The end of the trip...

I was asked why I started one entry with "Henry, move over for Vera .." That's because on my last trip, I encountered the name Henry every single day in a different context. At the start of this trip, I heard Vera the first 4 or 5 days, but it didn't carry through the whole trip, so there you are.

The trip to Pulborough included fabulous cooking by Megs and some sightseeing in lovely Chichester and in Bosham (a port town which has an inlet off the English Channel). Bosham floods at every high tide, so some of the houses have doors which don't start until 2-3 feet off the ground.

On Sunday alone, when I was leaving the flat in Camden Town the couple who owned it told me "You've got a place to stay." When I ate lunch with the couple from London Vineyard church, they told me "You've got a place to stay." When I arrived in Pulborough, the couple told me "You've got a place to stay."

Guess I've got a place to stay, so that means more blogs to come.

Thanks for reading.

D.

What the heck just happened?!

Well, I'm back!

Back from a whirlwind writing course in the Western English countryside and then back to London and now I'm down in Pulborough (not too far from Brighton). I emerged from near total isolation to find a very different airline situation. How in the world am I going to do work on the airplane if I can't bring anything with me?

Well, enough of that. I'll back up a bit to give you a brief overview of my Arvon Course in Totleigh Barton.

Evening 1: Meet the two tutors and 15 other students in the course. Eat dinner. Convene in "the barn" after dinner and introduce yourself to everyone, telling them what aspect of musical theater you'd most like to attempt-- dialog and story, lyrics, composition or everything. Being that I feel my musical background and musical performance phobia would be a slight drawback to composing, I said dialog and story and perhaps lyrics. I sat back down as the rest of the students told their preferences. At the end, Willy and Nick asked us what were the top 2 subjects of songs in musicals. The answers: No. 1. Love (of course), and No.2. was Place (going to a place, being in a place, coming from a place, wishing you were in a place). End of lecture... Now, everyone was tasked with going away for 45 minutes and to come back with a song written about a place... and then perform it.

In essence, my own worst nightmare. The only thing that made it any easier was that you could set it to a tune that already existed.

You might think that was a bit like being thrown into the deep end. I don't think so, because I know how to swim. It's more like being dangled over the edge of a cliff and being told to either plummet to your death or fly-- a feat I don't know if I can accomplish, as I've never tried.

My blood pressure rose, and my heart stayed pounding hard in my throat for the entire evening.

No one ran away from the challenge though some people refused to sing. I on the other hand, thought I'd be missing an opportunity if I didn't sing, so... (gulp) I attempted to sing it and accompany myself on guitar so I could keep the melody straight.

That was only the first night.

Day 2: Hang out with one other person until lunch, then go write a song based on something that person lived, said or sparked in you, AND write a short scene leading up to that song. After dinner, perform it.

Day 3: The tutors had created a story and divided it into 6 parts. A team of 2-3 people were to create the musical segment they were given. I was in a team of 2, and the guy I was with had to leave for about 1 1/2 hours while he walked up the road so he could have a job interview over the phone (no mobile phones worked at the cottage-- you had to walk about 1/4 mile up a hill to get any reception). So in essence, I had to do a little more than I would have if I had been in a team of 3. After dinner, peform it.

Day 4: No performance... Just write a piece that will be dialog and songs or all sung-through that lasts between 8 and 15 minutes long with 3 voices in it. In addition to this, you had to cast it, so that meant that you needed to find people to play parts in your piece as well as be available to be in someone else's piece. And have time to rehearse it. That day was crazy. I ended up being in 5 other pieces as well as my own! Definitely a crazy day!

Day 5: Present and critique the pieces starting at around 10:30 in the morning. We were to be done by 6:30 in the evening. At 9:00pm, we were to have a sort of celebratory cabaret where everyone who was interested was to get up and perform a piece that they knew or liked or... whatever. Just for fun. You weren't supposed to do a lot of preparation. I was going to recite the first 23 lines of the Prologue to Canterbury Tales in Middle English. At the last minute I asked them if they wanted a song instead. They wanted both, so I did 2 pieces... Chaucer and I sang (yes, sang--- and by this point I couldn't have cared less, as I didn't have to write the song) "By My Side" from Godspell.

Quite a feat, and quite a grueling week.

I'm going to need to take off a month to rest after this vacation!

Saturday, got a lift back to London, met up with Michael for dinner, then back to the Camden Town Flat to meet Ray (but his wife was asleep). The next day, dragged my stuff to Victoria station, went to the SW London Vineyard and met up with Lydia and Alan and had a wonderful lunch with them. Then back to Victoria to collect my stuff and take a train down to Pulborough to have dinner with Megs and Sheila.

Not sure what we'll do today, but so far, I've been catching up on Email correspondence and blogging.

That's all for now, folks.

I'm now looking at how to come back to the States with no carry on luggage. What is going to happen to my poor laptop!?

Thanks for reading,

Diane

Henry, move over for Vera

Hello again.

I've found a little time (probably the last until maybe next Sunday) to write again. Today, Sunday, I ran off to the SW London Vineyard and met 2 very kind people whom I'll be seeing next Sunday as well, Lydia and Alan. After that, I ran over to Knightsbridge to purchase my father some tea and then to the Piccadilly Sq. Virgin Megastore (formerly where Tower Records used to be). I spent too much money there, even though I found myself holding way back.

