Submitted by Katherine Slough on the 2024 Winter ENGL/THEA program in London, England…
As a twenty-year-old young woman, I am turning into my grandmother.
This trip has surprised me at every corner, and I would never have guessed that my takeaway is that I enjoy simple things and am learning to appreciate theater more. I know this is a theater and English study abroad session, but I did not think that studying theater in London would have such a profound impact on me.
The theater is alive in this city and influential at every turn; the ads on the underground are all about the newest plays, and everyone has heard of what is on the West End. There are theaters in the back of pubs, and the community expands farther than the theater companies and their audiences. The population loves to be entertained and has much longer attention spans than in America. The shows are almost three hours long, and yes, they might drag for a bit, but overall, I have not regretted watching a single one. Sometimes, the American accents are wrong, or the costume design could be a bit better, but with each show, I have never seen anything like it. The different kinds of stages, lighting, and music are making me want to see more plays in the States.
I’m becoming Denise Slough because she has tried to instill a love for the arts in me from a young age. She always encouraged me to do musicals and choir, and I did until high school. When choir or the musical was just a club or extracurricular in middle and elementary school, I loved it, but I focused more on sports in high school. I’m not necessarily artistic, so performance is not my strong suit, but I can still recognize when an actor is good. My older cousin is an actress, and I was always brought to her shows, from high school performances to off-Broadway productions. I have never entirely understood the desire to be an actress or be on the stage, but since taking this class and talking to actors, directors, and writers, it’s evident that they live to entertain. They will also always be in a job and have one of the oldest storytelling professions.
I am excited to return home with this newfound appreciation for the theater. The love for the arts has been one of the more significant cultural adjustments I have noticed in the UK. The average citizen’s simple love for the theater is much different than the bourgeois perspective in the states. The theater is for everyone here, and I love how unifying it is. (Submitted on January 30, 2024)