London

June 9th, 2010

LondonThe first time I visited London, I was mesmerized by Big Ben. Yes, I know Big Ben is a bell, but people normally refer to Big Ben as the famous clock tower. As it glimmered, it looked like pure gold. It was attached to the Houses of Parliament, and if you wait in a long line, you can go in and hear very dull conversation carried on by men wearing powdered wigs. (Can you believe it?)

St. Paul’s Cathedral is majestic and domed. Beautiful stained glass windows adorn the inside, and you can climb the stairs to the top to look out over the city. The whispering galleries are a bit creepy, since your friend can whisper to you along the dome, and you can hear the person clear across the room. Westminster Abbey is another cathedLondon-2ral that is stunningly beautiful, with biblical scenes depicted in the stained glass. Famous poets are buried in the Westminster Abbey crypt.

In front of Buckingham Palace (with gold and black gates) you will occasionally see the changing of the guard. This is a magnificent marching of tin soldiers, except they are real. The guards wear red jackets, and on their heads they wear tall black hats that sometimes have mops attached to them. Supposedly the guards aren’t allowed to laugh, and they keep a somber expression in all their grandeur.

The British MLondon-3useum houses the best collections of national treasures from all over the world. When the sun never set on the British empire, the British government paid many countries huge sums of money for their original treasures that were thousands of years old. It will take you a full day to see it all if you walk quickly. Otherwise you will have to skip most of it and choose your favorite time periods and countries, and spend more time on those.

You will not want to drive a car in London. There is nowhere to park, and the streets wind round and round. Besides, the Underground (the subway system) is so efficient and fun to ride. (“Mind theLondon-4 gap” means to pay attention not to fall between the platform and the train.) You will get to your destination much faster, since you only have to wait about two minutes between trains. Also, don’t forget to ride on a red double-decker bus. You feel really tall as you go around the city.

I could mention so many more sights in London. Tower Bridge is a gorgeous bridge that opens up to let ships pass. You can go inside to see how it works. The Tower of London is a castle where the crown jewels are kept. Kew Gardens are absolutely beautiful; if you love plants and it’s the summertime, you can’t miss that. So many literary connections are in London; if you go to Baker Street, you can seLondon-5e the Sherlock Holmes museum. Many portrait galleries house famous paintings from all over the world, the originals from the most famous painters of all time. There is just so much in London that I’m glad I spent two years living there. I still didn’t see everything, though!

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“Wizard of Oz”

June 8th, 2010

wizard-of-ozAfter my success at directing “Fiddler on the Roof,” I decided to direct another play the next year. I chose “Wizard of Oz,” since I enjoyed doing special effects the previous year. The school stage was under construction, so the headmaster told me that I could choose any stage I wanted, since the school was going to use this play for promotional purposes. I was basically given unlimited funds.

I envisioned a spectacular performance. However, since I only rented the professional stage for one week, so many things went awry. First I was suffering from horrible cramps and was doubled over on the floor the entire week. Plus, I had the pressure to top the performance from the previous year, which, as you know, was nearly impossible to do.

I kept ordering that the bales of straw be sent to the theater, and the theater guy kept sending them back, saying that they were not fireproof. I kept telling the guy that I would fireproof them at the theater, not at the school. I had to flirt with the maintenance guys to get them to do what I wanted, since there was so much work to be done.

The beautiful flowers that the art teacher had made for Munchkinland were droopy and miserable-looking after being fireproofed, and we had no time to make more, since this was the night before the first performance. I was heartbroken, because the art tewizard-of-oz-2acher was such an outstanding props maker. Her stuff was always a work of art. That was one talented woman, if I ever knew one.

I had no idea how I was going to change the canvas backdrops during the play, since my swinging on the rope with my skinny body didn’t even budge the thing. I frantically looked around for a man… any man. The husband of a fellow teacher actually volunteered on the night of the first performance. (My fiance, now husband, was back in the States at the time.)

When the curtain went up on opening night, the lights didn’t come on. Black. Nothing. The actors froze. The principal (and headmaster) of the school sat beside me, and I tried not to freak out. I calmly walked to the back of the auditorium to talk to my lights guy (a former student), who just shrugged at me. We finally figured out that the whole thing had been unplugged. (I knew who did it, too!)

The smoke machine stopped working halfway through the show, so I told the wicked witch to jump down the trap door without waiting for the smoke. The flashing lights coverewizard-of-oz-3d up the absence of smoke, so that actually looked okay.

