One More

Before fall break, here's a video of part of the bike ride of death in Denmark, mostly featuring Lauren.

Yeah.

This is all I've got, okay, Larke?

the List of all the shows theresa has seen in London (so Far and in no particular Order)
The Exiles
Comedy of Errors
King Lear (in Russian)
The Tempest
A Moon for the Misbegotten
Amadeus
The Seafarer
See How They Run
The Alchemist
The Woman in Black
The Voyesey Inheritance

I'm seeing Bent tomorrow.
That's a lot of theater. It's more when you stop to consider that I'm actually NOT in the theater class.
Went to Denmark last weekend, as most of you already know, so I will not retell those stories.
Now that I am back in London I am mostly only working on my play before I start writing it post-fall break. My friend Rick and I are going to Berlin the 21-25, and Prague 25-29. Where's everyone else going?

Here's a picture of the amazing breakfast I ate in Denmark. Yeah, I'm still stuck on that.


I'm probably forgetting something somewhat interesting that I could post, but meh. Someone else say something relevant.

<3 resa

A sign

I saw an Evening Standard sign the other night while walking back from Hackney--it read:

"Tree kills woman in cemetery."

go to krakow. (it's like prague except the beer blows and the vodka is excellent and it's easy to walk home drunk. not that it matters, stephie's parents.)

more to come.

Amadeus, Amadeus

Last night I had what may quite possibly end up being the best theater experience of my life.

I saw Amadeus performed at Wilton's Music Hall, directed by John Doyle and starring Matthew Kelly as Salieri. I wasn't sure what to expect; many of the reviews aren't raves. It's only doing 30 performances for the 250th Mozart anniversary, and it's way off Broadway - all the way in the East End. I went anyway, because my classmate Kevin got 20 pound tickets, we're the only ones not in the Theater in London class and we didn't want to tag along with them to see some one-man performance piece that night.

The space alone, first of all, gave me chills. The East End is awesome - train tracks, graffiti, strange housing subdevelopments, vaguely artsy types living with extremely sketchy types. And then Wilton's itself - oh my god. It's beyond believably beautiful. It's the oldest music hall left in the world, from 1858. Most of it is unrennovated for lack of money; it only reopened in the 90s. Exposed brick and plumbing, small, weirdly shaped rooms, peeling paint, gorgeous ceilings. I would go there again just to watch someone do laundry, it's that exciting a space to be in. It was open seating, and Kevin and I got there early enough to snag center seats, second row - not bad for 20 pounds. And the hall only held maybe - maybe - 150 people. There was smoke wafting from the stage, and all the staging was done around two large drums, a keyboard and 10 gold painted chairs, with tarnished mirrors hanging all around in the background. Already I was so excited.

Then it started.

The staging is BRILLIANT. It was absolutely magical and innovative and there was no weak member of the cast. Kelly is phenomenal - his facial expressions alone could have carried the play and scared you and made you cry. The lighting was so simple but so effective, using shadow and the small space to such great results. I can't even describe it yet - I'm still digesting so much of what Doyle did to turn a 3-character opera into a concert-esque, chorus driven play.

Kevin and I didn't talk for a good twenty minutes after we left. We were 2 of three people in the audience to stand at curtain call (the Brits aren't into standing o's, apparently - this is the first I've given in years), and Kelly winked and smiled at us. We walked to Tower Hill tube and just looked at each other and said "oh my god." Shaffer's script works on so many levels, there is so much there that was for the taking - Catholicism, tensions between musicians on an ethnic level, talent as punishment, talent as reward, mediocrity as the greatest sin. Maybe it's because I haven't seen the movie in a few years but I just couldn't believe how much more there was to the script than I got from the movie.

In short: last night I saw a show that changed the way I see theater, especially musical theater, and in a space that made me want to literally squeal with joy. If you are in any - ANY - kind of position to see this show before it closes October 14, do so. And expect me to go on about it much more at length in real life, because there is so much more than what I've said here.

