The Great Globe
Oy! I finished my globe program today, so first an update about that. Later, when I have the energy, more pictures from my trip in April.
It started last Wednesday, the day after Richard left--was that only one week ago? seems like AGES. Since I knew I had this coming up, I hadn't gone to the Globe yet at all. It's on the Southbank of the Thames, across the millennium bridge from St. Paul's Cathedral. I hadn't been to that part of London before, but I actually quite liked the area.
First, to dispel a myth--It is not the original Globe. It is not even in the same spot as the original Globe. Interesting fact--the Globe was built in 1599, and was actually built from the timbers of another theatre called...the Theatre. Then it was destroyed in 1613 by a fire (during a performance of All is True (Henry VIII). Then it was closed in 1642. We went to the site of that Globe, about a block and a half south of where the new one stands. They have a little plaque and some historical facts, but that's about it. Apparently--and this is utterly ridiculous--they cannot excavate the site because there is a building just atop it that is a historical site--because it's the first concrete (or cement, I forget which and mix those two up) building in London. Um...who cares? Apparently someone in the cement/concrete industry? I would think the actual Globe would have more import than an ugly yellow building, but, alack the day, they do not (apparently).
So for this program we had a few lectures from the resident scholars at the Globe (which is, I learned, sort of an academic hub for Shakespeare studies where they employ scholars to a-research how the Globe would have been, in order to make their re-creation as accurate as possible, b-bring some prestige to the theatre, which is somewhat looked down upon by a lot of scholars and theatre buffs, and c-to lecture to the actors and directors about the space, and about tudor history and such.) I'm digressing a lot in this explanation, so please forgive all the hyphens and parentheses. So we got lectures about the Elizabethan/Jacobean thoughts on biology, religion, acting, social structure, cosmetics.
We also got a few sessions with behind the scenes people who told us about what they do at the Globe. These included someone who worked with the actors on voice (a very flamboyantly gay older man in a 70s leisure suit), on movement (an older woman who swore like a sailor)--both of these two were too new age-y for me. Also someone who did makeup, which was quite interesting, and one of the boys got made up in the makeup they actually wore--not only on the stage but in real life in the Tudor period, the sort of bright white face that you see in all those portraits of Queen Elizabeth (the first). Bright white foundation, like a mime, lots of blush and lots of bright red lipstick--apparently this was the same for men and women, and every once in a while the Globe will do what they call an Original Processes (OP) production, where they recreate as much as they can to Tudor specifications--including having all male casts and this heavy makeup. ...Went off on a tangent there. There was also someone who was the set/costume designer, quite interesting because he talked about how he was influenced (for Romeo and Juliet, because it is set in Verona and not England) by paintings by people like Caravaggio and other Renaissance masters to find his color palette and etc. There was also someone who helped us, briefly, with iambic pentameter and verse. It was just really awesome because this is an aspect of theatre an audience would never be privy too--and even those in theatre tend to know only their own roles without having much interaction with other aspects--I imagine at any rate.
We also got to see Romeo and Juliet, the current production, twice. Once from the bays (sitting down) and once standing in the yard (try to remember high school English and learning about the groundlings). We also got a Q&A with two of the actors, playing Mercutio and Tybalt (both were quite handsome, incidentally). That was really interesting as well, learning about the way they relate to the Globe and to other theatres, etc.
