I got to sleep later than usual this morning because we had a free morning to go places that weren't included on the trip. Emily and I went down for English Breakfast at 9:30 to collect our tickets for Play Without Words that we would be going to later that day. Right away the two of us headed out and had about a twenty minute walk up Kingsway to the British Museum. There were tons of exhibits there including Greek & Roman, Asia, Egypt, and a special one called "Buried Treasure." We both decided we didn't have enough to go see the Buried Treasure, so we picked the most interesting exhibit to us, Egypt. Part of the reason we chose this is because the Rosetta Stone is there. We entered the exhibit and saw towering figures like the Upper half of Ramesses II, a granite figure erected in 1270 BC. Apparently Ramesses erected more statues than any other King before him did. Another figure I found interesting was a Granite Ram of Amun dating around 690-664 BC. We went through a doorway with two towering figures on either side that looked like Griffiths, then into a hallway with the walls covered with Hieroglyphics. The hallway led to a glass case enclosing the Rosetta Stone, which dates from 196 BC. The stone is inscribed with three scripts; Coptic, Hieroglyphic, and Greek. Thomas Young used these to lay the ground for understanding the Egyptian language by 1832 AD. It was smaller that I had originally thought, but the stone it was on was dark and had a really cool grain.
After
snapping a few photos of Cartouches, we decided to find the British
Library. We got a little lost, but finally found it not far away from
the Euston Underground Station. The first exhibit was about early printing
methods, and we were able to experiment with the various techniques. There
was a special Chinese Printing exhibit that had many pieces of artwork
done by simple lines. Then we went to the permanent collection of text,
which had a vast amount of priceless documents. Leonardo Da Vinci's notebook,
including his ideas & sketches of weights & movements, concave
mirrors, and musical instruments, was on display along with Sir Isaac
Newton's Book I & II. William Shakespeare's First Folio, the first
collected edition of works printed seven years after his death, was on
display with other works by him. 
Along
with the text collection they also had the National Sound Archive where
you could hears such recordings as Florence Nightingale, C.H. Ligntoker
(Officer on 'Titanic' when it sank), and the Beatles. Along with the recordings
of various Beatles songs were the original lyrics written on scraps of
paper. Back to top
We had lunch at
the Library Cafe and headed to the University
of London to check out the galleries there. I was trying to find a
specific gallery but couldn't locate it so we stopped the Percival
David Foundation of Chinese Art
to ask directions and decided to just look around here. They had an amazing
collection of ceramic pieces dating clear back to the 10th century. Jun
Ware, a beautiful blue and purple glaze, was my favorite type of ceramic
and the colors were swirled naturally during the firing process. I also
liked the Longquan Ware, which is usually green with some depiction of
a dragon. After looking at three floors of pottery we decided to go to
the Brunei
Gallery that held the Spirit of Wood exhibit. When we arrived we found
the art to be of a people that believed that art is a fusion of nature
and spirit. So all the pieces imitated nature and were mostly made of
wood. Back to top
At this point it was time to meet
the rest of our group at the British Museum to walk together in order
to meet Alexandra Gilbreath, the actress who played Kate in the production
of Taming
of the Shrew we saw a few days prior. She gave us her perspective
of the play and one interesting point she made was that she still felt
that it WAS a sexist play, although in a way that is subversive. Some
of the themes she touched on were submission, unconditional love, liberation,
and reversed roles. One point that kept coming up was the fact that Kate
didn't need to be tamed, she needed to be loved and feel beautiful on
the inside instead of the constant judging that had been done by her father
and sister. I really enjoyed hearing her perspective and had a really
admired her for taking time to speak with us.
Immediately after the talk we all rushed to the National Theatre where we had a backstage tour of the entire complex. Our guide told us right away that she would be moving very quickly through the tour because of the size of the place and because of time restraint, we had to be done with the tour in time for the performances to start. There are three theatres at the National; the Olivier, Lyttelton, and Cottesloe. We began by seeing the smallest of the three, the Cottesloe, which is a Black Box or Studio layout that is a rectangular shape with a two story balcony on three sides. This space was originally a space for rehearsal but was turned into a theatre after being purchased by the National Theatre Company. Back to top
On our way to the set design area we stopped and looked at some of the props that are made by the companies 9 workers that are on staff full time. They were very realistic looking and felt real too. The space used for set design is very big partly because they have to be able to hand a whole backdrop on the wall to paint it. To paint the backdrops there are two mechanical platforms that move back, forth, up and down. Also in this area is where the woodworking is done for all the props or pieces of the set that need to be made. There is also an armory on site to make the weaponry for battle scenes. They also are in charge of the special effects such as animatronics, pyrotechnics, and waterworks. Behind the Lyttleton there is a rear stage area where the set for the play, that isn't being staged, is kept in storage. With this theatre the whole stage can be moved back and forth from the foreground to the storage area. This is the theatre where Play Without Words is staged and we would see later on in the evening.
The final theatre, Olivier, is the largest theatre and is staging His Dark Materials both part 1 and part 2. The stage is circular and both the center and outer rim revolve in both directions, called a Drum Revolve. The center also is a set of D-shaped lifts that allow for a prop the complete height of the stage to be lowered and lifted. Here our guide explains that the reason there are storage areas behind the stages is because they do a repritoire of performances which is they have two plays going on in the same theater and they alternate between them . She also said it takes all morning and clear up until about 5:30 pm to change a set. With curtain at 7:30, this is cutting things very close! Back to top
At this point we had to clear out of the theatre because they were preparing for the performance. I waited in the lobby and listened to Tango music and watched a few couples attempt to do the dance. Some were really good, and others could have used a few lessons.
I
then took my seat in the Lyttleton theatre, up in the circle, and waited
for Play Without Words. From what our guide said this was a Dance
Theatre production using movements and music to tell a story. This was
very true. The production was filled with wonderful music that closely
followed the fellings and attitudes of each character. Another way they
showed the emotions was by having more that one person play the same character
and that way a different part of their personality could be portrayed.
I thought all the dancers did a wonderful job and there was so much emotion
in all of their movements. The story line follows the life of a wealthy
man engaged to a somewhat snobbish woman. It shows their relationship
and also the falling out between them due to other 'loves' in their lives.
The end is somewhat of a mystery because it shows three possible outcomes
using the multiple aspects of each characters personality. Back
to top
After the play I was exhausted from all the walking and went back to the Strand Palace Hotel to relax.