Gosden House

Thursday was an absolutely amazing day. Our group along with a group of teachers from UC Davis also studying at The Globe boarded a comfy coach and headed out of London to Surrey, to a small school called Gosden House. Gosden House is a state funded public school for students with special needs (Or as their sign says in the picture, for students who need something special. How awesome is that!). They have 125 students with Autism, Downs Syndrome, and a handful of other special needs. The Globe has been partnering with the school for the past 6 years working with the students and teachers to put on Shakespearian plays. Every student participates and 10 Globe education practitioners go up to Gosden House every Friday for a month and a half and then spend a week in residence at Gosden House towards their end of term culminating in a Shakespearian performance that takes place all over the amazing estate grounds of the school. The teachers help to write the script, using the original Shakespearian text with major cuts and adding in a few bits here and there, the Head Teacher writes music that he performs on his guitar and sings during the performance to help get the story across and every student participates!

This year the students performed Othello. About 400 people from the community come to see the performance parents and friends to the school. I can’t even explain how moving the performance was for the audience. First the excitement of the students is palpable. Yes some are nervous but they all feel that they have accomplished something. Something else I noticed was the parents were so proud to see their children perform. I imagine seeing your child who has these particular difficulties doing something that no one would believe the could do- it must be so joyful. Parents were cheering and crying and laughing. A young woman named Charlotte played Othello’s Father and she spoke to us after the show. 6 years ago when they began the program she was one of the Juliet’s and she was so nervous and scared that she said her line and them burst into tears. Today she can quote more Shakespeare than most people I know and she has forgotten her stage fright. She falls somewhere (I believe) on the Autistic spectrum but to speak to her you would not know it, her confidence and poise have grown dramatically over her years at Gosden House and working with the Globe. She plans to go to college next year and study child care. Of course I am not saying that Shakespeare can cure disabilities! However I have always been interested in Art and Performance Therapy and this seems to be an extremely successful model. And the hard work of the amazing teaching staff at Gosden House change lives of both their students and the student’s care givers.

We march on!

Mmmm, a nice lie in on Tuesday! Tuesday was a pretty academic day compared to the others we have had recently. In the morning we met with Tony Howard, a professor at Warrick University who gave a lecture on Romeo and Juliet in Film. I enjoyed his use of several of the older films I was unfamiliar with as well as the Zepherelli and the Baz Lurhman versions.

In the afternoon we had our first of two classes with Stewart Pierce, the “Master of Communication.” Stewart is a trip! He is the yin to Glynn’s yang. In Stewart’s introduction of himself he promptly told us that he learned from Laurence Olivier and was the voice coach to Margaret Thatcher and Princess Di. He also quickly told us that after we left if we needed to work with his technique we could buy his CD on his website! Now if anyone else had said that I would have written them off in a second, however Stewart can get away with that stuff and still be adored. It is of course, his voice. He sounds like a cross between Barry White and Patrick Stewart, in fact if Stewart Pierce ever decided to use his powers for evil… I am sure he would have his own cult of followers!

Not only did Stewart do several exercises with us on breath and “finding our note” ie- centering your voice in the correct octave and mixing the treble and bass; he also spoke quite passionately about the importance of language and sound in Elizabethan England. Elizabethan’s believed that sound was the core of creation (no wonder we say the big bang and not the big light!) When we talk about persona, and you look at the roots of the word- per sona meaning through sound, you realize that when people spoke of personality really they were speaking of their sound. And doesn’t this make sense when you think about how we judge people based on what they say- but if we are honest how they say it… Stewart’s exercises were very popular with everyone- he taught us to center our voices with the statement “San I have a cup of tea please.” For the rest of the say all we did was tell each other we wanted tea…

Wednesday was also an academic event. We had our second and last meeting with Giles (master of words!) at 9am. I have to admit I was a little worried about this because the previous session had been a bit jumbly, but I was pleasantly surprised by his lesson on troches, and the use of prose as apposed to text. Again these are not new ideas to me but Giles went more in depth looking at original pronunciation and how this would effect the sound of the troche. He also worked through the beginning of As You Like It with us looking at when Rosalind and Cecilia move out of prose and into verse, the meter of the heart. Here are some interesting statistics Giles shared with us: Shakespeare’s works as a whole are 65% blank verse, 10% rhyming verse, and 25% prose. As well it is estimated that Shakespeare coined ONE THIRD of the words he used. We think he was the first to use the word ‘pity.’ He created ‘puppy-dog.’ What absolute genius is required to do that.

