Hello!
I just finished my first week of work placement at the National Theatre Archives. So far it has been pretty uneventful, but I got to see some cool parts of the theatre and learned a lot about their database management system, haha.
On Tuesday I went on a backstage tour of the National Theatre which was awesome! There are three theatres / venues in the building. The biggest, the Olivier, is a giant auditorium designed around the concept of a Greek amphitheater. There is a gigantic fly system in place above the theatre. The National runs more than one production at a time on each stage, so when a show is not needed one night, the entire set is hooked and raised into the ceiling to wait its turn. There is also a drum revolver on the floor (like an elevator, basically...Kimball recital hall has one too which is quite fun to ride), so that when stages are built on it, they can be revolved around easily or lowered into the floor. Anything that can't be stored above the stage in the flies is lowered five stories down and rolled to one side in a storage area. The drum also splits in half, so while a show is going on in front of, for example, a set building, the back half of the drum can lower down, have a new set placed on it, be raised up again, and then rotate into a brand new set all during the performance. Pretty slick! The drum can take up to 60 tons of weight, which seems incredibly impressive to me!
The medium sized theatre, the Lyttleton, has a pretty ingenious system for changing entire shows quickly as well. Sets are built on rolling wagons that can be pushed around easily. When a set needs to go into place for the night's show, they push the wagon out onto the stage and then lower a second of the floor just enough so that the wagon's top is even with the stage floor, then lock it into place. That way, even though there are usually two plays going on at one time in the stage, it only takes a few minutes to change between shows each day.
The smallest theatre is almost like a black box theatre. It is modeled kind of like the Globe or an old operating lecture room, where there are stalls around the walls like balconies so that the audience can see from all sides of the stage.
I also got to see a War Horse! For those who don't know what that is, basically there is a play called War Horse (based on the book) which uses giant wooden puppets. The tour guide climbed inside the head and neck portion and manipulated it...I was taken aback by how realistic it seemed! Seriously, everything about the horse's head and movement were accurate, it was crazy! During the staging, each war horse has three people inside. Two for legs, one for the head / neck. The legs are usually ex-gymnasts or very built, but short people, who can bear a lot of weight, as the puppets need to be able to be ridden as well. I'm waiting for the ticket prices to drop, but I think I'm just going to have to suck it up and go see the show, because it's killing me that I haven't seen it yet!
My actual work at the theatre hasn't really gotten off the ground yet. I'm helping with a project called the Black Plays Archive, which is basically a collection of data surrounding the works of black playwrights in the UK. The site is supposed to do a beta launch soon, so I helped to do a bit of website checking with the links, displays, error messages, etc, but nothing too intense. It sounds like the archive wants me to work on developing digital tools like map interfaces, timelines, etc....probably a bit out of my capabilities at this point as I am NOT a software developer, but I have decided to give it a try to see what happens. I can at least make a prototype or model that the actual tech guys can build off of later, hopefully! Yesterday I had a meeting with some of the actual developers, and they are going to give me access to one of the databases and its interface system so that I can noodle around a little bit. They just have to clear my access with security first, so that they can make sure I'm not going to accidentally wipe their entire database (hopefully it is better backed up than that, but either way I do not want to accidentally delete anything either, haha).
On Tuesday I met Will at a pub and we had dinner with one of his friends. He is doing a study abroad program in Paris right now and used a break in classes to tour around Amsterdam, London, Barcelona, etc. We had a good time. I showed them the view from Primrose Hill, etc. The next day Kourtney came, but we didn't have time to do very much because she had a family emergency and had to get a flight back as soon as possible. I am starting to think that Cambridge is cursed, because I have had the bus tickets to go all lined up now twice, and people get sick, etc and we have to cancel! So I don't think I will be trying to go back again for a while, haha.
Yesterday I went to Westfields Mall in west London. I hadn't ever gone before because I assumed it was far away, but it turns out it is only about thirty minutes from my house by tube, so I am going to be going back soon! There were so many stores! We thought about going to see a movie, but they cost £14, so....nope! haha.
It has been rainy and terrible in London every day for about two weeks now, but I'm hoping that it will get better soon. I head to Sweden on Friday, hooray! I think at this rate it might be a nicer, warmer climate than London!
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