Acting Part 2 and St. Ives

So winning an Oscar for acting is probably not in my future. However, I did have a great time both in acting workshops all day yesterday and in the town of St. Ives today!

Yesterday the Shakespeare pathway had its last two acting workshops. In the morning we worked on voice, which made me feel a little bit ridiculous. Although we weren't singing (thank god - I relegate myself to shower singing only), I'm still not used to going through the scales of my voice or 'feeling the color of a vowel.' Nor am I used to contorting into different shapes on the ground and attempting to find whatever my natural voice is. It really was an interesting workshop, though, and even the most ridiculous-seeming things had some sort of purpose. Maybe I should change my major and just skip while reading Shakespeare all day instead of sitting and studying it...

I hadn't realized how much the inflection in an actor's voice conveys the meaning of the lines, or how something as little as pronouncing a vowel sound differently can change the emotion behind a word. I gained a new appreciation for actors all over again. From the outside, acting can seem easy, especially when we see random pop stars suddenly becoming actors and actresses. I know there's no possible way that I have a full conception of the job with four acting workshops, which means there's even more work that goes into it than I know - but even with the amount I've learned, my hat goes off to actors.

The second workshop of the day was 'abbreviated Shakespeare'. A great example of this is the Reduced Shakespeare Company - and if you have never heard of them, please watch this video:

Most of our academic discussion centered around whether reducing or adapting Shakespeare causes the work to lose its integrity. While the Reduced Shakespeare Company's work is certainly far off from the original, it has become a new thing that offers its own analysis and contribution to the drama world. Shakespeare's work lives on, just in a different manner. 

Then we broke up into groups of around 5 (my group was Bryan, Maddy, Veronica, Juliette, and me) and attempted to condense a Shakespeare play into 5 minutes. We chose Macbeth and made Lady Macbeth sound like a New York mob boss and gave the witches the "byeeeeee!" from the Most Popular Girls in School. After performing that and receiving critique, we had one more challenge - reduce the play again...down to thirty seconds. 

I think we did pretty dang well. Macbeth in thirty seconds:

The rest of Tuesday consisted of a failed shopping trip to bring back clothes from England (British sizes, what you say is a US 10 is NOT a US 10), preparing for group presentations on Friday, and watching Pride and Prejudice in one of the lecture halls. The movie was occasionally interrupted by construction outside the door, but I don't think it was really preventing any of us from sighing over Darcy. Men included.

Also, I found the most British card ever:

Today was our last day trip, and they definitely saved one of the best for last - Saint Ives! It's a beautiful fishing village in southwest England and we had perfect beach weather today. This definitely is one of my favorite day trips. First of all, just check out what the village looks like:

View of Saint Ives from the hill where we parked

Rocky coastline

Saint Ives street view

After walking around and grabbing some lunch, we went on a boat trip to the lighthouse to see seals. I think we went about three miles or so offshore and saw a ton of seals sunning themselves on the rocks and playing in the water. The boat ride itself was really fun, too - I even got to drive the boat!

My thoughts in the moment: "This man is crazy for letting me touch the wheel."

Water at the dock - it's so clear!

All smiles! Daniel, Grace, and Jenna

On the water!

View of the lighthouse

Seals! If only the iPhone had better zoom...

After the seal tour we went swimming - the water was cold, but it was still fun! I didn't stay in for very long and chose to read on the beach instead, which was just as enjoyable for me. It was uncharacteristically warm for England - I think nature must have known we were coming and wanted to give us a good last trip. 

At the beach!

The rest of the day was mostly spent walking around peeking into boutiques and eating ice cream - so basically wonderful. Saint Ives was such a great choice for a day trip! We were all so exhausted by the time that we got back to Holland Hall that staying in and working on presentations actually sounded like a good idea rather than a chore. Lindy, Anu and I managed to make it fun, though - late night jam sessions to a 90s playlist will liven up any Shakespeare study session. Random fire alarms will, too, but in a much different manner.

Only two full days left here now, and we already had to say the first goodbye to Ronak today - I'm not ready for this to end.

Starting August off with a bang

All of these super eventful days are definitely giving me a lot to write about. They're also making me tired, so I can't think of a very creative way to introduce this post - I'm just going to dive right in.

Yesterday's lectures were by two very interesting professors. We were taught in the morning by Professor Nick Groom, who was covering the "Shakespeare myth". The best way to describe him, honestly, is the perfect mixture between British gentleman and 60s hippie. He entered the classroom wearing a suit and suspenders, which was the first thing I noticed. The second thing I noticed was the ponytail that reached the small of his back. The third thing I noticed was his earring.

See what I mean? I need to steal this guy's description for some work of fiction; it's too good to pass up. (If I ever do, I'm going to delete this post and my readers will never know.)

