLIANT and to be working on little-known material and new music really makes it feel like a groundbreaking project. It feels like we are sailing uncharted waters and have a lot of liberty to take creative risks, which is so fun. It's been a weird couple weeks though because I love every minute of rehearsals, then come home and realize how much I miss my family and friends in Cleveland. I'll see lots of you in a week and a half!!!!! Lots and lots of love.