Thursday, December 28

Terry Johnson, The Graduate (2000). Dir. Terry Johnson. Adapted from Charles Webb's novel and Calder Willingham and Buck Henry's screenplay. With Josh Cohen (Benjamin Braddock), Jerry Hall (Mrs. Robinson), Lucy Punch (Elaine Robinson), George Costigan (Mr. Robinson), Amanda Boxer (Mrs. Braddock), Alex Giannini (Mr. Braddock), Alan Barnes (Hotel Clerk/Waiter/Psychiatrist), Julie McKenna (Stripper), Geoffrey Towers (Belligerent Man/Minister), Coral Beed, Christine St. John, Andres Williams (Wedding Guests).

Friday, December 29

Backstage Tour of the National Theatre.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Rivals (1775). Dir. Lindsay Posner. Design by Ashley Martin-Davis. Lighting by Wolfgang Göbbel. Music by Gary Yershon. With James Albrecht (Servant), Jack Chissick (David, Acre's servant), Wendy Craig (Mrs. Malaprop), Jacqueline Defferary (Julia Melville, Lydia's cousin), Robert Goodale (Fag), Mali Harries (Lucy), Jalaal Hartley (Errand Boy), Ian Hughes (Faulkland), Des McAleer (Sir Lucius O'Trigger), Robert Portal (Bob Acres), Emily Raymond (Lydia Languish), Glynn Sweet (Thomas the Coachman), Emma Swinn (Servant), David Tennant (Jack Absolute), Helen Weir (Julia's Maid), Benjamin Whitrow (Sir Anthony Absolute).

Tuesday, January 2

Singin' in the Rain (2000). Dir. Jude Kelly. Choreography by Stephen Mear. Based on the 1952 MGM film. Original choreography by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. Screenplay and adaptation by Betty Camden and Adolph Green; songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed. Lighting by Andrew Bridge. Waterist Mario Borza. With Nikki Belsher (Miss Cashdime/Dolores Buzzatil), Kevin Brewis (Sound Engineer), Mark Channon (Cosmo Brown), Elizabeth Cooper Gee (Olga Mara), Leigh Constantine (Floor Manager), Sarah Cortez (Fan Dancer), Wain Douglas (Policeman), Steven Harris (Wig Master), Zoë Hart (Kathy Selden), Leroy Ricardo Jones (Harold Nicholas), Kenny Linden (Butler), Jane Mark (Zelda Zanders), Adrian McLoughlin (R. F. Simpson), Leroy Ricardo Jones and Richard O'Neal (Harold & Fayard Nicholas), Paul Robinson (Don Lockwood), Spencer Stafford (Rod/Production Tenor), Rachel Stanley (Dora Bailey/Miss Dinsmore), Rebecca Thornhill (Lina Lamont), Tony Timberlake (Roscoe Dexter), Suzanne Toase (Wardrobe Mistress), Ian Waller (Sid Philips), Claire Winsper (Floor Manager).

Wednesday, January 3

7:30 p.m.

Thursday, January 4

William Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors (1592-94). Dir. Lynne Parker. Design by Blaithin Sheerin. Lighting by Tina MacHugh. Music by Bell Helicopter. Fights by Terry King. Voice and Dialect by Neil Swain. With David Acton (Egeon), Karen Bryson (Luce), Jack Chissick (First Merchant), Nina Conti (Courtesan), Jacqueline Defferary (Luciana, Adriana's Sister), Paul Ewing (Balthasar, a Merchant), Ann Firbank (Lady Abbess), Robert Goodall (Angelo, a Goldsmith), Anthony Howell (Antipholus of Ephesus), Ian Hughes (Dromio of Syracuse), Nicholas Khan (Second Merchant), David Mara (Officer), Graeme Mearns (Messenger), Michael Mears (Dr. Pinch), Emily Raymond (Adriana, wife Antipholus of Ephesus), Tom Smith (Dromio of Ephesus), David Tennant (Antipholus of Syracuse), Michael Thomas (Solinus, Duke of Epheseus).

Friday, January 5

Carlo Collodi. The Adventures of Pinocchio , dramatized by Lee Hall. Dir. Marcello Magni. A Complicité Production. Gerard McBurney, Composer. With Harry Gostelow (Fox/ Pantalone/Teacher/Carabiniere), Paul Hunter (Geppetto/Fire-Eater/Owl), Linda Kerr Scott (Cat/Arlecchino/Cricket/ Ringmaster), Jan Knightley (Master Cherry/Lampwick/Raven/ puppets), Eric Mallett (Pinocchio), Jules Melvin (Little Girl with Blue Hair/Inn Keeper), Phuong Nguyen (Accordionist /Rabbit of Death).

Saturday, January 6

William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3: The Chaos (1590-91). Dir. Michael Boyd. With Tom Beard (Edward), Fiona Bell (Margaret), Geff Francis (Warwick), Aidan McArdle (Richard), David Oyelowo (Henry VI), Rhashan Stone (George), Geoffrey Streatfeild (Clifford), Clive Wood (York).

