A Week at the Theatre!!! (yes, spelled the British way)

First night out to "Billy Elliot" last week!

In front of the Victoria Palace Theatre where "Billy Elliot" has been playing since March of 2005.

This week on Tuesday we went to "Wicked" at the Apollo Victoria Theatre (right across the way from where "Billy Elliot" was). It has been playing there since Sept. 2006.

The set for "Wicked"

Follow the yellow brick road!

Posters in Leicester Square (might recognize these from the post of my photography social...)

Dominion Theatre where "We Will Rock You" has been playing for nearly 9 years (literally right outside of the Tottenham Court Rd. tube station).

So for the past week, Mom and I have been trying to fit in all of the West End (what London calls their version of Broadway) shows we can! If you go to Leicester Square the day of the play, or a few days in advance, the theaters start to release discounted tickets (sometimes up to 50% off) that they know they won't be able to sell at full price before the show. It makes the theater affordable even for some great seats in the stalls and dress circle!

Starting with Billy Elliot (you may remember the movie) which is the story of a 12 year old boy who starts going to ballet class instead of his boxing classes in the hard times of the 1980's in Durham, England. He falls in love with dancing (and happens to be pretty good), and has to convince his dad and brother of his talent so he can audition for the Royal Ballet School instead of going into the dangerous and un-lucrative mining business they are in. As it takes place in a time where miners were losing their lives and rights while on strike, he had to overcome some very strong issues (of course!). It was hilarious and a little sad too! AWESOME!

Next, we saw Wicked which is based on the best selling novel written after The Wizard of Oz which acts as a sort of prequel telling the story of Glinda (who goes on to be the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz) and Elphaba (who goes on to be the Wicked Witch of the West that Dorothy runs from in the Wizard of Oz). Glinda and Elphaba meet in sorcery school, and Elphaba being born green, has to overcome some adversities to fit in. It portrays the witches in different lights than the Wizard of Oz and was great despite our sub-par tickets (as it is currently the most popular show in the West End and this is apparently mid-term week where all the kids have off of school like Spring Break, tickets were hard to come by)! Besides, I already knew the popular "Defying Gravity" song thanks to Glee which made it more fun to sing along with.

Last night we went to see "We Will Rock You" which to be honest, we were a little wary of because the story takes place in 2310 and sounded pretty strange. Earth as we know it no longer exists, and kids are all forced to dress the same, learn the same songs, watch the same t.v. shows, so they are all brainwashed in order to follow orders from the Killer Queen. A group of rebels (one being called Meat-after Meatloaf and one being called Brit after Britney Spears), have found old magazines and posters referring to popular music and rock 'n' roll, and know that in order to release the kids from their brainwashed states, they must find the only musical instrument still hidden on the planet-once belonging to Queen front-man Freddie Mercury. So weird, right? Right. Well the show was basically all music, very little dialogue other than through songs, and the play is based on songs from Queen. Of course Galileo and Scaramouche, the main characters (hmm...sound familiar), find the guitar (buried at was once Wembley Stadium) and the rebels become the Champions. With songs like "Another One Bites the Dust", "We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions", "Bohemian Rhapsody", and about 12 more popular songs, I actually thought it was pretty awesome (surprise to me too!). The dancing and singing made the weird story well worth it. Plus, all of the subtle references to popular and present artists/issues made it pretty funny! Was possibly my seond favorite show after Billy Elliot, but really, they were all spectacular shows!!

All in all, I am so glad I've gotten to see some West End shows and will hopefully see at least one more before I go! I will miss half-priced musicals back in Houston :(

My Last Photography Social :(

Yes, I want to see the Deathtrap play for the sole reason that Jonathan Groff (Glee's Jesse) is in it (and no, this photo and many of the others do not have any relevance to the challenge)!

Shoes! ok, getting sidetracked again...

"Use Reflections" was one of our ten challenges to get photos of

"Use Props" or on the way to "Shoot a portrait not showing someone's face" (but obviously didn't quite get there). Could also be "Capture Personality"...kind of (all depends on how you sell it to the judges!)

More non-relavant photos...

"Use Shadows" was another challenge

More shadows!

"Take a photo from an unusual viewpoint"

"Create Drama" (and as you might have noticed, we were supposed to bring props as well, as one challenge was "Use Props", hence the witches hat and the perfect opportunity to use it thanks to Wicked posters in Leicester Square!)

To get her in the right place where she would be the same size as Glinda in the poster (or as close as we could get) took quite a bit of moving, repositioning, and looking a bit silly!

"Self Portrait" was one of the challenges as well although this didn't turn out too great...

Theme of this social is: (drumroll please) PORTRAITURE! This immediately made me not want to sign up because if you've noticed, I don't really like people in my photos. Not only that, but our teamates and ourselevs are supposed to be the subjects in the photos which made it less appealing (that's why I take the photos, so I don't have to be in them!). And the third drawback? Bring props!haha... But I'm really glad I went because the next social isn't until Nov. 17th which is the day I go back to the states :( . So our night started at the Round Table pub in Leicester Square and we got our assignment with our ten different challenges pertaining to portraits "Shoot an abstract portrait, Use backlighting in a portrait, and the ones listed above (plus one more I can't remember). Our team, "Shooting Pumpkins" (a take on Smashing Pumpkins, Halloween, and Shooting in the photography sense), went around Leicester Square for an hour trying to get all the shots in. It proved to be as hard as the last social on the boat where instead of shooting randomly, you have to plan all of your shots and even create a few! As usual though, I had a great time, and I will really miss all my photography friends :( I only wish they had something like this in Houston!

A Beautiful Autumn Day in Kew Gardens

The theme of this album is red, orange, and yellow for Fall!

The Gardens hold over 14,000 trees spread over 326 acres, and we decided to wander through the Winter Wonderland area to see all the different Christmas trees!

Butterflies in the Princess of Wales Conservatory

He wasn't too cooperative to get his photo taken, but I finally got a good photo of him!

Inside the Orchid House

Cacti like in Texas! Now I feel more at home. I don't believe I've ever written the word "cacti" before...

The Palm House

We went into the Palm House mainly to get to the Waterlily House, and as it is set to Tropical Rainforest climate and we were in our clothes dressed to walk around in 45 degree weather, we couldn't stay in there too long...

Inside the Waterlily House with the biggest lily pads I've ever seen!

The Temperate House which I thought was pretty boring.

The Xstrata Treetop Walkway that gets you 18 meters above the ground (no I don't know how many feet that is).

Just saw this guy roaming around trying to eat some berries!!

The Pagoda

What's better to end a great Autumns day than a jug of Mai Tai's with my new friend Lauren in Clapham Common? It even carried on the color theme of the day!

So we spent about 4 hours roaming around the Gardens, and only made it about halfway through (granted we ate lunch, stopped for hot tea, and went into the giftshop-well two of those). The weather said it would be a completely sunny day, but of course, they were wrong as usual, and right as we decided to leave around 4 or so, it started pouring on us. Despite the rain, it was a perfect, very brisk Autumn Day roaming around the gardens!