One Brilliant piece of Theater!

Poster

So on Thursday we had our last workshop followed by our last class play and both were focused on the play War Horse. We started our morning out with a workshop at the New London Theatre where the play is being performed. We were led by two of the Actors from the show, Sarah Mardel who plays Emilie as well as the head of Joey when he is a foul and Jack Monaghan who plays Albert. We first started off the workshop with some warm ups and stretches that were all a lot of fun. For the most part during our warm ups we focused on using our peripheral vision since unlike our eyes, horses eyes are on the side of their head. After our warm up we were told that we were going to do the same exact things that the actors had done during rehearsals and of course that started with watching some videos of horses and learning how they move and respond to things. When the video was done we split up into groups of two and learned how to work as a team to maneuver the horses’ legs with sticks, first working on a walk, then a trot and finally a gallop. It was definitely a lot harder than it seems to be able to stay in time with one another and make the movement look real. Next we sat in a group and were given a balloon and told to blow it up so that it fit in the palm of our wrist, obviously mine wasn't that big. We were told that this balloon represented the head of our horse and learned how to work with that as well as how to make horse noises since all the animal noises in the show are made by the actors. After working on the head we teamed up in groups of 3 or 4 and put on a small example of how a horse would react to a noise while they were eating. This workshop was a lot of fun and I definitely had a new appreciation for the actors who have to work with the puppets on stage because it takes a lot of teamwork and concentration. The only thing I was a little disappointed on was the fact that we didn't get to work with the actual puppets.

After the workshop Sara and I grabbed some lunch at pizza hut before heading off to do a little shopping before the show started. I managed to buy some pretty awesome souvenirs for some people and hope to be able to finish the rest this weekend. With not much time before the show we headed back to the dorm to drop off our purchases before heading out to the theatre.

A group of us with Jack and Sarah after the workshop

When we got to the theatre, we were told that they had one ticket for circle area and one for the stalls. Seeing how Sara and I were the only two left we had to choose who would sit where. Let me just say I sold Sara out in a heartbeat and took the ticket in the stalls. I figured since she's going to see Phantom of the Opera and I’m not, she wouldn't mind if I took the better seats. I'm glad she didn't protest too much since this is the show that I've been waiting to see since we got here. As soon as the show started I was immediately drawn into the world of the play. I thought that being able to see the actors moving the puppets would distract me, but I hardly knew they were there. Within the first twenty minutes of the play I was already sobbing and as the play continued to get better the tears continued to come. If you haven't guessed already this play is definitely top 3 material. When the show ended we headed some of us headed to the stage door to see if we could get our program signed by Sarah and Jack who had led our workshop this morning. I'm glad we waited because Jack came out and gladly signed our programs. Afterwards we headed back to the dorms and I hurried to my room since I had a Skype date with my family and was running almost an hour late. After talking with my family for a bit I headed off to bed after having a great day.