Dickinson College Humanities Program in Norwich

Going to watch a live performance is a passion of mine.  Music, dance, theater, to me it doesn’t matter, and it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen it done before, I think it is incredible to watch something take place in front of your eyes that has never happened that way before.  The performers may have rehearsed a piece a thousand times prior to the time I get to see it, but knowing that I am the among the only people who get to see this particular version (unless of course it is being taped) is a real thrill to me.  Sometimes things run exactly as they are planned, and other times because of circumstances, things change on stage.  These changes could be when an actor trips on stage (luckily this did not happen in any of the performances we saw in London) and watching as they improve through the scenario, other on stage changes happen when actors react to their surroundings.  For example when we saw “As You Like It” at the Globe Theater two of the actors in the cast in particular took note of individual audience members. I specifically remember when Jaques commented about schoolboys and made a motion to the students in their uniforms sitting on the side of the stage.

Another performance that I attended that included a large amount of audience interaction was when I saw the dance group StopGap performing at Watch This Space.  Especially recently I have seen a lot of contemporary/modern dance performances that involve audience participation/interaction.  StopGap did not look for participation, however they improved several times throughout the show.  They would randomly pick out members of the crowd and imitate their poses.  The dancers also randomly sat next to audience members, trying to get a reaction.  When I see pieces like this it makes you realize how much work goes into a performance. Not only are the dancers/actors/performers required to react to what is on stage and what they rehearsed, but additionally to their surroundings.

The other performances we saw primarily stuck to the script, mainly because it was not in the nature of “Arcadia” or the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to improvise or react to the audience during performance.  But even still, we were fortunate enough to see all different styles of performances in an array of venues.  For me I think the venue of the performance can completely change everything.  StopGap performing inside the National Theater would not have had the same feeling, nor would the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performing at the Watch This Space.  The large orchestra in the enormous and beautiful Royal Albert Hall really set a grand scene, something that very few halls could have done.

I briefly mentioned this in my previous post, but the Theater and Performing Arts Exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum included an entire segment on sets and venues.  It shows how important this aspect is to a performance, and sometimes one that I feel is overlooked. With the exception of StopGap (and I guess some might argue Shakespeare’s performances at the Globe) we saw very few site-specific pieces.  I think site-specific performances are extremely interesting, and although I enjoyed visiting the beautiful theaters across the city, I am also glad for Watch This Space, where I was able to see performances that were specifically designed for that area.

I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to see so many incredible (and sometimes not so incredible) performances, and I am already planning return trips into the city to see more performances, theaters, and site-specific performances.

I visited all of the required museums while in London: The National Gallery, The British Museum, The Sir John Salone, the Winston Churchill and Cabinet War Rooms, and the Victoria & Albert.  I have not discussed all of these museums in detail on the blog yet, but I want to solely dedicate this blog to the Victoria & Albert Museum.  From the moment I walked into the V&A I realized that there was something different, something that I would not get bored with (which is something I couldn’t say about all of the other museums I visited).

Upon my first visit to the V&A I took the Circle line, which has an underground tunnel that leads directly to the museum entrance at the sculptures section.  An entire room full of Roman structured sculptures that led into the Fashion exhibit.  Now I would not consider myself a fashionista by any means, however I was completely taken aback.  I wandered through this exhibit for almost an hour.  The transformation of clothing through the ages, the detail required to make a garment, and the creativity to create something previously unseen– these are the things that I was taking in as I appreciated the artistry that went into every item of clothing on display in that exhibit.  The aspect that astounded me the most though was the central portion, a place set up specifically to display the work of current fashion students at the Royal College of Art.  It is incredible that these students are able to design a collection on paper and then transform it into clothing that can be worn and then displayed in a world-class museum.

Once I finally made it through the Fashion Exhibit I discovered that there was a Theater and Performing Arts Exhibit and swiftly went upstairs to try and find it.  After an hour of searching and wandering through the other exhibits I finally found the exhibit and realized that I was supposed to be meeting the people I had gone with and so I had turn right around.  I had wandered through the Sacred Objects exhibit, Prints of Beautrix Potter, and Rod Iron structures, but had not made it to the one exhibit that I wanted to see.

About two weeks later I finally made it back to the V&A and went straight upstairs through the jewelry exhibit and to the Theater and Performing Arts Exhibit.  I had heard that the exhibit was full of costumes, but that was only a small section of the room.  When you first walked into the room there was a short video playing about ‘What is a Performance? The video touched on music, dance, and theater however I think performance is so much more than that, and the remainder of the exhibit touched on all of the other things that make up a performance: the planning, the staging, the scenery, the promotion.  Nothing was left out.  I thought that this exhibit was a really good introduction to theater and performing arts.

I’m very glad that I made the journey back out the V&A because I would have been very disappointed if I had not experienced as many of the exhibits as possible.  I think part of the reason I enjoyed the V&A so much was because a lot of the exhibits were not stereotypical ‘art’ exhibits.  I felt that the Sacred Objects, the Fashion, the Jewelry and even the Theater and Performing Arts exhibits all offered a variety of things to look at and for me just another perspective of what I would considered ‘art’.