3Ps Centennial

3Ps, or Pen, Paint, and Pretzels, is Tufts’ umbrella theater organization. It is the second largest campus organization and this past weekend celebrated its hundredth (!) anniversary! 100 years of drama, hundreds of alumni, all being remembered, reacquainted, and rejuvenated at the Arena Theater in Aidekman.

This weekend was a fantastic opportunity to catch up with older friends who have since left the Hill to pursue that ever elusive thing called “real life,” meet some new faces who used to haunt the backstage corridors of our theater in the round, and put the oh so strong talent of the Tufts performing arts student body on display. From rubbing elbows at a cocktail reception (and meeting a ’68 Jumbo who hails from Chicago and is now a theater critic there — sending that email tomorrow), to watching Joe Pikowski’s (A10) production of Eric Bogosian’s edgy yet touching drama, subUrbia (the 3Ps Spring 2010 Major — this means our 200th major production ever!) filled with six exceptional VARBs from the seniors (more on that in another post…), to a fabulous “Supershow” that showcased 9 of the different groups under the umbrella of 3Ps.

What a wonderful weekend and a fantastic way to break up the monotony (read: not) and calm (read: stress) of midterms! That being said, I think it’s fair to say a fun time was had by all. Here’s to another hundred years!

And now we turn to culture…

This semester, I’m proud to be serving as the Musical Director for Torn Ticket II (Tufts’ Student Musical Theater Org.)’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s (!) Cinderella. The production is directed by Rebecca Baumwoll, A’10. We began auditioning last night and I’m really excited to cast this baby come Tuesday night.

More on how auditions work at Tufts in a future post (maybe after deliberations tonight), but keep a lookout for my chronicles of putting this show together throughout the semester.

For now:

Number of songs recently sung on Glee that were sung in auditions last night: 3

Number of times Glee was referenced in discussion, whether with actors or amongst those behind the casting table: 7

If only there were some form of visual media…

to actually be able to portray the magic that is Punchdrunk‘s Sleep No More, currently playing at the American Repertory Theatre.

I need some time to formulate words to accurately express how much I loved this show.

More later –

Tufts Supp

Happy (Almost) New Year, everyone! Everyone on the Admissions Blogs is taking a stab at the Tufts Supplement. Here is my answer to one of the questions (writing as my current, junior at Tufts self). For those of you still writing your college applications, let your heart, synapses, and fingers work in tandem. Be sure to write from your heart, not just from your mind. Really let your personal voice shine through…

Best of luck in your college applications – enjoy the holidays.

There is a Quaker saying: “Let your life speak.” Describe the environment in which you were raised—your family, home, neighborhood or community—and how it influenced the person you are today.

What makes a house a home? For the Sircus family, it is our dining room table. This eight-foot oval is the nexus of our house. Throughout the day, snail mail and the weeks’ copies of The New York Times accumulate to cover our just-funky-enough tablecloth. But when six o’clock hits, we clear away the papers and the four of us assume our regular places around the table to eat dinner together, a daily tradition that defines “family” to me. Over my dad’s cooking, we review everyone’s best part of the day, and laugh at Joel’s witty quips about my father’s bad jokes, always leading to collective chortling. Our conversations usually turn to serious topics – current events, big life questions, reality television (I did say usually). I’m sure that despite their best efforts to stifle them, our parents’ (former-) lawyer traits have manifested themselves in both my brother and me – my love of debate and questioning the norm without abandoning my “by the rules” philosophies were honed at this table amidst our lively discussions. The ever-changing topics made me the multifaceted, curious thinker I am today and developed my love of learning beyond the classroom from those around me.

Until 2010…

The end is near…

Dear Blogosphere,

It has been too long. I apologize – three final papers due within two days will do that to you. But now, imagery in Macbeth, American family tragedy in the early twentieth century theater, and critiquing two modern adaptations of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya are all far behind me. I’m officially a second semester junior in college. WHAT? Where did the time go? Where did this semester go?! I leave London on Sunday. Isn’t it only supposed to be September 27th or something that is, well, not December 11th?

A quick mash-up of life in London for the past few weeks – an excellent visit from housemate wannabe Spaniard Jeewon, weekend trips to Berlin and Rome, BADA Thanksgiving dinner and subsequent frivolity with 60-some theater students roaming around London celebrating an American holiday, wonderful theater (as always), directing my first scene with professional actors (still can’t really get over that incredible opportunity), walks around Primrose Hill and Hampstead Heath, and, of course, writing final papers (not such a highlight, but with how much time it took away from me, it’s a worthy mention here).

