London Theatre Experience
Welcome to my Travel Artifact
This course is a faculty-led study abroad trip consisting of exploring and studying London's Theatre for three weeks. Between May 22nd to June 12, our group saw 14 shows, went to museums, explored British culture, and so much more. In conclusion of this trip, this page is dedicated to the final project - the travel artifact. This travel artifact is to serve as a summary of my experiences and what I learn along the way.
What is in my travel artifact?
This travel artifact consists of summarizing my study abroad trip in the form of photo essays, critical dialogues, journal entries, and more. On the left of this text are photos of some of the highlights from this trip. The section below shows an interactive map where you can see almost all of the places our group went during the trip. Keep scrolling and you will find some excerpts from my daily journal, two conversations with my classmate about two performances we saw, and final remarks.
Where I've Been
In order to see all of the pins in the map below, click the plus and minus signs in the bottom right corner of the map. There are some pins north of London which are not visible currently. In order to learn more about a place, click the link in the description of the location.
Daily Journal
During the entirety of the trip, I kept a daily journal summarizing everything I did during the trip. Each day, I would gather mementos such as tickets, maps, postcards, business cards, etc., and add these items to my journal. On the left of this text are some photos of my physical journal to show some of the materials I have collected during the trip. Since my journal takes up around 100 pages of entries, I have a couple of entries that I have pulled out that talk about my takeaways from Retrograde and The Burnt City.
May 24th - Reflecting on Retrograde (performed at the Kiln Theatre)
"I just came back from seeing Retrograde at the Kiln Theatre. This show was insanely good! The set for this show was a naturalism-style office - it seemed like they took out a chunk of a random office. The acting and the design elements I found to be spectacular and really built the world for Retrograde. This show was about the effects of McCarthyism in 1950s Hollywood (I do not know much about McCarthyism). I wasn't expecting to learn about American history while I was in London so that was cool to experience! Retrograde only had three actors and all of their performances were very good (even the
Production photo from the Kiln Theatre
accents!). I can only imagine how exhausting this show would be since the content of the show is so heavy. What I really liked about the design elements is how they really paid attention to details. For instance, when one of the actors opened the window, we could hear faint busy street sounds that sounded very accurate. Also, I liked some of the very intense moments that they added a clock ticking to add to the suspense and to show how quiet everything would get in the room. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience of seeing this show. Also, I learned today how British theatres do programs - you have to buy them! These programs are much better quality than most of the programs I would receive when I would go to a show in America. I would have bought a program if I knew that the script was inside Retrograde's program.
I'm getting sleepy so I'm going to go to bed.
Much love talk, later."
...
June 6th - Experience of The Burnt City
"...There’s a lot to unpack for The Burnt City. To be honest, I will not capture everything that happened during the three hours of this experience. When we went into the lobby, they made us check in our bags and lock up our phones. We kept our phones on us just in case we wanted to purchase a drink at the bar. We were sent into a bar scene which was lowly lit with little corners to sit and drink. In the middle, there was a small stage in which throughout the night there was someone singing and entertaining the bar guests. Once seven o’clock struck, we were led into a room where we put on our masks. These masks were white and had large eye openings and a beak-looking thing that reminded me of a plague doctor mask. Once the masks were on, we were let loose into the warehouses.
There were two warehouses – one that represented Troy and the other Greece. The Greece warehouse was the one that I got funneled into first. The main floor was very spacey with iron beams jetting out of the ground for the actors to climb on. On the back wall, there was a staircase leading up to the balcony which had a long stone table and a room in the corner surrounded by
string. Underneath the balcony were multiple tarps-like tents which had small rooms inside them. On the other side of the tarps/tents was a room that had sand on the floor which was bonkers to me. Anyway, I was overwhelmed when I went in since I wanted to see and touch anything and everything. Fortunately, this feeling subsided quickly. I went and I just touched everything it was so cool. Nothing was off-limits unless it was an area being used by an actor, but all those areas were locked and such.
.....
When we got back to the flat, Riley and I ate that Pomegranate she was given during The Burnt City. I had never eaten a pomegranate before, and it was very tasty. This was the ending to the night that I needed – genuine human connection. I haven’t felt like someone has truly understood me in a very long time and it was my favorite memory of the trip – sitting there eating the pomegranate and talking about how our experience moved us. Our conversation made me realize how intangible memory is. How I can’t remember everything or hold on to everything even if I tried with all my might. I was reminded how short life is. How fleeing yet how beautiful life can be. I need to give myself Persephone’s reminder more often about worrying if I’m making the right decision with my life or not.
You have all the time in the world.
Much love, talk later"
Critical Dialogues
Listen to two conversations with the wonderful Riley Tomes about our thoughts on Midsummer Night's Dream performed at Shakespeare's Globe and Grease The Musical at West End's Dominion Theatre.
Critical Dialogues with Riley Tomes and Kate Wexler
Critical Dialogues with Riley Tomes and Kate Wexler
kate & riley gush over a midsummer night's dream
kate & riley chat about grease the musical
Final Remarks
This trip was such a joy to be a part of. I never imagined myself studying in London with such wonderful people for 3 weeks. During the trip, I went to 17 performances (14 with the whole group), several museums, and many tours, explored the city, pushed myself out of my comfort zone, and so much more. My view of theatre has been significantly broadened since I have only experienced theatre scenes of Chicago and the Twin Cities. While I was in London I was blown away by the amount of love and culture surrounding theatre. Every tube station was lined with advertisements for the current shows being performed scattered around London. All the shows that we went to were packed – even if the show was on a Monday or Tuesday night. You can tell that lots of Londoners go to the theatre, and it was cool to see. Seeing the theatre culture in London has made me want to foster a community like that back home in some way or another.
Before going on this trip, I was extremely nervous to fly alone internationally and explore a country I wasn’t familiar with. However, after my third day, I was already feeling comfortable navigating by myself and with other members of the group. Since being a transfer student at Loyola, I had a very different introduction to the department than most people do. Due to
this, I did not know anyone before going on this trip. Now after the trip, I feel like I connected with everyone in the group in some way and feel more like a part of the theatre department. One of my highlights of the trip was the Frantic Assembly workshop since the kind of activities we were doing required us to trust each other. I felt like we all pushed each other but also made sure everyone was feeling comfortable and supported throughout the entire workshop. Reflecting on that workshop makes me smile since it makes me remember how much of a community we built throughout this trip.
I find one of the most important aspects of theatre and creating art with a group is to have a strong community built. If there is not a community built, then the whole project will fall apart. This trip has made me realize I have very much missed this connection and community. It is not that I don’t have human connections in my life, but the pandemic for long time made it hard to connect with others that aren’t my friends or family. When I come back to Loyola in the fall, I am looking forward to coming back to our theatre community and contributing to making our department the best it can be.
Overall, this trip was everything and nothing I expected it to be. I expected it to be very fun and incredible, but I did not anticipate how much it was going to impact me. Being home since then I have thought about this trip daily and how it lit a spark in me to be excited to be a part of theatre. For a while before this trip, I was doubting myself if studying theatre was going to be the right move for me and now after going to London – I am so happy I am studying and creating theatre with such wonderful people.
Much love, talk later <3