In addition to all this, *gulp* we had 5 two-hour rehearsals with actor/directors who helped us prepare for a scene that we performed today. Unfortunately, because they do two performances a day on the Globe stage, we didn't get to do it on the stage. We were split into 3 groups of ~5 people. In my scene, I played the Nurse (not really anything like me, but ah well). I had a very easy part, running into Friar Laurence's cell, asking for Romeo to come to Juliet's bedroom to consummate their marriage. Everyone else had long speeches, so I was quite lucky in the casting. Still, I was quite nervous. But it was nice because I've sometimes wondered if I might like to act--though I never wanted to do it in the theatre--and in no other situation would anyone who knows how to do it have the time or patience to attempt to teach me, particularly because I'm so shy and it's difficult for me to do things that are silly or foolish looking--which is apparently a huge part of the acting process. Anyway, I'm glad that's over, as it made me nervous. But it was so amazing to take a scene and read through it and think you know what it means. Then you learn your lines, then, by rehearsal over and over again, you learn everyone else's lines. And after all the words are ingrained in your brain, you can really start to see the million subtleties of each line, the way an actor can play within the words with gesture and voice, body language, intonation, etc, to create so many different meanings without altering the words. I've never studied shakespeare in performance before, only in text. In fact, thinking back, I've never seen a live performance of any Shakespeare play before. So this was an amazingly different way to look at the text--even one so well known as R&J.
I didn't really 'enjoy' the program until after I was done with my scene, because the whole process of acting in front of a group made me nervous, but now I'm so glad I did it and I tried as best I could. I'm not someone for whom it is easy to let go and be silly, I'm very careful--but I did let go a bit, which felt nice in some respects.
Of course, now comes the unhappy task of writing the paper which accompanies this course, but I think 4 pages is much easier than the 15 page papers I was writing last month this time. Then I'm officially entirely done with this year and am free from academia until July 6th.
Which brings me to my dilemma. What to do with my month and a half?! I have travelling time from May 11th-19th, and May 27th to the 18th of June. But this is my list of places to go:
Wales/Cardiff
Cornwall
Dublin and southern Ireland
Oslo and Tromso (Norway)
Amsterdam and Bruges (Belgium)
Paris and Versailles
Prague
Vienna
Brighton or Blackpool
Dover
Cambridge
Liverpool
How can I fit all that in? Plus there is still so much to see in London! The national Gallery, the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern, the Transport Museum (home to all sorts of Tube related merchandise), National History Museum, the V&A museum, St. Paul's Cathedral, Kew Gardens, Kensington Palace, and probably a million other places that I've always wanted to see and can't remember right now! I've run completely out of time and I'm not sure how it happened! Maybe instead of spending my days packing in travel plans I should spend them applying to grad school here so I can come back and have more time? But honestly when there are like £30 plane tickets to Dublin or Vienna how do you say no?
Just, before I leave this tangential entry be, a
For anyone who thinks about coming to London, I have only a few things to say--do whatever you can do to get here. It is the most amazingly wonderful place I have ever been. I've never been happier in any other place--I have missed a lot about home, not the least Richard and the pets, but...I've been a nomadic person for years and years, always hoping that the next time I moved I would find a place that suited me, that my problems would dissolve, and I would just be happy. I realized a while ago that that is a stupid way to live my life, and the choices I made in Oklahoma in many ways led to the happiness I feel now. Part of my happiness here is pride that I go to Penn and that I got to do this amazing thing, part of it is enthusiasm for the things I've seen and enthusiasm for the things I'm about to see. But part of it is just the city. It is so beautiful, so clean, so easy, so wonderful, I could go on for years and years extolling the virtues of a London life. I want to move here, more than almost anything. I want this life to be my life. I want to walk to the tube, I want to have the choice of 50 free museums, I want to have the choice of 5000 restaurants (sadly none are Mexican, but still). I want to sit on the South Bank and watch the joggers and bike riders and street musicians and bankers walk by.
I'll stop myself before I ramble endlessly. If you want to come to London, some advice. The tourist lines are incredibly long--in my short experience, the longest in Europe. Get advanced tickets and go early. Come in the off season. And take at least one day to get out of the city. There is so much within an hour or two --Oxford, Cambridge, Stratford, Bath, etc. etc. etc.
My point, I guess, is that if you want to come here, do whatever it takes. If I had known it would be so wonderful, and if I had had to, I would have sold a kidney or an egg or something to get here. It is, without a doubt, my favorite place in the entire world. This is after seeing Hawaii, Florence, Venice, Rome, Corfu, Barcelona, (and Oklahoma City, of course). I have never loved anywhere like I've loved England, and I (clearly) can't say enough good things about it.