Apparently blogging has me using long list form with short spurts. I know that this isn’t a full update and I sorely apologize. I hope you’ll forgive me and the papers and the bandwidth restrictions. Pictures will go up as soon as I can get a good internet connection (which may be in January when I return to the US).

I suppose it’s time to address the end: this is (hopefully) not the last post of this abroad blog. I’m going to write entries about Berlin and Rome, as well as my trip to Spain next week and then travels with my parents and brother who are coming to meet me in just over a week (and who I could not be more excited to see!). What’s that I hear? A question? “What will happen to this blog after that?” Good question.

This blog will become a chronicle of the Arts at Tufts come January. I’ll cover all of the theater events in Aidekman, as well as the musical goingson in Granoff, along with the dance performances and some of the visual arts programming on campus (and off). It’s already shaping up to be an exciting semester, so keep an eye out.

For now, Happy Holidays! Do yourself a favor and go watch Love Actually for some good old London holiday cheer.

Cheers,

Kyle

Praise for the Panto!

A quick entry before I head off to sleep. Tonight, BADA took us to see our final group show – Aladdin at the Hackney Empire. This was a traditional English Pantomime, a British Christmastime tradition, featuring the Pantomime Dame and lots of general frivolity, drinking, and merriment. What an evening it was (complete with a “Single Ladies” spoof sung by some very wildly dressed performers)! We all had a lot of fun as a group and were thrilled by how entertaining this show was. We were by far the oldest “kids” in the audience, but we were very proud of it!

Off to sleep…before getting up tomorrow to spend an epic Saturday in London (and, of course, work on my finals). Good night!

Some interesting things…

I’m currently watching the 2001 RSC production of Macbeth starring Antony Sher. It is, quite simply, amazing. Very modern and cinematic. I’m glad that I’m writing a paper on it!

And in true blogging fashion, I’m avoiding writing my final papers by posting some things up here. I still have a bunch of stuff to update on (Jeewon – here is shoutout number 1, number 2 will be coming with the entry about your visit. Happy Birthday to fellow Jumbo ESE!!), those will have to wait for a little while. But for now…

My thematic focus for my ILVS major is Jewish History/Holocaust in World Literature and Drama. Last night, I saw a production of a new Holocaust play called Our Class at the National. It was simply incredible. A very powerful story about an elementary school class in a small town in Poland that chronicles each of the classmates (some Jewish, most Catholic) throughout World War II and the rest of their lives (the last one lived until 2002). The sheer epic scale of the time frame of the story is what astonished me most. In terms of other Holocaust drama, not many plays venture beyond the war period and talk about the survivors in such a way that the play illuminates the fact that some of the last survivors (thankfully) still live among us today. It was very simply staged but beautifully executed.

— And now for something completely different —

Last summer, I had the pleasure of seeing Barbara Cook perform with the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall. (I should mention that two Admissions Officers [and fellow bloggers] Jen and Danielle were seated right in front of me that night.) “Who is Barbara Cook?” you may be asking yourself – read this excellent article by Charles Isherwood of The New York Times who talks about her fame compared to the popularity of Glee. She’s 80. Go figure! It’s a very interesting article.

—

That’s all for now, sadly. Off to pay attention to Macbeth. Hard to believe I only have 10 days left in London!

Fall Break (or the Long Awaited Update)

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I don’t think I would ever actually like to be on MTV’s The Real World in any city – the idea of having cameras monitor my every move as I navigate a new social situation with six complete strangers is only moderately weird to me – but fall break did prove to be a quasi-Real World experience. Seven relatively new friends venturing to three new cities and experiencing them together is a potentially wonky situation – sounds like the beginning of a bad “novel” that’s sitting on a teenaged girl’s shelf somewhere having been grabbed off the teen fiction shelf at the nearest Borders. I am happy to report, though, that our version of Real World: Eastern Europe was an amazing success! What follows is a day-by-day account of our trip to Budapest, Vienna, and Prague.