By the time the play was over, I made a mental note to myself that I would never direct a play again. The whole week was somewhat nightmarish, although the kids were sweet. As always, my actors and actresses did well. Bummer, because I always wanted to do “Camelot.” Well, you never know…

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“Fiddler on the Roof”

June 4th, 2010

fiddler-on-the-roofAfter living in England for my senior year of college, I loved England so much that I wished to spend the rest of my life there. As soon as I had two years of teaching experience in the United States, I applied to all seven American schools in England. One of the schools had an opening, so I interviewed for the job of an English teacher in London. They liked the fact that I was fluent in Spanish, since they were short on foreign language teachers, too. So I taught English literature, with one Spanish class thrown in. I also directed the middle school play.

I chose “Fiddler on the Roof” because I acted in that play when I was a child, so I was thoroughly familiar with it. I had to pay to rent the scripts (since we were in London, royalties had to be paid each time a play was produced), and my friend who was an art teacher helped me to dream up the scenes and costumes. We went to yard sales to find everything. Each set was absolutely perfect. Nothing looked fake.

I remember trying to keep quiet the fact that I was planning to use live fire during the wedding scene. I figured it would be bfiddler-on-the-roof-2etter to apologize than to ask permission, since the whole mood of the scene relied on the candles being walked down the aisle. It was an absolutely stunning scene. I never got in trouble for using live fire.

However, my poor ghosts nearly choked to death on the dry ice fumes in the cemetery scene. Some unknown person threw the dry ice into a huge pot of boiling water, and a column of smoke rose up only seconds before the curtain opened. My husband (who was just a friend back then) fixed the situation, and the scene ended up being flawless. The mother and father were standing to the side with a spotlight on them, holding a lantern, in their white pajamas and nightcaps. The scene looked beautiful.

I absolutely loved those kids. They acted their hearts out, and during the intermission, I walked into the dressing room, and you could hear a pin drop as they looked at mfiddler-on-the-roof-3e with wide eyes. I said, “That was… fantastic!” They all exploded into applause and danced around cheering. As far as I remember, not a single person missed their lines during the first half of the play. I was astounded at how good they were.

During the scene where the father disowns his daughter, I actually got a lump in my throat. They captured the emotion of that scene.

At the end of the play, when the audience gave me a standing ovation, it nearly made me dizzy. It was surreal. A real director from London congratulated me for editing the play well. He knew the scenes, he knew what I had cut, and he said I had done an expert job directing as well. I didn’t know what to say. It could have easily been a complete flop. We’re talking about kids. Anything can happen. The whole auditorium could have gone up in flames. But, no… God was good to me.fiddler-on-the-roof-4

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Castles in England

June 3rd, 2010

castles-in-England

One of the reasons I loved England so much was that it felt like I had walked into a storybook. Castles played a great part of that dreamy atmosphere. I’ve probably entered around thirty castles in my life, most of them in England. Some have been mere ruins, just a skeleton of what they used to be. Others were entire, basically identical to what they were hundreds of years ago. I’ve seen castles in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and elsewhere in Europe. But wherever you go in England, there is probably a castle nearby.

Warwick Castle is close to Stratford-upon-Avon. It looks like a classic castle from any fairy tale you’ve imagined, with turrets surrounding the entire castle top. You can walk around the castle walls, looking down on the beautiful town, full of thatched cottages and beautiful green countryside. The rooms have been set up with period furniture and even wax figures dressed as they would have been when the castle was functional. The main feasting hall has beautiful tapestries on the stone walls and full suits of armor displayed around the room. A huge fireplace is situated in the middle of the room on one side. There is even a dungeon underneath the castle.

castles-in-England-2

The second traditional-looking castle that I love in England is Windsor Castle, which is close to London. You can see it from the Thames River if you travel by boat. Once again, there are walls surrounding the entire castle where you can walk and see the view from above. Inside the castle walls you will find a church with stained glass windows. Most castles have a room that serves as a chapel, but other castles have an entire small cathedral inside their walls. Period furniture decorates each room, and rich red curtains hang from the windows. The ceilings are ornate. Beautiful paintings adorn the walls.

alnwick-castle

Alnwick Castle is the third castle I’d like to mention. It is found in Northumbria, which is in the northeastern part of England. It is asymmetrical, which makes it more interesting. The grand staircase at the entrance looks magnificent. Rich reds and golds decorate the wallpaper and rugs of many of the rooms, and a huge mirror with gold engravings hangs over one of the fireplaces. Castles generally have a fireplace in every room, since a stone house is freezing cold. The castle library has two floors of leather-bound books, a joy to anyone who is a book connoisseur.

castles

All three of these castles in England are a full experience: from the outside looking at the entire castle, to the inside, with rooms set up as they would have been when the castles were functional, to beautiful vistas as seen from the top of the castle walls. Whichever way you look at them, you are entering a dreamy fairy-tale land where a knight in shining armor and a princess gallop off on a horse into the sunset.

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