3 Shows and an Observatory

Sorry I have not posted since Wednesday, but I have not let the weekend just roll by. I have been busy exploring new places and seeing new shows. I have been working on the opening of a citywide "Open House" which explores old buildings and exhibitions throughout London. 19;29, the theater company I work for, is using this old town hall in the borough of Hornsey.

18/9/09 14:00 Leaving Hornsey Town Hall. We have set up completely for Open House tomorrow. It is a beautiful Art Deco building. And the First modern municipal building in London. In it, we put objects and props and actors to give the building the life of 1935, when the building was completed. Right up your alley, Dad. Yesterday and today, my personal project for this exhibit was to make signs out of MDF which read, "NUCLEAR FREE ZONE," "PLEASE QUEUE HERE," and "DO NOT FEED THE PIGEONS"
I saw a run through of the tour, and finally understood what they were doing, and what I was working towards this past week.

First, Wednesday night, where we last left off. I saw a production of "Stockwell." An Interview-based play accounting the trial for the killing of a suspect, who was innocent, the day after the Underground bombings in 2005. A special armed task-force was sent to look up a suspect "on his way to work" and shot him in the head nine times because they thought he was going to detonate. The thing is, IF the had a suspected bomber on surveillance  from when he walked out of his flat, the police could have intercepted him multiple times before he even went underground. The play really showed this issue and all of the other odds and end of this terrible case, as well as the Q&A after the show with the actual lawyer of the prosecution. If you wish to read more about the case, click this link.

Last night I went to the Globe Theater. The production was "As You Like It" and it was the best production that I have ever seen, of most anything. I have never enjoyed a show as much as I did this show. Standing in the yard, right next to the stage, I could see the facial expressions and sweat on the actor's brow. Orlando wrestled his older brother right in front of me, not two feet away from my face did he grab his brother's head in between his thighs, whilst his brother is gasping for breath. I have seen two other productions of "As You Like It," both outside. One at a quad in a College in Oxford, one in Boston on the common. Neither compared to the Globe. Touchstone had perfect comic timing, Jaques was the most melancholy gentleman I have ever seen, making us laugh with his sadness. Rosalind was truly remarkable. At the end of the show, the entire cast does a big Dance, jig, ho down, to give a great ending to a great show. There were planes flying overhead throughout the show, but the actors used it. There was a reference to Jupiter, and plane flew over at the opportune time to use it as the example. For those of you who have seen Conan O'Brian's clip about 19th century baseball, I felt like screaming "What is that demonry!" If you haven't seen it, look it up on Hulu. Again, I have NEVER enjoyed a show that much. Seeing Shakespeare in his natural habitat really tells why he is so good, hearing all the jokes in the original sense. Simply Stunning.

19/9/09 19:37 Sitting in Hyde Park to catch up on my journaling. My black book came in the mail yesterday from Rochester, where I had left it at David Gutteridge's house. I am eternally grateful to David for sending it to London. I am in your debt, sir. So back to filling the pages which will be soon at this rate. Today, we went to Greenwich, the beginning of Time itself. To get there, we took a boat in the Thames from Embankment. Really fun seeing all the sights from the middle of the river. There are a few videos amidst my pictures if you wish to see more dimensions. Getting off at Greenwich, we walked  toward a Royal Palace that was never used as one. Originally on this spot stood a Tudor Palace that was the birthplace of Henry VIII, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. However, during the English Civil War, It became a cracker factory and fell into disrepair. Once Charles II was in power, He commissioned a palace of Sir Christopher Wren, of course. Sadly, he died before it's completion. William and Mary saw through the construction of it, but never lived there. They also had Sir James Thornhill paint a grand room, ceiling and all, for 3 pounds a square yard. It took 17 years to complete. Marvelous. In the middle of the palace stands the Queen's House, which was saved from the Tudor days. Anne, wife of Charles II wanted the house to have an unobstructed view of the Thames, so the new Palace was designed in such a way that it would be so.

Up the hill from the Palace stands the Observatory. The Observatory runs right through the Prime Meridian and is the source of all time pieces in the world. Every time zone is either + or - from Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT. EST or Eastern Standard Time is -5 hours from GMT. This was a giant resource for maritime navigation. Sailors would often get lost, because they could not determine their longitudinal position. Parliament actually put on a 20,000 pound prize to the person who couls solve this problem. The winner was John Harrison, a clock maker who developed a non-pendulum time piece, since pendulums were useless at sea. This clock was based on the time in Greenwich, and measuring where the sun was in the sky, they could deduce how many degrees they were from the Prime Meridian. Since each hour from Greenwich was 15 degrees from the meridian, sailors calculated and subtracted their time from GMT and found their longitudinal position. Quite brilliant actually. A cool thing at the Observatory was a giant ball on a pole. This ball can been seen from the docks. When this ball drops, the sailors know to set their clocks to 1PM, and make sure they are synched up to GMT. After the observatory, we walked down the hill to the market before walking under the Thames on a footpath made for dockworkers who live on the south bank. Good times.