“I wanted to go to [the Theater Academy London] TAL because I knew I wanted to do theater while abroad and I had heard so many people who had gone before me had had such an amazing time. Also, London is one of the theater capitals of the world and I loved that TAL takes their students to see West End theater shows weekly,” says Arden McHugh ‘25, who studied with TAL for their spring program.
TAL is a theater training program based in Bloomsbury, London and accredited by Florida State University. Students receive conservatory-style actor training as well as the opportunity to work with artists in various theatrical fields and to see two to three West End productions a week. McHugh continues, “We saw at least one show a week! The theater in London is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There’s such a wide variety, and even beyond our course, theater was so much more accessible than it is here in the States. Seeing so much made me be able to define my taste and preferences and help me understand the kind of performance art I’m interested in creating.”
Bella Castillo ‘25, another TAL student from the spring, expressed similar thoughts on the program’s emphasis on seeing shows on the West End. “I think it’s really useful to see so many different kinds of shows at so many different kinds of theaters, and allow that to inspire you and the work that you might want to do!”
“The theater in London is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” – Arden McHugh ’25
TAL students see productions as part of their “Introduction to London Theater” course, but the program offers a multitude of classes such as stage combat, Shakespeare and scene study in which students perform sections of the play Yerma. Each class was three hours long, and students typically take one to two classes per day.
Learning about the importance of breath and presence in her scene study class is a lesson that Castillo has brought overseas with her not just in theater, but in her daily life. She says, “I found myself going back to the skills and warmups and exercises that I learned in class. I use them here now, so that’s really incredible, and it’s just a great tool to have as an actor: being more present and allowing myself to breathe and be free when I’m playing onstage or in a rehearsal room…I see how presence and breath can be used not just in theater, but as a way to improve our quality of life overall.”
Castillo also asserted her belief that TAL’s inclusion of West End performances within their programming not only is such a great opportunity, but also may help to inspire students in terms of what kind of work they want to do in the future. Castillo explains how she felt personally inspired and affirmed by the acting performance she saw on the West End stage. “I’d say seeing so many productions where performers brought to life characters who were so complex and that felt so human, as cliche as that might sound, was so impactful. I really believe storytelling through theater is such a powerful tool for reflecting and understanding ourselves and the world around us, and a lot of the theater I saw in London really affirmed that and inspired me to want to bring meaningful stories to life through art.”
“I think it’s really useful to see so many different kinds of shows at so many different kinds of theaters, and allow that to inspire you and the work that you might want to do!” – Bella Castillo ’25
Seeing West End productions became an interactive experience as students were tasked with making presentations that analyzed and raised discussion questions about the content and production choices of the works they saw together. Carly Langschultz ‘25 presented on a show entitled The Little Big Things, demonstrating its significance in representing psychological themes such as self-mourning. TAL also welcomed guest speakers involved with West End productions and encouraged discussions about what they took from the shows they saw as audience members.
One of the most significant lessons Langschultz gained from her experiences with TAL is that she realized the importance of perspective when comparing the reactions of English theater audiences to American theater audiences, such as the use of guns for theatrics in some of the shows she saw in London. On this concept, Langschultz says: “Talking about things like that made us understand that different people’s perspectives for different shows will make them react differently, and that theater is so dependent on the audience’s experience and the actor’s experience, and I think that growing up in the same place, you don’t get that experience until you go somewhere that’s very, very different.”
Having expanded the scope of both their skills and their perspectives, students who studied abroad in the spring now return to Muhlenberg with new ideas about what they can bring to their artistry. Langschultz says, “I feel like I have tools now from a different way of performing that I wouldn’t be able to obtain in America.”
Samantha Tempkin ‘25 is a theatre and media & communication double major and is thrilled to be joining the Weekly’s staff as an Assistant News Editor! She is also the co-president of KPC, Muhlenberg’s K-Pop club. When she is not writing for the paper, Sam loves singing, dancing, listening to music, seeing Broadway shows, watching Marvel movies, and hanging out with friends!