After our session with Giles we met with Peter Mack a professor also from Warwick University. As a woman on the trip said, you couldn’t have gotten a better ‘genius frazzled professor from central casting! Peter has a beard to rival Nostradamus and he would stroke it while contemplating. I imagine had we seen them his socks would have been miss matched because he wouldn’t have noticed in the morning as he was too deep in thought to focus with such mundane chores as getting dressed. In short, the genius frazzled professor. Peter came to speak to up about Elizabethan education- a topic very interesting especially considering the authorship questions. I have to sadly admit that I along with my classmates probably understood a mere 20% of what he told us. You do come up against this problem in teaching when you have to discover the lowest common denominator or knowledge in the class in order to speak in terms that they understand. Unfortunately for us Giles is sooooo familiar with the classical texts, Cato, Plautus, Cicero, Virgil, Aphthonius… that his specific references became a foreign language for parts of his lecture. I was quite interested in his explanation of a “common place book” which I think I will assign to my students this year! (Hooray students! More work!)

Wednesday evening we had our 3rd rehearsal for our scene. The tension in the room is growing as the English teachers move further and further out of their comfort zones without explanation why from Ann. We have begun a bit of blocking (thank goodness) and have added in a shall. Basically the four Juliet’s are taking on a chorus of Matrons and statues through out the beginning. Did I mention the rehearsal rooms aren’t air conditioned? Oh how we suffer for our art;-)

Week two loooong days

A new day a new challenge. Monday began with a well anticipated activity, the Heaven to Hell tour of the Globe Theatre. (See pics) We began in heaven- the top floor of the Globe named appropriately not only because of all the cool props and set pieces in storage but because it is where the trap door in the ceiling above the stage is… The trap is used for those Deus Ex Machina moments and to drop people and things through of great import. Brian the stage manager who gave us the tour told us that today when we use the trap we use invisible wires etc to hide the fact that it is a manipulation. However in the times of Shakespeare they would have used very large very obvious ropes to assure the audience that it wasn’t witchcraft afoot! Taking the stairs down level we found ourselves in the Gentleman’s boxes/Musicians Balcony. Often in Elizabethan England the upper crust would sit behind the playing space. It was considered one of the best spots in the house of course because they could be seen. However in addition it’s important to remember that while today we say we are going to “see” a play. 400 years ago people would say they were going to “hear” a play. Language had great importance at this time and the gentleman’s boxes would have good acoustics. The set for Troilus and Cressida was up for the performance from the evening before and so we bravely ventured out onto a temporary decking above the stage for photo opportunities. In the musician’s balcony we found some original practice instruments such as giant sheet metal to make thunder etc. The next floor down is stage level and we were as giddy school children running about on the Globe stage. Actors often speak of the “valley of death” with runs between the two pillars onstage. It was interesting to see how constrictive and yet comfortable it was to stand there! I can only imagine what it would be like to be on the stage in front of 3000 people performing. A death defying experience I am sure. Finally we went backstage and down under the stage to get to the trap in the floor. Everyone had to duck down as it’s only about 4.5 feet tall down there. The area is again aptly named Hell because the characters who emerge from the floor are those who are devilish, the clown characters etc. In the Globe’s last performance of Hamlet in the graveyard they devised a clever way of very slowly opening the trap so that it gave the illusion that the grave digger really was making progress and digging into the earth. Finaly we ended up inthe orginal practice costume closet (all costumes were made in the same way they would have been 400 years ago. So cool!

