Tinawi Palooza: July 2013

Life has been SO busy here. Fun, but busy. I am going to update you all backwards and let you know what has been going on. Some of this is more touristy. This entry is more touristy than educationally based... but when I have more energy, I will blog about the AMAZING workshops that we have been going to. :-) Until then, an update of Yesterday and Today.

Today
This morning I went to see an AMAZING production of Tube by an amazing theater company called Oily Cart. They say that do all sorts of theater for all sorts of kids. This is a little tid bit from their website...
Oily Cart is one of the great British theatre companies of the last 25 years. Yet plenty of theatregoers, even the most avid, will not have heard of it. The reason is simple: Oily Cart works entirely with children, many with complex disabilities, and often behind closed doors in special schools.
Lyn Gardner, Guardian Unlimited

We saw their show this morning that was for babies. The audience was children two years or younger with their parents. It was such an amazing experience. It is amazing that theater can be created for children that young. Not a child was bored. I will admit I cried several times. We don't have anything like that in the USA.

After we left the show, my friend Erica and I went on an adventure through London. We walked ALL over. Picadilly, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar, Leicester... ALL over!! :-) It was exhausting but lovely. After we walked around London we went to the London Eye... for those of you that don't know, I HATE heights. HATE HATE HATE. The London Eye goes 1,300 some feet in the air. Blech. But I decided I wanted to do it. It was anxiety inducing. It was terrifying. But it was a lovely view. I also braved standing at the edge of the scary glass bubble to take some pictures. It was lovely.

Outside Buckingham Palace

Erica and I at Buckingham Palace

All of us on the London Eye

Me on the London Eye!

Taylor and I on the the London Eye. I look like I am about to cry because I was.

Me, Taylor, Erica, Rachel, Janet, Katie at the Eye

Yesterday
Yesterday started with a great conference session on using theater to discuss difficult topics, sexual education, and social justice issues through theater. We then wandered through Greenwich and had "Mexican" food for lunch. When I get the picture of what it looked like from Abby, I will write more on the "Mexican" food. We did some shopping (burned some holes in our pockets) and walked around in the BEAUTIFUL weather!! :-) It has been amazing weather here.

Later that evening we went to see our grad assistants from our London University partner in their doctoral version of Madea. It was BREATH-TAKING. Simple, full of movement, sound, music... It was just amazing. They used theater in a way that Americans are scared to use theater for. They had some difficult issues, sexuality, and death embedded in a show meant for youth. It was a piece of art that would allow high schoolers to really be able to tackle tough issues. It was inspiring.

For dinner we went to an AMAZING Belgian restaurant. It was PHENOMENAL food! It was a great night with lots of laughing and eating.

My friend Janet and me at Belgo

YUM!

Afterwards, 4 of us went out to an old theater that had been turned into a venue for musicians. We saw a band from the US called Young Blood Hawke TOTALLY by accident. We arrived home very late in the evening but had a GREAT time.

I still need to update you on Wednesday and Thursday which were CHALKFUL of important theater moments from this trip... but it's time for bed, so for now this will have to be it.

Happy belated 4th!!! Here's one more picture to make you smile...

At Greenwich where our conference is. Also where they filmed some scenes in Les Mis the movie!

The last couple of days were pretty busy! On Tuesday we had our first class. With Professor Taylor we began our process drama experience. We did the whole beginning of a process drama with the Tower of London. I loved talking about the different things that people learned about the Tower of London. I still really want to go back. That evening we wondered around for a bit and ended up at a Wagamama. I am including this in my journal entry because my last time studying here, I was OBSESSED with eating at a Wagamama. The only sad piece is that the reason I wanted to go was to eat the big, thick yummy noodles which OF COURSE are wheat. Boo... However, like a big family dinner, we all sat around the table and had a lovely time.

Wagamama Dinner!

Yesterday we had an awesome day at the Globe. My focus while in the program is to study more about Shakespeare and use it in my classroom. I am choosing to focus on Shakespeare for youth and how to make it accessible for younger kids. With this in mind, I went to the Globe yesterday. I have been there a couple times before, but this was particularly fun for me because I looked at it through the lens of the teacher and what I thought would be good information for me to know. The exhibition is not huge but has some great information.

The most exciting part of the day was the workshop with did with Globe Education. We worked with a man named Colin who has been at the Globe on-stage and off for over 12 years. Not only was he clever and engaging, I loved his workshop. It wasn't long enough and I wished we had had more time with him but he was truly the model of what a good teaching artist is. I love that I am adding to my theater education toolbox and can't wait to try some of these activities when I get home.

Shakespeare Fan Girls

After our workshop we saw an AMAZING production of Midsummer Night's Dream. For those of you don't know, it's my FAVORITE Shakespeare show and one I have done with my 4th graders. I was laughing so loud at the play-within-a-play that the boys in front of me (who talked the WHOLE show) straight up turned around and stared at me. I couldn't help it. It was SO well done. AND the set actually broke in a place where there was a ton of chaos and mayhem. It wasn't supposed to and that made it even better. As theater people we were all watching to see how they were dealing with it. :-) It was a reminder of why I LOVE this program and LOVE theater. After the show we discussed our favorite parts of the show and why we did or did not like the direction. Being in graduate school is fun because everyone is as nerdy as you are.

PICTURES OF MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM AT THE GLOBE

(Photos courtesy of the Globe's Facebook Page. Photo credit (c) John Hayes)