The Apollo Victoria - Blog Posts

june (jolly jraining)

............

really had to force the jalliteration (jmastermind ji jknow)

also, before anyone tells me that the title doesn't make sense

yes it does.

sorry for the lack of posts in may, it was a mess and nothing was very new from april so i thought it wouldn't be very notable to write about.

this month has been a whirl wind of events. most notably, i applied and got into a summer residential at the University of South Wales, i'm afraid because of my parents and their safety concerns, i won't be able to attend. i also got tickets to an open day at a film school in London! whether or not i'll be able to attend in July is still quite unclear.

i also went on a bus and travelled outside of my own city for the first time, which was super, super stressful but also really exciting! even if it was a village only 20 minutes away, the friend i was supposed to meet slept in that day and had me bawling on the empty street before grabbing the first bus i saw and hoping i was going the right way. another friend from mosque ended up taking me out to try Baskin Robbins (their chocolate brownie fudge ice cream is to die for)

if there's anything i'm going to always remember from this month though, it has to be my first time at the theatre to see WICKED! at The Apollo Victoria.

I can't even begin to describe it, every detail was on point, the staging felt so real it was surreal, it felt more like a movie than a live performance with all the effects and fantastical props (especially the Wizards giant puppet) and costuming (the emerald city costumes were my favorite) the *minor spoilers* love triangle was very unexpected when it was first introduced, I like how perfectly the narrative fit with the original story of The Wizard of Oz instead of twisting it. Defying Gravity gave me goosebumps. if i had to have one complaint, it would be that the crowds cheering didn't let me catch every word.

After the show was over we got to have our own little qna with the main ensemble, i can't remember everything off the top of my head but the two parts that stuck with me were the answers on starting their careers and being constantly rejected at first. Fieros actor had said "it's not rejection, it's redirection" and the actor for Glinda saying that everyone has a thing "let's say yours is wearing pink, even if you get rejected because of that keep doing it, you'll eventually find someone else who loves wearing pink too". She had called it a weird analogy afterwards, but it was on repeat in my head and pink happens to be my favourite color to wear so it felt a little special coming from someone so cool.

that same day we got to walk around London and all i can say is that I've never felt so at home. well, until next time! Amina