There. End of rant.
It started last Wednesday, the day after Richard left--was that only one week ago? seems like AGES. Since I knew I had this coming up, I hadn't gone to the Globe yet at all. It's on the Southbank of the Thames, across the millennium bridge from St. Paul's Cathedral. I hadn't been to that part of London before, but I actually quite liked the area.
First, to dispel a myth--It is not the original Globe. It is not even in the same spot as the original Globe. Interesting fact--the Globe was built in 1599, and was actually built from the timbers of another theatre called...the Theatre. Then it was destroyed in 1613 by a fire (during a performance of All is True (Henry VIII). Then it was closed in 1642. We went to the site of that Globe, about a block and a half south of where the new one stands. They have a little plaque and some historical facts, but that's about it. Apparently--and this is utterly ridiculous--they cannot excavate the site because there is a building just atop it that is a historical site--because it's the first concrete (or cement, I forget which and mix those two up) building in London. Um...who cares? Apparently someone in the cement/concrete industry? I would think the actual Globe would have more import than an ugly yellow building, but, alack the day, they do not (apparently).
So for this program we had a few lectures from the resident scholars at the Globe (which is, I learned, sort of an academic hub for Shakespeare studies where they employ scholars to a-research how the Globe would have been, in order to make their re-creation as accurate as possible, b-bring some prestige to the theatre, which is somewhat looked down upon by a lot of scholars and theatre buffs, and c-to lecture to the actors and directors about the space, and about tudor history and such.) I'm digressing a lot in this explanation, so please forgive all the hyphens and parentheses. So we got lectures about the Elizabethan/Jacobean thoughts on biology, religion, acting, social structure, cosmetics.
We also got a few sessions with behind the scenes people who told us about what they do at the Globe. These included someone who worked with the actors on voice (a very flamboyantly gay older man in a 70s leisure suit), on movement (an older woman who swore like a sailor)--both of these two were too new age-y for me. Also someone who did makeup, which was quite interesting, and one of the boys got made up in the makeup they actually wore--not only on the stage but in real life in the Tudor period, the sort of bright white face that you see in all those portraits of Queen Elizabeth (the first). Bright white foundation, like a mime, lots of blush and lots of bright red lipstick--apparently this was the same for men and women, and every once in a while the Globe will do what they call an Original Processes (OP) production, where they recreate as much as they can to Tudor specifications--including having all male casts and this heavy makeup. ...Went off on a tangent there. There was also someone who was the set/costume designer, quite interesting because he talked about how he was influenced (for Romeo and Juliet, because it is set in Verona and not England) by paintings by people like Caravaggio and other Renaissance masters to find his color palette and etc. There was also someone who helped us, briefly, with iambic pentameter and verse. It was just really awesome because this is an aspect of theatre an audience would never be privy too--and even those in theatre tend to know only their own roles without having much interaction with other aspects--I imagine at any rate.
We also got to see Romeo and Juliet, the current production, twice. Once from the bays (sitting down) and once standing in the yard (try to remember high school English and learning about the groundlings). We also got a Q&A with two of the actors, playing Mercutio and Tybalt (both were quite handsome, incidentally). That was really interesting as well, learning about the way they relate to the Globe and to other theatres, etc.
In addition to all this, *gulp* we had 5 two-hour rehearsals with actor/directors who helped us prepare for a scene that we performed today. Unfortunately, because they do two performances a day on the Globe stage, we didn't get to do it on the stage. We were split into 3 groups of ~5 people. In my scene, I played the Nurse (not really anything like me, but ah well). I had a very easy part, running into Friar Laurence's cell, asking for Romeo to come to Juliet's bedroom to consummate their marriage. Everyone else had long speeches, so I was quite lucky in the casting. Still, I was quite nervous. But it was nice because I've sometimes wondered if I might like to act--though I never wanted to do it in the theatre--and in no other situation would anyone who knows how to do it have the time or patience to attempt to teach me, particularly because I'm so shy and it's difficult for me to do things that are silly or foolish looking--which is apparently a huge part of the acting process. Anyway, I'm glad that's over, as it made me nervous. But it was so amazing to take a scene and read through it and think you know what it means. Then you learn your lines, then, by rehearsal over and over again, you learn everyone else's lines. And after all the words are ingrained in your brain, you can really start to see the million subtleties of each line, the way an actor can play within the words with gesture and voice, body language, intonation, etc, to create so many different meanings without altering the words. I've never studied shakespeare in performance before, only in text. In fact, thinking back, I've never seen a live performance of any Shakespeare play before. So this was an amazingly different way to look at the text--even one so well known as R&J.
