Summer Time...

And my exams are over! I only had three exams in total (three of my modules this year were continuous assessment and essay-based) so it wasn't a mammoth undertaking, but they were still a pain to get through and took up valuable headspace in my brain. As usually happens to me around examtime, I begin to get the most bizarre cravings. "Why don't I buy that Cassavetes boxset that keeps tempting me and watch all his films chronologically?" "Maybe it's a good time to reread Lolita!" "Oh look, Open Yale Courses has a downloadable American novel class. Why don't I follow along?" Etc. You get the picture. Having wrapped up the last of my classes and submitted the last couple of essays and assignments, I was mentally through with my first year in college and it was annoying to have to knuckle down and work for exams. But, they're over now and I can get on with the myriad of other things I'm interested in at the moment! Aaaaah, summer.

Hopefully I'll update this blog more regularly with the culture I'm ingesting. Next week I'm flying off to London for a long weekend, and taking in three productions:

• As You Like It
• Waiting for Godot
• A Little Night Music

Shakespeare, Beckett and Sondheim. Now there's a triumvirate. I keep flitting back and forth about which play I'm most excited to see. A Little Night Music has the benefit of being a novelty for me, as its a musical. I've only seen one other musical live on stage (that'd be Evita last year, a fantastic production that really turned my opinion of that musical around. I had hated the Madonna version and basically wrote ALW off as a total hack. I still don't think he's that great a talent, but I'm a fan of Evita now just after that one great performance) wheras I've seen Shakespeare numerous times on stage before, and Beckett once (Fiona Shaw in Happy Days in the Abbey last year). I'm psyched to see AYLI because it'll be my first visit to the Globe and I hear great things about the play in general, but I'm not that familiar with the source text (yet!). Godot is, of course, one of the Canonical Plays, but the real draw for me here is the actors. When I heard that Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart were beginning rehearsal as the two Beckettian tramps, it provided me with the impetus to actually plan this London trip in the first place. When McKellen did Lear two years ago, I was dying to see it but wasn't able to make it over. Stupidly, I thought that'd be my only chance to see him - one of my absolute favourite actors - onstage, so I was delighted when I heard about Godot.

I may do singular posts on each of the original source texts in the next week, or I may just save it all for one big review post after the trip. Either way, I'll make sure to write more about these plays.