I feel like I should put a disclaimer to this blog. I really don't like taking pictures but I'm forcing myself to take more but I'm really lazy about saying where they are from and uploading them and...and...and...
I also feel like I should say that I will try to update every day starting...today.
We had church in the Hyde Park chapel which also doubles as a family history building place...thing. I'm still not a 100% familiar with LDS culture despite being around it the majority of my life -just throwing that out there. That's also meant to be an excuse for not actually knowing what they buiding is called or specifically used for. One day I will learn, I am sure. Since there are 40 or so of us in the theatre study abroad and another group from Utah (I'm not sure if they were BYU or UVU kids) they had us sit off to the side of the chapel in the cultural hall. I'd forgotten that it was fast Sunday but since it was they bore their testimonies, I think one person from our group got up but other than that it was all memebers of the ward there. Many different nationalities and accents were testifying of our church. It was a special experience to hear them and to see the church run in basically the same way with the same goals and same spirit in a foreign country. There were many people saying that no matter where you go in the world the church is always the same -it's always home. I'll leave it at that for my experience with church eventhough there are details I could go farther in.
Then we went back to the flats. It's been raining pretty well here since yesterday.
Yesterday we went to our second play, Macbeth at the Globe Theatre. It was incredibly good. If you know what the Globe looks like then you know that it's this round structure with a square stage, a space in front of the stage that goes in a half-ish circle (only it extends farther onto the sides of the stage) where people stand (thence, becoming "groundlings") and three (I think) tiers of seats in the same semi-circle around the stage stacked on top of each other. I don't think I am explaining this well, I recommend googling it -there's definitely a picture of it somewhere. Well, for this performance the director had black sheets of knit (stretchy) fabric pulled taut at approximately neck level wherein there were holes to poke our heads through. One of the other girls described it as being a membrane. It was actually inspired by a painting inspired by one of Dante's descriptions of hell. That should give you some idea what kind of production this was. Macbeth is always dark and bloody -it's a tragedy, after all. The beginning of the performance (before the three witches, the Wyrd sisters, say their lines) had the sisters, one who was a little person, run through the audience. Our heads were above the fabric so we couldn't really see them unless we looked down and looking down resulted in major creepiness -especially if you met their gaze. Oh. There were also very bloody men in loincloths (of the wrap variety, kind of like shorts only medieval style) wailing and making agonized clutching motions upwards. The little person witch presented a wallet she had lifted, laughing all the while. Creeptastic. And I really wanted to get close to them to see what they had used and how realistic it looked. Unlike the actor girls in front of me who were saying they'd pee their pants if they had to be that close to them. So, pretty much I'm a techie. I think I like the fake blood and such entirely too much. It's not real and as long as I know that...s'all good. If it wasn't then I'd be screaming/squealing like a little girl like nearly everyone else. There was a tongue cutting out (thrown into the audience), a neck snapping (apparently a broken neck sounds like major bubble wrap popping) ear stabbing...regular stabbing...nasty witch bloody stuff... Fun times. I want to write more but it's almost midnight and I still have to get ready for bed and read a few pages of homework.
I bought a program for the performance, I haven't taken the time to read it but it'll act as a good reminder.
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