I didn't really 'enjoy' the program until after I was done with my scene, because the whole process of acting in front of a group made me nervous, but now I'm so glad I did it and I tried as best I could. I'm not someone for whom it is easy to let go and be silly, I'm very careful--but I did let go a bit, which felt nice in some respects.
Of course, now comes the unhappy task of writing the paper which accompanies this course, but I think 4 pages is much easier than the 15 page papers I was writing last month this time. Then I'm officially entirely done with this year and am free from academia until July 6th.
Which brings me to my dilemma. What to do with my month and a half?! I have travelling time from May 11th-19th, and May 27th to the 18th of June. But this is my list of places to go:
Wales/Cardiff
Cornwall
Dublin and southern Ireland
Oslo and Tromso (Norway)
Amsterdam and Bruges (Belgium)
Paris and Versailles
Prague
Vienna
Brighton or Blackpool
Dover
Cambridge
Liverpool
How can I fit all that in? Plus there is still so much to see in London! The national Gallery, the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern, the Transport Museum (home to all sorts of Tube related merchandise), National History Museum, the V&A museum, St. Paul's Cathedral, Kew Gardens, Kensington Palace, and probably a million other places that I've always wanted to see and can't remember right now! I've run completely out of time and I'm not sure how it happened! Maybe instead of spending my days packing in travel plans I should spend them applying to grad school here so I can come back and have more time? But honestly when there are like £30 plane tickets to Dublin or Vienna how do you say no?
Just, before I leave this tangential entry be, a
For anyone who thinks about coming to London, I have only a few things to say--do whatever you can do to get here. It is the most amazingly wonderful place I have ever been. I've never been happier in any other place--I have missed a lot about home, not the least Richard and the pets, but...I've been a nomadic person for years and years, always hoping that the next time I moved I would find a place that suited me, that my problems would dissolve, and I would just be happy. I realized a while ago that that is a stupid way to live my life, and the choices I made in Oklahoma in many ways led to the happiness I feel now. Part of my happiness here is pride that I go to Penn and that I got to do this amazing thing, part of it is enthusiasm for the things I've seen and enthusiasm for the things I'm about to see. But part of it is just the city. It is so beautiful, so clean, so easy, so wonderful, I could go on for years and years extolling the virtues of a London life. I want to move here, more than almost anything. I want this life to be my life. I want to walk to the tube, I want to have the choice of 50 free museums, I want to have the choice of 5000 restaurants (sadly none are Mexican, but still). I want to sit on the South Bank and watch the joggers and bike riders and street musicians and bankers walk by.
I'll stop myself before I ramble endlessly. If you want to come to London, some advice. The tourist lines are incredibly long--in my short experience, the longest in Europe. Get advanced tickets and go early. Come in the off season. And take at least one day to get out of the city. There is so much within an hour or two --Oxford, Cambridge, Stratford, Bath, etc. etc. etc.
My point, I guess, is that if you want to come here, do whatever it takes. If I had known it would be so wonderful, and if I had had to, I would have sold a kidney or an egg or something to get here. It is, without a doubt, my favorite place in the entire world. This is after seeing Hawaii, Florence, Venice, Rome, Corfu, Barcelona, (and Oklahoma City, of course). I have never loved anywhere like I've loved England, and I (clearly) can't say enough good things about it.
There. End of rant.