Character description aside, the lecture was interesting as well. Prof. Groom gave us a good amount of biographical details about Shakespeare and invited us to think about why this writer became so famous despite the lack of information about him. When one considers the kind of fame that well-known writers have today (you know J.R.R. Tolkien's name, you know his works, but can you recognize his face?), it becomes even more interesting. There isn't really a right answer to the question, but we eventually decided that there's a flexibility to Shakespeare's work that allows it to be used for many different purposes and in many different cultures.

Our afternoon session centered around Shakespearean adaptations and Olivier's Macbeth, taught by Dr. Jennifer Barnes. Something that really stood out about Dr. Barnes was how her work related to the lecture - she discovered manuscripts of and documents for Olivier's unfinished Macbeth screenplay in early 2010 and recently published about it. For all of you reading from my generation, Olivier was THE cinematic authority on Shakespeare in his time. (You know how Kenneth Branagh somehow shows up in every modern adaptation of a Shakespeare play? Olivier did it first.) He starred in/directed/wrote several Shakespeare movies and had begun working on Macbeth. He never finished it due to financial reasons and claimed that no copies of the work remained. Uh...not quite true.

Dr. Barnes making that discovery was a big deal. Like NPR interview big deal. So naturally, the first hour of her lecture centered on the unfinished adaptation that she discovered and what the work-in-progress could tell us about 1) 20th century film adaptions of Shakespeare and 2) contemporary ideas of stardom. The lecture itself was great, but I was also impressed with her creative use of PowerPoint - geeky, I know, but she did a great job with it! During the second half of the class, she showed us film clips from adaptations of The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Then we discussed how they were adapted from page to screen and how the meaning of the work could change depending on how it was staged and acted. Students don't normally give professors grades, but you got an A+ from me, Dr. Barnes. Also, your polka dot dress is incredibly cute.

Even though it was 3:30 by this point in time, our day still wasn't over. Those of us on the Shakespeare track had a lecture to attend at 5 that would kick off the Exeter-Fudan Research Colloquium. We got to listen to Don Boyd discuss his work on a 'Hamlet in China' film adaptation that was ultimately never made for financial reasons, in an odd parallel to our afternoon lecture. (Actually didn't realize that until I wrote it down just now.) The best thing was being able to watch behind-the-scenes footage of things that went into the movie production such as location scouting and casting. Professor Boyd told us that things like that are normally never released to the public, so that was pretty awesome.

Finally, after a wine reception with the lecture attendees (yep, day still isn't over!), we headed over to The Ram for a buffet dinner and karaoke night. Karaoke was...interesting. It started off like this:

Normal karaoke. Tame. Just some people singing.

And ended up like this:

Karaoke insanity!

Definitely the most fun I've ever had with karaoke. Though I suppose the above picture is what you can expect when you put about 100 college students in a bar, provide them with alcohol, and then send them up to a mic...you know, just maybe. Blogger won't load my videos for whatever reason, but those are what really do this justice.

This morning we had another lecture as a part of the research colloquium, and this time we heard from one of the visiting Fudan professors. Fudan University is one of the most prestigious universities in China and the world, so that was definitely a rare opportunity. We heard from three professors in the hour and a half we were there, and all of them discussed Shakespearean adaptations - predictably, considering the subject matter. We were there from 9:30-11:30, including the 'tea and coffee break' after the first hour and a half of lectures. (That is so British. A break for tea right after breakfast...with tea.) The colloquium lasted until 5, but the Exeter Shakespeare students only attended the morning session.

The rest of the tracks had a completely free day today, so Lindy and I joined up with about twenty other Exeter kids to go to the beach at 12:15. It was a beautiful day to be outdoors - sunny and no rain, which is a big deal for English weather. We took the train to Dawlish, which is only about 15 minutes away by train, and spent the rest of the afternoon on the shore!

View of the beach from the train window

Hooray for sun! Me, Grace, and Lindy

Lindy was pretty proud of herself for braving the frigid ocean.

This adorableness deserves a picture.

View of the beach! 

The only downsides were the wind, which was determined to blow as hard as it could, and the water that was WAY too cold to swim in. I went in knee-deep and called it a day. The British know their beaches, though, and brought wind shelters to sit on the beach with. A lot of us were looking pretty enviously at them when the wind decided to blow particularly viciously. It was still a great time, though, and completely worth it! To top it all off, the Exeter student buddies knew the train station to get on where they wouldn't check us for tickets, so we got a free train ride to and from Dawlish. Free day at the beach - I call that a success.

Tomorrow we're headed to Bath, and Sunday I'll be on a train again to go to the Harry Potter studio tour in London! Can't wait for the weekend - it's going to be epic.