"But what did you do on Saturday?" I can hear you shouting.

I kind of prepped one of my script ideas for my course on Monday, then at the last minute, decided to run down to the National Theatre to see a matinee. I went thinking I'd see Brecht's "Life of Galileo," but impulsively, I changed my mind to Chekhov's "The Seagull," with Juliet Stevenson (the woman who cried a lot in "Truly, Madly, Deeply"). Actually, that's probably the best show I've seen at the National. Chekhov, obviously isn't a barrel of laughs, but you're guaranteed to come out thinking and puzzling and musing about themes of writing, commercialism vs. creativity, mass adulation, and the relation of theatre with itself. It had a lot of levels to it. Unfortunately, time doesn't permit me to go into details if I wanted to cover what I did the rest of the day.

Met up with Harold's and my fringy, filmmaking friend Roy for dinner and off to see Tom Stoppard's newest, "Rock'n'Roll,"which parallels stories in Cambridge and in Prague from 1968-1990. In Prague, we follow the development of the Communist party and how western pop music helped set the tone for freedom. In Cambridge, we follow more or less what Communism meant in England, as well as a parallel of how this woman had met Syd Barrett (of all people) and how the media sort of exaggerated his current state of affairs. His music features prominently and the whole show starts with a young Barrett sitting on top of the woman's (at that time a young girl's) back garden wall. I had only heard that Roger (Syd's real name) had a song at the beginning of the show-- I didn't realize much of the conversation would be about him. Roy poked me and afterwards said, "Man, what a "DIANE" show! You couldn't get more "Diane" than that!"

It's funny as Mr. Barrett had given permission for them to use his music for this show, and there are pictures of him (right up to this year) in the program. It's obvious Mr. Stoppard was touched by his story as I was and uses some of this show to set the record straight and challenge the propaganda media spreads about celebrities, with no thought or care to the authenticity or repercussions on the personalities' lives. I'm sure no one had any idea even a month ago that he would die during this first run of this show.

Strange that I had just walked by his house yesterday, admiring one of the last creative works he was responsible for-- the garden in his front yard. I'm glad I got to come at this point, as his house and yard still bear his marks. I sort of take it as a little divine pat on the back that prayers were being answered, even though I don't know how (sorry to be cryptic, but I've gotta be here).

Well, gotta go... I'm going to do laundry today and get ready to beat an early retreat to Exeter tomorrow morning. I'll be at my course until Saturday the 12th. Sorry this trip will have so few entries, but it's for a good cause. Promise. I just hope I get some direction from this course. Should I go toward writing or toward something else? Maybe this week will answer the first part of the question.

TTFN
Diane

2006 Summer trip is off and running

Hello...

It's been a while, but it's taken me this long to get back to the UK. It's a very different experience to ride the Tube in the summer. They're not used to the hot weather and none of the cars has any air conditioning, you see. So consequently, you take a shower, you get on the tube, and then by the time you reach your destination, you need a shower again. Quite aromatic indeed.

Anyway, I got here yesterday and have already seen 2 show:
Judy Dench in "Hay Fever" by Noel Coward. A silly show about a rich disfunctional family of four whose individual members invite four very different guests to their estate for the weekend without telling the other members of the family. The disfunction of the family drives their guests closer together. Judy Dench as usual was wonderful.

Tonight, I saw Tom Conti in "Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell" about the musings of an aloholic Racing Form journalist. You might not think that might be entertaining, but it's actually full of laughs thanks to a brilliant script and a sharp performance by Mr. Conti. He keeps his wits about him and keeps the dialog fresh and spontaneous. He connects well with an audience in a way I've rarely seen on any stage.

Tomorrow, I'll be seeing Tom Stoppard's newest play, "Rock'n'Roll" which is sort of about how rock music symbolized political ideals in Prague from the Soviet crackdown in 1968 through 1990. It's supposed to be a masterwork for Stoppard. We'll see; I've got high hopes for this one.

Other things I've done is traipse up and down the Camden Town High Street which is where the flat I'm borrowing overlooks. The street has many many trendy stores vending goth and punk clothes, strange shoes, beer and wine, and betting establishments. You can literally see where the Holtz shoe shop was from my window. For the unitiated, Holtz was the store that the group Madness put on the map since they bought all their Doc Martin boots from there and had a fond relationship with the old owner of the store.

Well, that gets everyone up to date as of now. Made a quick trip to Cambridge and paid some brief respects to a recently fallen musical influence. Had incredible fish and chips from "Jacks of Cambridge," on the Cherry Hinton High Street. Very friendly staff and out of this world proper chips in a sadly dying atmosphere of the "corner chippie." I'm not sure why these places are getting harder and harder to find.

Until I can get to another internet cafe, this update will have to do for now. On Monday I begin my Theatre writing course with Willy Russell, and have been promised that internet use is out of the question, so even if amazing things happen, you won't know about it until after I get back on the 12th.

That's all for now.

Cheerio,
Diane