Sunday, January 7

Monday, January 8

Noël Coward, Fallen Angels (1925). Dir. Michael Rudman. Set by Paul Farnsworth. With Felicity Kendal (Julia Sterroll), Frances de la Tour (Jane Banbury), Eric Carte (Willy Banbury), Tilly Tremayne (Saunders, the housekeeper), James Woolley (Fred Sterroll), Stephen Grief (Maurice Duclos). 2 hrs.

Thursday, January 11

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1595). Dir. Michael Boyd. Design by Tom Piper. Lighting by Paul Ewing. Music by Stephen Warbeck. With Alfred Burke (Escalus), Keith Dunphy (Tybalt), Alexandra Gilbreath (Juliet), Caroline Harris (Lady Capulet), Ian Hogg (Capulet), Anthony Howell (Benvolio), Des McAleer (Friar Lawrence), Eileen McCallum (Nurse), Adrian Schiller (Mercutio), David Tennant (Romeo), Nicholas Khan (Paris), Claire Adamson (Paris's Page), Robert Goodale (Peter), Sam Cox (Cousin Capulet), Tim Teloar (Sampson), Andrew Pointon (Gregory), Paul Ewing (Potpan), Vincent Brimble (Montague), Helen Weir (Lady Montague), Christian Mahrle (Balthasar), Jalaal Hartley (Abram).

Seminar Participants:

Timothy Aslin
Allison Dorsey
Shawn Goldman
Lauren Golia
Rachel Hart
David Howland
Megan Jacobson
Kenesha Johnson
Zoë Johnstone
Emily Judy
Katherine Kaminski
Kelley Lord
Suzanne McCormick
Heather McLendon
Scott Morganstein
Diana Osorio
Gloria Rivera
Andrew Rosenthal
Alison Schroth
Joseph Tansino
Jenine Turner
Kellena Wilson
Arielle Zibrak
Jonathan Zimmerman
Nigel Maister
Russell and Ruth Peck

Although all students saw at least 22 plays, they were involved also in a host of other activities. Foremost, perhaps, is the fact that everyone got to know London well. We did a lot of walking during the day and often at night would walk back to the hotel after plays, past the British Museum and Bloomsbury Square . Everyone went to several museums to see special exhibits as well as permanent collections: for example, the exhibits on The Great Court, Picasso, and Correggio and Parmigianino at the British Museum (though mainly people simply wandered through the vast number of permanent holdings); the William Blake and Oscar Wilde exhibits at the new British Library ; the Turner exhibit as well as the splendid 19th and 20th century holdings in the Tate Britain ; exhibits on modern art, the nude, modern architecture, machinery, history, and memory at the new Tate Modern ; the fabulous permanent collections of Western European paintings in the National Gallery ; the national archive of portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery ; the brilliant Spectatular Bodies exhibit at the Hayward ; the Dali Universe at the County Hall, South Bank ; the Hermitage Rooms, the Gilbert Collection, and the treasures of Catherine the Great at Somerset House ; the permanent collection of impressionist and post-impressionist painting and the Early Renaissance Gallery of Flemish and Italian Art at the Courtauld Institute ; the Imperial War Museum , with its holocaust exhibit and exhibit on the history of spies in England; the Churchill Cabinet Rooms , which are preserved as Churchill and his staff left them at the end of World War II; the watercolours of Turner at the Royal Academy of Art ; the Imperfect Beauty and the Commercial Art exhibits at the Victoria and Albert Museums ; the London Theatre Museum ; The Wilde Years at the Barbican ; exhibits at the Public Record Office ; and the always exciting Natural History Museum .

Students also visited famous places in London, such as The Tower with its special exhibit of the Doomsday Book, Parliament and Big Ben, St. Paul's Cathedral , the restored Globe Theater and museum, Hampstead Heath , Kew Gardens , Hyde Park and the Speaker's Corner , Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard, Westminster Abbey and the poet's corner, Dickens House , Abbey Road , Kenwood House with its superb Vermeer collection, Covent Garden , Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum , the Wimbleton Tennis Museum , and Harrods , as well as famous pubs like the Sherlock Holmes , John Dryden's favorite pub The Lamb and the Staff , and the King's Head Pub where actors of the Royal Shakespeare Company gather after plays. In Stratford students visited Shakespeare's birthplace, his grammer school, and Holy Trinity Church, where he is buried. In London some rode the spectacular London Eye (the giant ferris wheel built for the millenium that now graces the south bank of the Thames — a marvel of architectural beauty comparable to the Eiffel Tower in Paris). Students also went to music events such as evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral ; some went to hear the Cathedral Chamber choir sing Herbert Howells' Collegium regale and Francis Poulenc's O magnum mysterium at Westminster Abbey on one day and the Collegiate Singers performing Tomas Luis de Victoria's Missa O magnum mysterium on another. Several also went to free noontime and evening concerts of secular music at St. Martin of the Fields . And a few went to Stonehenge and Windsor Castle .