 

Budapest, Hungary

 

Saturday, 31 October – Our trip began with a very early morning wake up (4:30 am…grr) to get to our 6:00 am train for our 8:20 flight. The flight was relatively boring and uneventful and by 10:30, we were on the ground in Hungary! A quick trip through customs and a brief stop at baggage claim got us into cabs into the city pretty quickly. Our first battle with Magyar came when our cab drivers did not know exactly where our hostel was. Luckily, we were able to find it pretty quickly and we got settled and headed out for our first Hungarian lunch at For Sale, a pub that the hostel employee recommended for a good time with a “quirky atmosphere.” No kidding – there was hay on the floor, bowls of peanuts on the tables, and we were told beforehand that the custom is to put the peanut shells directly on the floor. The service was slow and not the most friendly to Americans (as you can imagine, we are easily spotted for a variety of reasons), but it was a great experience. It was also our first experience trying to deal with forints – moving from dollars, pounds, and euros to a currency where you have to think in thousands is not the easiest transition to make, especially when seven people are paying, but we made it through and even got some money back at the end of it all.

 

From For Sale, we crossed the Danube from the Pest side to Buda and hiked up the huge hill to get a closer look at the Gellert and Liberation Monuments and the Citadel. We got there at just the right time: sunset! It was stunning!

 

After the sun set, we grabbed some mulled wine from a street vendor and headed down the hill in search of the Cave Church. (Description beyond that isn’t really necessary because it is just that: a church in a cave. It was really cool to see.) On our way, we passed by a playground and ran around for a little bit to get some more energy for our evening. For dinner, we hit up an Iranian restaurant a short walk from our hostel. Everyone was pretty tired so we made it an early night and got some much needed rest.

 

Sunday, 1 November – Today was All Saints Day, a huge national holiday in Hungary. Our first stop was St. Stephen’s, one of the big cathedrals on the Pest side of the city. We caught a portion of the mass and headed to the roof of the dome where we got an incredible view of the city. After making a brief stop at the nearby Allami Operhaz (Budapest Opera House), we went over to Parliament and then to the Jewish Quarter. Since the main synagogue was closed, we decided that a trip back the next day was the best way to remedy that. On our walk to our would be siesta at our hostel, we happened upon a church off the beaten path where they were rehearsing for an evening performance of Mozart’s Requiem. We sat in on the rehearsal, mass, and the concert. It was a very interesting experience – the performance itself was sort of disorganized although it was not lacking in artistic success. The most surprising bit came at the end when the audience began applauding in tempo! Literally hundreds of people doing what we think of a as a slow clap to show how much they enjoyed the concert. After that, we headed to a restaurant called Verne that took its inspiration from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Kitschy, but fun.

 

Monday, 2 November – We started off at the big covered market by the river where we munched on inexpensive strudel and fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast. This market is huge and covers all the bases – everywhere I looked there was fresh produce, meats, souvenirs, and other goods for sale. A large portion of the basement floor is actually devoted to the sale of  pickled foods. They were great, even just after eating breakfast.

 

The morning continued with a trip back to the synagogue. It was absolutely stunning. Inside they have a very comprehensive museum of Hungarian Judaism. It was so interesting to learn about the very small Jewish population that has returned to Budapest and Hungary at large since the end of the Holocaust. The scars of World War II are all throughout the cities, most notably on buildings that show their battle wounds from the 1940s; the Holocaust memorial behind the synagogue fits in with the overall landscape, but clearly shows the more contemplative side of the country’s reflections on its history throughout the 20^th century.

 

We made the trek across the Danube to see more on the Buda side, complete with stops at St. Matyas Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion, Buda Castle, and the National Gallery. It was a gorgeous afternoon and we took some great pictures from the tops of the hills. Our last stop in Budapest (upon the recommendation of Chris Cook, our theatre criticism professor at BADA) was the Gellert Hotel for a dip in the infamous thermal baths. Indeed, a relaxing end to the first leg of our trip.

 

Vienna, Austria

 

Tuesday, 3 November – We caught an early morning bus to get us to Austria. During the drive through the Austrian countryside, we saw our first snow in our time abroad! It was stunning, even early in the morning after just waking up. Our first stop in Vienna (amidst the snow and rain) was at St. Stephen’s in the center of the city. Just outside the church, we all stopped for chestnuts and potatoes on the side of the street before grabbing pumpkin soup for lunch at a café near the church. After nourishing ourselves, we walked around the Hofburg Palace, trying to keep warm at every possible turn. To stay warm for an extended period, we headed over to MUMOK, the modern art museum (with some very interesting exhibits, to say the least) in the Museums Quartier.

