Author: Benjamin Smith | Major: Anthropology and Theatre | Semester: Summer2024

Encountered a dragon at the Tower of London

This summer, I attended a theatre-focused study abroad program in London. As a theatre major, this opportunity piqued my interest as we would be given the chance to see 13 different shows in a one-month span, which is something I have no way of replicating in Fayetteville. The program also drew my attention as an anthropology student, as London is a city so old and steeped with history, you could end up parking your car atop the unmarked grave of a king (which is something that has actually happened). London is also home to a wide variety of museums, such as the infamous British Museum and the incredibly fun Victoria and Albert Museum, both of which boasted vast exhibits representing a variety
of cultures and time periods. The main objective of this long-standing program is to teach students about theatrical history and techniques by exposing them to a wide variety of shows at many different theatres, such as the National Theatre, the historic Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and St. Martin’s Theatre, which is home to the longest running play in the world — Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. By watching all of these different plays
and writing reviews and blog posts about them, as well as discussing them in class or just on our own time, we were able to further our appreciation for theatre and develop a better eye for judging productions as well. It was interesting to read and hear about the perspectives that my classmates had on these different shows, especially when those perspectives contradicted my own. The process of watching and analyzing all of these different productions was not only entertaining, but highly informative for my own work. This coming fall, I will be doing sound design work for one of our season’s main productions, Heroes of the Fourth Turning. Keeping that in my mind, I went into all of these shows listening intently to the sound design, how it fit the scenes and overall story, and what choices I think did and did not work. The plays that I saw as part of the program and that I attended on my own definitely provided me with a lot of things to consider for my own production designs throughout the remainder of my time at the University of Arkansas.

One big lesson I learned from the shows was how to go about using music to help elicit a specific mood for a scene, as I heard two different sides of the spectrum in this regard. As a class, we all went to see a production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which, while the performances were nigh perfect, was lacking in many elements of the design. I was particularly annoyed at many of the sound choices made throughout the show, as at roughly three times throughout the play, when a character would go into a religious monologue, a choir of angels would quietly start to play, not so loud that it actually overpowered the actors’ voices, but just loud enough that it drew my attention away from the scene.

However, I watched another play, completely on my own, titled 2:22 A Ghost Story, which did a similar thing just with the horror or ghostly elements of the play being underscored by an eerie violin. When it was done in this show, the repetition and its presence during these similar scenes did not bother me like it did with Long Day’s Journey. I was wondering why this was, and I realized that the issue I had was with the context and ways that they were being used. In 2:22, the music is supposed to add to the spine-tingle that the supernatural elements invoke, and while that feeling is created by the actors and the direction, the music helps to further cement it. In Long Day’s Journey, however, the music felt like it was almost over-emphasizing the importance of the scene, lessening the impact by hitting the audience over the head with “THIS INTERACTION IS IMPORTANT AND DRAMATIC”. The difference also lies in the genres of the two plays, as 2:22 is, as the name implies, a ghost story where music and ambience is more expected, while Long Day’s Journey is a very personal and dramatic family story, with a more realistic world and design overall, so random music just feels out of place. Overall, these shows taught me the
difference between using sound to create or define mood versus using sound to state what can be better expressed through other means, and that sometimes a scene is better when there is no sound. Besides these theatrical endeavors I was undertaking, I was also having a fantastic time getting lost in the museums and historical sites of London, from the V&A to the Tower of London. We went to many sites and museums as part of class, but more often than not I would be the last person to leave these places by at least a couple of hours. Each of these places were filled to the brim with different things to see and read about. The White Tower in the Tower of London, which I almost skipped because we were running out of time there, was packed with different weapons and armors found by or given to the British over the years and included a statue of a dragon constructed using different bits and pieces from the armory. The town of Bath was built around an ancient Roman bathhouse, displaying many artifacts that were excavated there from jewelry to grave markers to curses against thieves left as offerings. You could even drink the natural hot spring water, which is said to have some healing properties to it. I had a sore throat when I drank it, and besides feeling ever so slightly warmer from the hot water, I, unfortunately, did not feel even the slightest relief. The British Museum was understandably chock full of artifacts from many different cultures, along with the V&A. The V&A, however, had an interactivity to it that I really appreciated, and let me get familiar with the artifacts and processes that they were showcasing on a far deeper level than most other museums I have visited.

All in all, this study abroad in London has not only left me with a greater appreciation and
understanding for creating theatre that will help me in the years to come, but has also deepened my love
for archaeology and my desire to pursue the study of all things human.