A woman needs a bicycle like a fish needs a man.

I did get up in time to go to Battersea park today. It was really nice - I like getting up and being able to do something like that before going on with my day.
In theatre class, we talked about Bertolt Brecht. He was a playwright who came up with the idea that it was best for a theatre production to constantly remind an audience that what they are watching isn't real - it's theatre. Through doing this, it prevented the audience from emoting with the characters and zoning out and going to their happy place - it made them think about what's really going on in the story. However, if someone actually adopted all of his advice, I think it would be a rather strange performance. For example, one of the things he said to do was constantly switch casting around (regardless of gender) and mess up the order of the scenes. This meant that characters could be wandering around with a script during a scene. You could also project what the scene is actually about onto the back wall, or maybe lyrics to a song that a character is singing and a stage manager could get the audience to sing along.
My teacher said that one time she directed a play entirely in a Brecht-ian style (in her defence she said that she was 24 at the time :] )and she purposely picked actors to sing and play instruments that had no musical ability. I don't think I would have been able to sit through that entire performance, or even three scenes.
Nicole is in Henley (another area of London) tonight - apparently there's a really nice nightlife and a rowing competition (she's on the crew team at her college). So, I've had the room to myself since I got back from class. I ate lunch and took a nap - I seem to be taking a lot of those lately. I've also been staying up later though, so that probably helps.
After my nap, I had dinner and met up with the rest of the class to go to tonight's show. The venue itself was pretty cool - it was recently converted from a library. There was writing all over the walls detailing future plans and asking for suggestions and thoughts about what to do. We also got to walk around backstage during the intermissions. In the loo, I saw a quote on the wall: 'A woman needs a bicycle like a fish needs a man.' Wondering what the bloody hell that meant, I looked it up when I got back to my room and found another quote: 'A woman needs a man like a fish heeds a bicycle.' That one makes a bit more sense.
The show was very interesting. The National Theatre gave them 9 props (including a necklace of fingers O.o) and three pllaywrights gave a number of stage directions. Three in-house playwrights then had to write one short play each involving whatever of those props they chose and the stage directions from one of the other playwrights. All three plays had different seating layouts - the first one had the audience on three sides of the stage, the second had us all around it and the third was a more traditional layout. They were all a bit strange and hard to understand at times, but the actors were amazing.
Going to shows (through class or West End) and listening to soundtracks is making me miss pit. I love playing in the pit, I'll have to ask my orchestra director if there's anything like that in the West Lafayette area when I get back to school.
It's interesting to read through my blog posts now. I usually type them so late that I don't bother proofreading them and so I find typos after. Sorry about those.
My days have been rather laid back lately and that means that the entries are shorter, but I'm going to Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath this weekend so that should provide more long entries. Hopefully I'll be able to post something Saturday night, if not I'll do Saturday's entry on Sunday when we get back and write up Sunday's entry later that night.
It's another late night tonight, but I get to sleep in tomorrow :D
Till then,
-Squirt (my parents call me that, if you've never heard it before)