QM Classes

So I have decided to split up the week into a series of different posts, because so many things have been going on that trying to do them all justice in one post would be a) incredibly boring, b)extremely long, and c) let's face it I would get tired of typing and gloss over most things. So short and sweet it is, here goes...

This past week was my first week of classes in the UK. I am taking a full course load, but have only 8 hours of scheduled class a week, which is significantly less than I would be taking at USC. Queen Mary is also a theory-based learning environment, as opposed to a practice-based one. The idea is that they give their students all the tools to understand and compete in the theater world, but they don't do any of the actual practice in most classes. 

Example, in my 'Director's Theatre' class we are learning all about the art and history of directing as well as different directors and their approaches to theater. My directing classes at USC focused minimally on history or technique but forced us to find and work with actors on different pieces to give us practical experience directing. For me, having exposure to both types is really fascinating and gives me so much more perspective on the field. I am excited for the rest of the semester.

I am also taking Performance Studies and Interdisciplinarity (the way that theatre uses other disciplines, like anthropology and sociology, to inform it's work, and the way that those other disciplines use aspects of performance to explain principles in their work) and Dramaturgy and Translation (basically a playwriting class that deals with analyzation of dramaturgy and the influence of a translation of a play on performance aspects).

Things I didn't know about the UK school system:

• All exams are at the end of the year, which means I don't have to take them.
• If you miss more than 2 classes (skip) you will be disenrolled.
• Degrees are only 3 years.
• Universities do not require any GE's.
• "Unsupervised Practice" means that you have to show up, because there is no other way to watch the assigned videos. Oops.

Also, in being in classes I have realized:

• Although a loud person, I am exponentially louder than all my classmates, even other American theater students.
• British students find American accents sexy. I thought it was only the other way around, but now I officially have a sexy voice.
• Even in my upper division classes, I am still older than everyone (Except for the PhD student from Holland).

I now also have a ton of reading to do, which I should be doing instead of updating this blog, but let's face it, even in London, I still procrastinate.