Moments in the Park- LD7-8, September 9-10, 2015

God save the Queen.

On Wednesday, Queen Elizabeth II officially became Britain's longest-reigning monarch, and though celebrations in the UK were very minimal, I was here for it. So I feel cool.

Actually, I spent pretty much all of Wednesday in BADA- it's the longest day of classes I have, even though my first class of the day got postponed since my teacher is ill. Instead, we started with High Comedy again. I'm getting a ton of work for that class... at the least, I'm learning how much research it takes to do high comedy?

Our next two classes marked the first time we've had them this semester: Modern Physical and Voice. Modern Physical is like a movement class, but it's based on comedy, a bit of clowning, and ensemble-building. Basically, a hilarious, slightly-senile, fantastic British man named Mick comes and has us all do a series of fun, sometimes ridiculous theater games. We end up learning a bit about trust, comedy, how fun it is to make mistakes, and how to laugh at each other and ourselves. I don't think I've ever laughed during a class this much- if I have, it's been a while. And it's so silly, and very fun.

Then we had Voice, which is charming. I love our teacher, Adrienne. She reminds me ever so slightly of Professor Trelawney, from Harry Potter (except sane). She's adorable and sweet and very, very British. Yesterday, she had us work on postures and identifying our bad habits of carrying ourselves physically. Today, it was more about spinal alignment, and how much that affects your voice. Fascinating.

Yesterday night was pretty uneventful, except I cooked and went to bed early. So I didn't blog, sorry.

Today, I had Voice and Modern Physical again, but also our third Shakespeare class that week. We got out the earliest that we have all week though, so Alexa and I spent some time walking and being lazy in Regents Park. We got ice cream, explored the gardens, and lay down in the grass. It's actually sunny in London, and we don't know how long we're going to have beautiful days like today was. Likely, we won't for much longer, so we'd better take the sun in while we can, right?

Baby ducks!!!

"Regents Park is ugly" said no one ever

I made Alexa pose in front of a waterfall.

And she was obliged to make me do the same

A lovely little stroll

Finally, we convinced ourselves to head back to the flat, where we had dinner and started on our buckets of work for High Comedy. I didn't get through all of mine when we went down to one of the pubs on our street to hang out with the boys from the apartment above us. It's Thursday Night, after all, which is Quiz Night at several of the pubs. We got there too late to participate in the quiz, but it was so, so fun laughing and talking and debating the monarchy with everyone that we stayed for a good while. When it got too cold, I made everyone tea back at our apartment, and we talked until I was about to fall over on the carpet. Now, I've pretty much fallen over on the couch.

My thoughts? I'm tired. I'm bloody tired. But it's the good kind of tired- I should be tired! This week has felt like a month, and I've been so active and learning more about acting than I thought I could learn at once. On top of that, I've scratched the surface of an incredible city that I fall more in love with every day. I am very lucky. I'm more than lucky- blessed, maybe. I'm studying what I love most in a place that I love a lot. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and that hit me today. I hope I'm using it well.

Acting has very little "right" and "wrong," even if life does. This experience is definitely right. Every moment is precious. I haven't had a bad day yet, but even if not every moment is good, it's still precious. It's a theme I'm going to keep reminding myself these next few months, as I get more tired and more eager to see and do all I'm hoping.

Please be praying for health among the BADA students! A few of my fellow students have been getting horrid colds, and that's no fun. Thank you!

And sorry for the short post. I really am quite tired.

Fight on, friends