<3 resa

AINT NO POLICE ISLAND!

first of all, there's a naked man in the apartment across the courtyard.
i wasn't going to post about THAT, but "topher" brought it to my attention.
he's just cleaning. naked. (naked man, not "topher", you'll be relieved to know.)
i feel profaned.

next, we apologize for the lack of posting. theoretically there should be twice as many posts since we are twice as many people, but we are making up for it with ARAN ISLAND PICTURE EXTRAVAGANZA!

last wknd we went to galway and the aran islands. we stayed at the smallest island, inis oirr. it was bee-u-tiful.
see:



here's a list of things we did:
-stayed at a real life hostel
-invaded one of two pubs on the island
-observed a stonecutter's convention
-toured the island via horse and buggy
-toured the island via bicycle
-jumped on rocks
-explored an old rusty ship
-explored a cemetary and 10th cent. stone church
-looked at pretty pretty water
-pointed at inishmaan and inishmore
-killed a cat
-participated in a ben folds singalong (...)
-frolicked with irish dogs
-befriended a PONY

ok, those last two things were basically just me. we also took many a picture. see fo yo'selves:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephiegrob/

also, since i'm having trouble putting pictures up on the internet in a timely manner, take a look-see at chelsea's photo thingy. i mostly look like a moron in most of those. "topher" looks like a dreamboat, of course.
...
http://chelseamorgan.zoto.com/galleries/dublin1/#%23

and of course there's more on facebook.

oh, and here's the thing about inis oirr: NO GUARDA AKA POLICE! weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

"topher" and i also want you to know that we don't just get "plastered" here.
in case you were wondering.
mom.

tomorrow is the equivalent of the irish superbowl. we'll let you know how that goes. it should be madness.

The Plante Family on Baby Suri

This has no relevancy to studying abroad, but I found it interesting none-the-less. See, my family has a blog (actually two, they have one for Survivor also) on which they recently discussed the phots of the new Katie-Tom baby Suri. These were the comments they left on said blog, enjoy: [I've included family relation to each name]

Pat said... [grandmother]
Your sister Lisa had almost that much black hair when she was born.
She was a beautiful baby and still is. All my other kids were bald, or only had peach fuzz. Go figure!
Old Tom has made such a fool out of himself, with that crazy Scientology, I don't think he is ever going to regain his popularity
again.

9/10/2006 1:00 AM


David said... [uncle]
I've seen babies with hair, but this one just does not look right.

9/10/2006 8:53 AM


David said...[uncle]
I have also been informed that high levels of Thetans causes rapid hair growth.

Lisa, you may be a powerful profit in the ways of Scientology! Who knows you may be one of Xenu's Queens! You at least have to be at a "Operating Thetan Level V"

This all may sound funny but its for real! Check it out on Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology

People believe this crap!!!!

9/10/2006 10:00 AM


chris said... [me]
That baby's wearing a merkin.


Yep, definitely a merkin.

9/10/2006 4:41 PM

leah said... [aunt]
Theory #3
Tom is not the true father of sweet hairy little Suri. The real father is a red head. Suri was born with red hair. They had to color it black to look more like Tom. He didn't want to have a redheaded stepchild!

9/12/2006 11:54 AM

Pat said... [grandmother]
Leah your comment reminded me of someone else when you said Suri was really a redhead. When your cousin Cathy Fogarty Lynch was born she had a head of black hair. Martha took her to Mississippi to see her Mom and Dad, and when she came back several weeks later all of Cathy's black hair had fallen out and she had Strawberry blonde hair.

9/13/2006 6:31 PM


bigbuttbubba said... [uncle]
TO ME LOOKS LIKE A BOY.

9/13/2006 8:18 PM


David said... [uncle]
Russ. I thought the same thing.

9/13/2006 8:52 PM


Maybe that isn't funny at all, but my grandmother's musings reminded me of Thulani Davis, and the wise cracks reminded me of that classroom.

Cheers,
Chris