Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Tuesday, May 26, 2010

Great day today!

We were supposed to go to Canterbury today, but as we were about to pull out on the bus, the driver realized that the bus was overheating, so we had to deboard.

Here is where the day got great: our program directors, Sister Hall, Dr. Staheli, and their assistant, Nathan, immediately went to work on what we could do to make sure the day wasn't wasted. Luckily, we were actually right next to the London eye, so they paid in total for all 40ish of us to go on the eye, while they saw about the possibility of us seeing a play called “War Horse,” which is apparently a fantastic show. So we did the Eye, which was pretty cool. Not mind-blowing, but fairly interesting. Perhaps I was distracted by the fact that my stomach was really hurting. But is was cool nonetheless. And the fact that it was free made it worth it.

Anyway, while we were up on the Eye (the Eye is a giant ferriswheel-like thing (135 m high) that sits on the other side of the Thames River from Parliament and Big Ben and it gives you a super good view of the city), the program directors found out there were only four tickets available for “War Horse,” so they bagged the idea and instead gave us 40lbs to see any show of our liking! What?! SO cool!

I was so impressed with our directors selflessness in our situation today. They so easily could have said “ok, bag the day; go have fun,” but instead they went to great lengths to ensure we had a blastedly wonderful day. I am sure they were eager to have a bit of a break, but instead worked through the temptation to make sure we could still have a great day. So awesome. It's no surprise that they do these kind of things—they show their care for us so readily in class and in everyday situations, but their kindness and thoughtfulness still amaze me. Truly blessed people.

So everyone went off to their respective adventures, while I came home to sleep, hoping that would get rid of my tummy ache. I slept for a while, but it didn't really help all that much. So after lying around a while, I decided I could feel cruddy at home or I could feel cruddy while having fun.

I had made plans with Scott, Michelle, and Kim to go back to Cellar Door (musical theater open mic bar) and before that I was going to meet roommate Chris and friend Haley to see Legally Blonde the musical. So I went to get sheet music for singing later tonight and then while I was wandering around the Covent Garden area, I ran into roommate Matt, who accompanied me to Legally Blonde theater, when we promptly found out that the theater was having an irregular black night. Matt and I were late there, so we missed Chris and Haley. So we made our way instead to the “Billy Elliot” theater.

“Billy Elliot” was a super good show. I was really impressed with quite a bit of it. I felt like the show had a lot of heart and a lot of the performers were really in it to truly give of themselves. I was really happy with that. I felt like at times the show sold out to the fact that it was a musical and that many musical-attending audiences just want a pretty, fun song and a dance and they'll be happy. But that wasn't true to the rest of the show or the story. It bugs me that so many musical-attending audiences just want happy-go-lucky crap. That's not life; sorry, folks. I think that may be why I don't like so many of the classic shows—they portray some life that really is not true to reality and I just have a really hard time connecting with them emotionally because they aren't grounded. And frankly, I believe those are the shows that give musical theater a bad name.

Alas, I digress. Back to Billy Elliot. Really great show. I was SO impressed with Billy's teacher. She was a FANTASTIC actress and performer. Yeah, she was a great singer and dancer, but her acting is really what got me. I think just about anyone can learn to dance and sing, but to go where she went with her acting takes not only skill and training, but it takes a certain type of person. She was so in-control of her emotions and was so well-acquainted with them that she could truly bare her soul on stage and it such a beautiful thing. I absolutely loved watching her do it; it was extraordinary. And oddly enough, she looked DEAD ON one of the acting faculty at BYU—Stephanie Breinholt. It was actually kind of uncanny, really. There were a few other actors that were really quite good, including Billy's brother. He was really awesome. I guess it was simply rare for me to see real vulnerability out of the characters, but the few who did go there emotionally really made the rest of the show pretty great. And frankly, the show can stand on its own two feet with just the singing and dancing, but the vulnerability of the characters just gives it so much more depth.

After the show, Matt and I parted ways. I headed to Cellar Door, only to find none of my friends, so I walked down the bank of the Thames, taking night photos of the Eye, Big Ben, and Parliament. I got some really cool ones about which I am pretty excited. And then home.