This week was BUSY, but in the best way. To give you a quick overview. Everyday we have three classes in the morning, then we have our rehearsal class in the afternoon. The morning classes vary depending on the day but it sums up to be:
Three different voice classes
Two “acting” classes
Three movement classes (movement, movement theater, and historical dance)
One singing class
One text class
One stage combat class
Since we are in the semester course and there are lots of other classes taking place at LAMDA we have a mix of classes in the LAMDA building itself and quite a few at Colet House/The Study Society. I find Colet House to be so cool! The building offers classes in meditation, tai chi, etc. So, it gives off a very calming atmosphere.
My favorite class so far is our histories rehearsal that we have in the afternoon. The whole course is split into three different “projects”: Shakespeare’s Histories, The Comedy of Manners, and Shakespeare’s Tragedies. For our Histories section our teacher is Colin. I have been really enjoying the class. For my fellow actors out there imagine a class where you feel so welcome and have a willingness to play, that is what it's like. It is the first class in a while where I feel that I can fully learn no matter what mental state I am in that day. We start and end each class by doing a check in to see how we're feeling, what we did since we last had class, and if there is anything else we want to put forward to the group. You would not believe the difference this makes! It allows everyone to know how we are feeling before approaching the work. It is very therapeutic. Then we sing, which is so so so fun! We sing songs in the round. At first we were just learning a bunch of different ones but now we are at the point where we can play. One thing that LAMDA creates is an ensemble mind. This means that they want us to be team players and help each other rather than compete or tear each other down. I’ve taken courses that have tried to do this before but I never really knew what it felt like until now. There is something so magical about sitting in a silent room, someone starts a song and people just join in how they want, and we just create. Since we do repeat this everyday, we have just been getting better and better. On friday, I swear we almost got to the point where we could stop singing without anyone cue-ing it just simply by feeling. Now, I’m not saying everyday is perfect and I feel amazing, but when it clicks it clicks. There are definitely days when I feel like I know the least out of everyone else in the class, especially about Shakespeare but that doesn’t mean I don’t try.
My absolute favorite thing about our class with Colin is before every exercise or game or activity we do, he says “take a little breath”. There is something so simple about that but it really prepares you for what you have to do. It shows me that as long as I breathe I can do anything!
Apart from our histories class, most of the classes this week were just getting to know the teacher, light games, and overview of the class. I was interested in my historical dance class and stage combat since these classes are not something I have studied before. I will update later with how they are going.
Other fun updates for the week, on wednesday, I “auditioned”/joined the musical theater club at school. It was so fun to sing again and listen to other people sing. It was also cool to meet people from all other programs at the school. I cannot wait to see what everyone brings to the club and if I can make new friends that way.
The rest of the week I just focused on classes and taking care of myself. It was definitely not the best week mentally for me but I pushed through. Now that it's sunday I realized it was mainly caused by my period looming on the horizon.
On Saturday, I went on an adventure to the British Library. It was so fun! I took a tour of the special books they had. Like the first folio from Shakespeare and the Magna Carta. They also had a special collection of Fantasy books on exhibition. Finally, I spent a large portion of the day in one of the reading rooms, working on homework. I love libraries, they help me with my homework motivation. Currently, I am trying to memorize a monologue for next Monday's class and it is proving quite difficult. Hopefully, I have a better update next week with how that went! https://youtu.be/Qq3bYvhrbb4?si=4J6OQ6OnXDXwZ8MU
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