Theater!

The name of this blog is to be said in a British accent, as in "thhe-aeh-ter", just like at 1:42 in this song:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGoLJZaNnyE
Anywho, today I got up to make a delicious breakfast; my potatoes cooked wonderfully, my egg was unfrozen like normal and scrambled delectably, but I burnt my bacon just stupidly. Like, I knew it was crispy, but when I tried it, it was inedible. I have no idea how I was able to mess up bacon that badly. I am hoping for better luck tomorrow.
We all met at the NYU classrooms toward Old Town Square at 11 to watch Lidice. It's a movie that just came out, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1754123/, even though the event took place during WWII, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidice. I loved the music and the cinematography and toward the end when all the men are being shot I was just sobbing. Later, when talking to other students about the film, many did not like it as much as I did. I enjoyed the story and the characters, but one guy felt there was really shallow characterization, and he felt the director made all of the intended emotions too obvious. It think it's important to realize that most of the time audiences are stupid and have to be handed things, especially when we are just expecting entertainment, and not expecting to use our brains. Regardless, I thought the movie was very well done and it will be interesting when we visit Lidice next Tuesday.
We were supposed to hurry as soon as the movie was over to get to Prague College for a tour, but I made a pit stop to the bathroom and as I was leaving this guy (looked like he could be a student) carrying a box of cloth-animal pens started talking to me in Czech. I looked at him and said "English?" and he did his best to describe what he was doing. He was selling pens and fridge magnets for a charity for 50 kcz. There was a pink bunny pen, so of course I donated, (after dropping money all over the floor because I can't carry more than 2 things at once apparently). I got outside the building and was waiting with my teacher and the same guy walks out and comes over to me, he is pointing to a card with a website on it, he thanks me for donating and says I can learn more at the website, http://www.c4c.cz/en/index.php. I asked what his name was because my teacher keeps encouraging us to talk to people here; he said his name was Thomas something-something, and he shook my hand and I told him my name. We were in a hurry to leave, but I have finally mildly spoke to someone who lives here! Achievement unlocked.
A small group of us stragglers made our way over to Prague College and we all sat in a room while one of the co-founders (founded in 2004) talked to us about the school. I don't think I would transfer, especially since it doesn't have a film school, but they do offer a 1 year masters program that would run you around 10,000 USD, which is much better than most anything you could get here. Prague College is a part of Teesside College which is in the UK. They were voted #1 College in the UK in 2009 and 2010 or something like that.

After, me and some of the guys got some pizza. I just got cheese (margarita) like always, but it was just out of the oven and it was amazing! And only 25 kcz, so just over $1. I chilled out for a bit after eating and then called to reserve a ticket for A Midsummer Night's Dream as part of the Prague Shakespeare Festival. This guy and his mom were going to come as well, but his mom wasn't feeling well so he tagged along with me. The tickets were 200 kcz for students, so $10. It was so worth it. It took me a while to find the venue, but it was an outside theatre with benches for seating, and we sat on stage. The set was much different than I have seen in other performances, and the costuming was very...modern...kind of. I've seen this play at least 4 times, and I love it, but this performance had the best Titania and Oberon. I did not care as much for the Puck, but oh well. The sound design mostly utilized techno music, which worked in a weird sort of way.

After the play we made our way back through the park toward the metro, and we see a performance going on in a large grassy area. At first I thought it was some kind of interpretive dance thing, but as I watched I got the feeling it was more of a progressive alternative-type play. The brief amounts of dialogue were in Czech but I got ideas of the basic themes. It went on for a little over an hour when we started watching, and at the end I asked one of the actors what it was called, she said "Mens". I thanked her and said it was great, she seemed very happy for the praise. Unfortunately I cannot find anything online about the work, I am just glad I was able to record some of it. I got a really intense monologue (which seemed to only happen the 1 time in the entire play) on film and I am hoping to find someone to translate it.

It started raining at the very end of the play, and even though the metro was dry, it was a long cold walk back to the dorms. It was pouring. It still is, actually. Lots of thunder and lightning, but at least it's cooling down the dorm room.
Tomorrow we are watching The Fireman's Ball, which is supposed to be great.