 

Jeff and I had plans of our own for the evening (which will be discussed in just a few sentences…and trust me, it’s worth waiting for) so instead of heading back to the hostel, we did a little more exploration. We went to see the Secession Building, the Kanskirche (which we climbed to the very top), and then stopped for a quick Viennese dinner and sachertorte before our evening out.

 

My friend and housemate Jeff has a mild obsession with vampires – and by mild, I mean just the opposite. Let me clearly state that I – in no way, shape, or form – share this fascination, but I am a supportive friend who will go see musicals about vampires with friends who love these gothic, fanged beings. Thus explains our outing to see the “kultmusikal” Tanz der Vampire (Dance of the Vampires), a revival of a show based on Roman Polanski’s film of the same title. Although I understood next to none of the lyrics, I really enjoyed myself. I think I was most happy seeing how engrossed Jeff was. An interesting note for everyone – the composer of the show also wrote the timeless pop classic “Total Eclipse of the Heart” which appeared (auf deutsch) several times throughout the show. After this theatrical extravaganza, complete with men scaling backdrops of cemeteries, we met up with the rest of our group at the Bier Factory where we had a really fun night sampling different Viennese beers with our wonderfully entertaining server, Nina.

 

Wednesday, 4 November – Rainy day number two began with a trip out to Schloss Schonbrunn, the former home of the Hapsburgs during their reign. It was a spectacular palace and the gardens were even gorgeous on this wet day. We ventured to the Naschmarkt (street market) downtown for lunch and then Isabelle, Alex, Jeff, and I ventured out to the Hundertwasserhaus just east of downtown. It’s a gorgeous apartment building that uses a lot of modern art on the edifice to make it very visually compelling. We hopped right back on the U-Bahn to go see the Rathaus, Parliament, and Volksgarten before getting standing room tickets to see Salome at the Vienna Staatsoper. (I think I did Brendan, Bridget, and Julia proud with that excursion – all of them studied in Vienna for their time abroad and I was so happy to take all of their recommendations in terms of what to do while I was there.)

 

Prague, Czech Republic

 

Thursday, 5 November – Another day, another early bus ride. Most of our day was spent traveling. We arrived in Prague in the early afternoon and immediately headed over to the Old Town Sqaure. This city is absolutely gorgeous! It has a real sense of its history and the old parts of the city make you feel like you are walking around the city as it was somewhere between tens and hundreds of years ago. We ate dinner with some of Maya’s friends from Penn at this awesome vegetarian restaurant Mai Trea. Awesome food at fantastic prices – definitely a nice break for everybody’s wallets.

 

Friday, 6 November – We started this morning at the Charles Bridge and crossed the river to see the Prague Castle and Cathedral, both buildings of magnificent splendor that offer great views of the river and the rest of the city. Alex and I then headed over to the Jewish Quarter where we toured the cemetery, along with various synagogues and museums devoted to the Jewish community (both past and present) of Prague. For someone whose academic focus is the Holocaust and Jewish history, this was an incredibly enriching visit to make. I learned so much not only from the museum exhibitions, but also from just wandering around the city and seeing how big the Jewish Quarter is and trying to imagine what it was like in earlier times.

 

Saturday, 7 November – Bagels were the first priority of the day and our trip to Bohemia Bagels in Old Town fit the bill perfectly. After we fueled up, we walked down to Wenceslas Square and then headed back to Old Town to hang out at the market that they had set up. We ate traditional Czech food (which seemed to take a lot of hints from the cuisines we had been eating in Vienna and Budapest) and watched some very interesting performances that depicted medieval courtship rituals and sword fighting. (Interesting may be putting it lightly, as many of us spent some time afterwards imitating these performances in the streets which I’m sure thrilled every non-American in the square…oops!) Our final stop was the climb up the clock tower for a final group picture before heading off to the airport.

 

Fall break was an incredible travel experience with some wonderful friends (most new and one old). I apologize for the terrible delay in updating this, but midterms got the better of me. Pictures will come soon!

“But the poet of them all start ‘em simply ravin’, is the poet people call the Bard of Stratford-on-Avon!”

