Brief post
Again, a short update, but I promise this one'll be a bit longer than the last one. And actually contain a little information!
I'm having a great time here, I really am. So far I've seen four plays (with one coming up next week) and somehow I still am not "played out". It's difficult to say which one is my favorite at the moment; I think I'm gonna go with "The Merchant of Venice" on Thursday, with a close second being "Merry Wives of Windsor", which I had the great pleasure of seeing at the Globe in London. :D (GHS students will know that this play has a special place in my heart, since I played Sir Hugh Evans in it in 10th grade.) "And Then There Were None", the Agatha Christie play I saw in Oxford yesterday, was also pretty good, but "Taming of the Shrew", while technically excellent (that can't be denied) was so depressing that it kind of left us cold. The final play I'm seeing is "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and that one should be really good.
I'm a little sad that this trip wasn't two weeks later, though, because if it had been, I could totally have seen David Tennant perform. :) We're working with the education department of the Shakespeare Centre, and part of our course includes lectures and workshops and such with the Royal Shakespeare Company that is part of the Centre ("Shrew", "Merchant", and "Midsummer" are all performed by them; they have this complicated rotation of plays going on simultaneously). Their next play coming up is "Hamlet", the lead of which is- you guessed it- David Tennant. (He's also in "Love's Labours Lost", their final play of the summer/fall season.) Unfortunately, it premieres on July 24, ten days after I leave. :( But I can guarantee that he's been in Stratford at the same time as me at some point, because I'm sure he has to come in for rehearsals, so that's exciting. I've never seen him. My tripmate Jennifer, who's also a big "Who" fan, is considering stalking the theatre to try and catch a glimpse. :)
My two favorite parts of the trip so far have been a document display we had on Thursday, where they showed us all kinds of really old programs and photos and play folios, and the trip I took earlier today to Warwick Castle. I've never been to a castle before, because this is my first time out of the country, and obviously we don't have castles in America because we don't have royalty. ;) It was amazing, though. I saw all kinds of stately rooms, and we watched a trebuchet demonstration, and went on a really creepy ghost tour. It was awesome.
I'm running out of time on my 1-hour internet card, so I'm going to sign off now. Keep in touch, and I apologize if I haven't been commenting on your journals. I can only get on a few times a week, so I usually just have to skim through my friends page and then move on. Please update me if anything big is going on that you want to talk about. I love hearing from people. :)
Sarah
I'm having a great time here, I really am. So far I've seen four plays (with one coming up next week) and somehow I still am not "played out". It's difficult to say which one is my favorite at the moment; I think I'm gonna go with "The Merchant of Venice" on Thursday, with a close second being "Merry Wives of Windsor", which I had the great pleasure of seeing at the Globe in London. :D (GHS students will know that this play has a special place in my heart, since I played Sir Hugh Evans in it in 10th grade.) "And Then There Were None", the Agatha Christie play I saw in Oxford yesterday, was also pretty good, but "Taming of the Shrew", while technically excellent (that can't be denied) was so depressing that it kind of left us cold. The final play I'm seeing is "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and that one should be really good.
I'm a little sad that this trip wasn't two weeks later, though, because if it had been, I could totally have seen David Tennant perform. :) We're working with the education department of the Shakespeare Centre, and part of our course includes lectures and workshops and such with the Royal Shakespeare Company that is part of the Centre ("Shrew", "Merchant", and "Midsummer" are all performed by them; they have this complicated rotation of plays going on simultaneously). Their next play coming up is "Hamlet", the lead of which is- you guessed it- David Tennant. (He's also in "Love's Labours Lost", their final play of the summer/fall season.) Unfortunately, it premieres on July 24, ten days after I leave. :( But I can guarantee that he's been in Stratford at the same time as me at some point, because I'm sure he has to come in for rehearsals, so that's exciting. I've never seen him. My tripmate Jennifer, who's also a big "Who" fan, is considering stalking the theatre to try and catch a glimpse. :)
My two favorite parts of the trip so far have been a document display we had on Thursday, where they showed us all kinds of really old programs and photos and play folios, and the trip I took earlier today to Warwick Castle. I've never been to a castle before, because this is my first time out of the country, and obviously we don't have castles in America because we don't have royalty. ;) It was amazing, though. I saw all kinds of stately rooms, and we watched a trebuchet demonstration, and went on a really creepy ghost tour. It was awesome.
I'm running out of time on my 1-hour internet card, so I'm going to sign off now. Keep in touch, and I apologize if I haven't been commenting on your journals. I can only get on a few times a week, so I usually just have to skim through my friends page and then move on. Please update me if anything big is going on that you want to talk about. I love hearing from people. :)
Sarah