The Ups and Downs of the JAC Stratford Trip

So I just recently got home after an excruciatingly long bus ride from Stratford, Ontario, back to Montreal (Quebec, naturally). I went on the John Abbott/Dawson College trip; four plays in three days. It was my first time visiting this seemingly wonderful city, and it is an experience I doubt I'll ever forget. But, like any other experiences, this one had it's good moments and bad moments. The pros and cons, if you will.

The four plays involved three of Shakespeare's works, which apparently is tradition for the Stratford trip. The four plays, in the order we saw them in, were; The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Cabaret, and Romeo and Juliette.

Shrew and Cabaret were definitely my favorite shows of the four. I had done a musical adaptation of Shrew in high school (I was Tranio), so it was really incredible to get to see the original production done in a high class professional theatre, such as Stratford's Festival Theatre. The costumes and set were simply jaw dropping, and the acting was ridiculously top notch. Of the three Shakespearean pieces from this weekend, this was my favorite of the trio.

Cabaret was what had me hooked from the beginning. Before the bus even left Montreal at the beginning of the weekend. I had heard so much about it, but had never seen it before. In my Acting class at JAC, we do some choreography of Cabaret as a warm-up, so it was really great to see how it came to be in the show. Everything in it was just... fucking wow. Yeah, I had to swear, it was that good. It was the only show of the four that wasn't in the Festival Theatre. It was in the Avon Theatre, which is more like your traditional theatre (where as the Festival is much in comparison to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, what with the round stage and large house).

Hamlet... never really hooked me before, and I have to say the same. It was done slightly contemporary, but it remained consistent throughout the show, which is more than I can say about R+J. Romeo and Juliette... was my least favorite of the four. While the cast was great, some things bugged me. Like how they kept jumping back and forth from contemporary props and costumes to Shakespearean, and then back again. It was as if the director couldn't make up their mind or something. The acting in the show was good... except for our leading man and lady. Their performance felt dry and empty, and to me it seemed far too... rehearsed. It didn't feel natural to me. But other than that, it was a fine show with a beautiful set.

I picked up two souvenirs for myself too; a set of juggling balls and a pair of gloves. Now I know that those objects would seem to be random as my selection of souvenirs from my first visit of a new city, but there's good reason. Juggling balls because I started to learn how to juggle during the summer, and I want to resume those lessons, and I figured having the right instrument would help. And the gloves are for my superhero plays, as a costume piece. After trying to make the gloves myself and failing three times, I found this amazing pair for a good price (considering it's a costume piece and not just a regular pair of gloves), so I got it.

My roommates... not something I really want to get into right now. Let's just say that they didn't make the experience the best it could be.

So in short, that was my trip. I'm home now though. I suppose I'll write more details about the trip at a later point in time, but no guarantees. We'll see how long this energy burst from Stratford lasts.