- Cole Porter, “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” from the musical Kiss Me, Kate

Before coming abroad, whenever I would mention that I would be studying Shakespeare in London for the semester, people would always become more interested. England is clearly the place to be studying the Bard and his work. Lucky for us, Shakespeare’s birthplace is only 40 miles away from the city. BADA plans a weeklong trip for the Shakespeare program every year and it is something that I had been looking forward to since applying to the program last winter. All fifteen of us boarded a train to Stratford on Tuesday morning (27 October) at Marylebone Station for the hour long train ride. As we got off, we walked over to our bed and breakfasts. That’s right – a week of quaint English country life at Jon and Kate’s (sans the additional 8, plus Henry the black lab) B&B, the Forget Me Not. We got settled in and then headed “downtown” to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, our home base during the trip. Nick, one of the lecturers at the Institute, gave us an opening lecture about Shakespeare’s life and times, as well as a brief overview of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). We broke for tea and then headed to the BADA dinner at Pizza Express where we all had a lovely evening of conversation and relaxation on BADA’s dime. One restful night of sleep got us to our first English breakfast of the trip – baked beans, toast, fried eggs, sausage, bacon, grilled tomatoes, brown sauce, button mushrooms…can you feel your arteries clogging? It was well worth the extra calories, but I’m glad that that is not my breakfast every day (otherwise I think I’d be coming home all too changed, and not for the better). Wednesday was our day of quick lectures about the performance history of Twelfth Night, the production we would be seeing on Thursday at the RSC. After a long lunch break downtown, we were whisked away on a coach to Oxford. Paul, the Director of the Shakespeare Program, took us around his alma mater and showed us all the key sights around town. From there, I met up with my friend Claire who is studying on the Tufts-in-Oxford program this year for a delicious (and spicy!) dinner at a pub in the alley of which I am forgetting the name…hopefully she’ll be able to help me out. It was great to see her, catch up, and hear about all the fun stuff she is doing at Oxford! She walked me over to the theater where we had a nice glass of hot chocolate before we said our goodbyes. That night, we were treated to a performance of Days of Significance, a modern “response” to Much Ado About Nothing that was being put on tour by the RSC. Sadly, I was underwhelmed – and that is putting it lightly. Bad script, bad acting, bad direction – bad, bad, bad. 14/15 of us felt this way and vocally shared these feelings on the bus ride back to Stratford. Apparently you can take the students out of the criticism class, but you can’t take the critical eyes out of the students… Thursday brought another English breakfast and more classes! We had a makeup class with the delightfully charming head of makeup from the RSC who gave us a whole overview on how different effects are achieved on stage. Some of it was stuff that I have learned about from working on various shows, but most of it was new to me and it was very cool to see many of these techniques applied to my friends. That afternoon, we had a class with the head voice teacher at the RSC who reinforced all of the ideas that Emily has been teaching us at BADA (again, reaffirming my love for Emily Bruni), but all related to different speeches from Twelfth Night. Our final stop at the Institute was an archive display about Twelfth Night. The librarian who presented this collection was fantastic and really wanted to make it special. It not only chronicled the history of productions, but also included sources that Shakespeare would have used in his lifetime – books about herbs, atlases showing Illyria (the setting of the play), and even Quarto editions and copies of playscripts that were edited by his contemporaries. Geekiness satisfied, we headed down to the RSC Courtyard Theatre for a backstage tour before taking in the really wonderful performance that evening. It was a very interesting take on the play – not the happy ending one might expect from this comedy – but it gave us all a lot to think about and was a solid three hour block of entertainment. Friday morning was our last bit of time in Stratford. The day began with a talk back about the show and we were then joined by James Fleet, an actor from the company who played Sir Andrew in the show. It was so great to talk to him and hear about his experiences in rehearsals and performing this great show at the RSC. I took in the last few hours in Stratford with a sandwich at the As You Like It Café and some tea and a scone at a nearby tearoom. A great, educational trip! Now rushing off to class!

An Apology

I am terribly sorry for my absence from the blogosphere as of late. You may be wondering if I’ve disappeared in some foreign European country where I’ve no grasp of the language, or if I’ve been deported again, or even if I’ve joined up with a troupe of strolling players who are Shakespearean portrayers (name that show that just closed at Tufts this past weekend…) and gone off to gallivant across the English countryside performing scenes from Richard III. Alas, alack – not one of these excuses is the truth. They’d probably make for much more exciting blog chatter. What’s the truth, then? I’ve been away from London for approximately two weeks (Stratford and Fall Break – the missing entries) and, since returning, have had to finish a midterm paper and two substantial projects. But now these are done, so blog entries, photos, and general amusement will be returning here shortly – make sure to keep a lookout!