Guess what, friends? There's going to be blood.
Hold on, let me explain.
This week was a stressful one, for all of us. It was our very last week of classes, culminating in a day of auditions and casting into one of 3 shows. Our groups of before are split to turn into three new companies, right before we all take a break for a week to journey around Europe. Most of our work this week was cramming in those last-minute scenes for class, frantically coordinating what we were going to use for audition pieces and who we wanted to be our partners, and whipping together travel plans.
I can safely and accurately include myself in this fiasco, though I'm not as stressed as everyone else. Something I've learned very sharply about myself, especially this week, is that I am an absolute workaholic. I love to be busy, and I love to work, and honestly, that's what occupies a lot of my mind. Even when I think about what I like to do in my free time, it often involves accomplishing something- working on my book list, or a project I have to finish, etc. Besides, Alexa and I decided to do our scenes together a while back, and we were pretty solid on our choices: All for Love by John Dryden and As You Like It by Shakespeare. I was Octavia and Rosalind, respectfully.
I did get a few nice breaks from all the studying, though!
On Sunday, I went to a really nearby church with Annie and Elsie. I like it a lot, actually- it felt like my church that I'm used to back home, except everyone has an English accent! It felt really good to be in a church again, and to feel like I was at church. I like church. Then, afterwards, I went to have tea at Annie's flat and catch up with her and Elsie for a while. I love those girls. I'm so lucky that we get to all be in this amazing city, all at the same time!
....Yeah, actually. Other than that, this week has been pretty work-centered.
Monday was our last movement class with Jackie, and Tuesday was the end of Stage Combat. We had our last Stage Combat class at RADA, and everyone felt cool. It's a bit of a hallowed ground- RADA is one of London's best drama schools.
Wednesday was the end of High Comedy, and Thursday was emotional. First, we ended Voice with Adrianne, then we had our last Shakespeare class with Russ and I wanted to cry. To end the day, we had our last Modern Physical class with Mick. For that class, Mick had us all do impressions of each other and other people at BADA. It was great fun!
I was lucky enough to have the very last tutorial of this Fall session with Ian Thursday evening. I brought in two of my older monologues, a new Hamlet soliloquy (just for fun), and the Helena monologue from Midsummer Night's Dream that I had been struggling with for weeks and weeks. Honestly though, this tutorial may have been one of the highlights of my time at BADA so far. I don't remember exactly what Ian told me about the Helena monologue, but he said something that helped me so incredibly much, and I finally feel like I understood and could connect to the piece. Finally. It took me forever, but I feel so successful and proud that I did it well for once that nothing else mattered. Not even auditions or the severe lack of sleep I've been getting. I did it. I'm really proud of it too.
Speaking of auditions though, those were today. Maybe I should've been more nervous, but I felt prepared. I've worked hard, and I've learned a lot, and I felt ready to go. Alexa and I did both our scenes, and just had fun. It was an enjoyable audition! Plus, since we went fairly early, I had a few hours to take a bus back to the Landward, pack for midterm break, walk back to BADA, and print out everything I needed for my trip all before our final class of Drama Criticism with Christopher.
Right afterwards, we had a meeting where we found out what shows we are all in, and here's why we can expect blood in the future:
The company I was cast in is an all-female production of The Revenger's Tragedy. We'll be doing it like a dark comedy, but it's only women in a show that only has, normally, 3 woman characters, and I'm so excited. This will be a fun 6 weeks of rehearsal!!!
And now, I just got back from a BADA Halloween Party, and am up way too late in relation to what time my flight leaves tomorrow. I'll be flying to Paris first, but I won't be able to blog while I'm away for the week. Don't worry- I'll be journaling throughout the trip so that, when I get back, I can transcribe here on the internet everything I wrote and experienced during this adventure :) Hopefully it'll take my mind off of work for once?
Can't wait to tell you all about it!
Fight on, friends
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