Monday was also our first meeting with Giles Block, the Master of Words here at the Globe. Giles works with all of the shows each season on text analysis and speech. At first Giles was a bit esoteric for me, or at least it seemed he came with no agenda. But sometimes that is the way with many a learned person, teaching is not easy people! After a bit of abstract discussions we got to work on the use of blank verse vs. rhyming verse vs. prose. The ideas are ones I was familiar with, but Giles brought to it a fresh excitement. It is clear he really loves the text.

Giles has directed in the Globe in the past and did an original practice AND original pronunciation version of Romeo and Juliet several years ago. (Original practice means that they only used costumes and props etc that were created in the same way they would have in Elizabethan England, they only do the special effects as they would have at the time etc. Giles taught the actors to use the original pronunciation of the script and one thing they found is that the show was 5 minutes shorter than other productions! Because the actors were using O.P. several words that we today might use with move syllables of length became much shorter. AN example is the word ‘love.’ Today a RSC actor would be trained to use the letters much stronger, hitting the L with energy and lengthening the “O” sound. 400 years ago it would have been short, “luv,” getting to the “v” very quickly.

Giles so clearly is fascinated with words and of course meter. He told us that when iambic pentameter was first heard in the 1580s from Marlow and the like, it was considered dangerous in the same way rock and roll was considered dangerous in the ‘50s. The heartbeat rhythm, (i-am, i-am, i-am…) is the rhythm of life, they first sound we hear in the womb. The rhythm has a way of speaking from the heart. People were concerned that it would be too moving, that because blank verse doesn’t end with a rhyme that the nouns have a strength and starkness that could be too powerful. No wonder I love rock and roll AND Shakespeare;-) We discussed further how Shakespeare goes out of his way to preserve the pentameter- for example “Banished” vs “banish-ed.” He at times adds unnecessary words in order to keep the meter – ex “I do think” vs. “I think.” Therefore we must see that when Shakespeare strays from the pentameter by added extra syllables or having empty beats, there is an important reason. He is giving character and stage direction through the text. Personally I have always noted when Shakespeare leaves empty beats, it is clear that this is intentional and a direction to take a breath or a beat or an entrance of someone etc. However I have to admit I have never really been one to look for the extra beats. After all the character work I have done, it seems that perhaps I should spend a bit more time on meter. And now I have gone nuts with this! My script looks a mess from all of my diagramming, reading meter, finding troches etc…

At noon (this really was a packed day) we met with Peter McCurdy- the architect who built the Globe. (Interesting it was another Peter who built the first one Peter Street from the materials taken from “The Theatre” the first open air theatre in London.) Peter McCurdy has specialized in historic preservation and reconstruction. He and his team did several years of research about building and worked from what first hand and second hand documentation (letters, engravings etc) to work out how the build the structure. I really liked the symmetry of Peter M using oak that was over 400 years old, in other words trees that lived in the time of the original Globe.


In the afternoon we had our second small group rehearsal. I was a bit distressed, after spending time memorizing my script that Ann was considering changing up how the script was divided up and changing our lines, but it’s a short scene so I know it will be fine. We met in the oddest room, it looks like what you imagine a padded room would look like in a mental ward, has a tremendous echo and no A/C. I realize how spoilt I am in FL with A/C. Every day I go through the motion of dressing in layers and then peeling them off, adding some, taking off some more etc. I must work in 10 different climates through out the day. Our rehearsal was a bit stressful for me. It became clear pretty quickly that Ann had not spent any time working on the direction for our scene since last we had seen her. I understood that she had just been handed the script a moment before on our first rehearsal, but after several days I had hopes that she would have a sense of where we were going. However this experience is learning new techniques etc and so I pushed my hesitation to the side and worked through her VERY organic process. (To clarify I am all for organic blocking etc, but organic doesn’t mean you don’t do any research about the play and have a clear picture of what you re trying to articulate. But I try not to judge…) Ann has decided that the 4 Juliet’s are not just the different aspects of her psyche but that they are going to form a chorus when they are not playing Juliet. We spent a lot of the rehearsal doing character exercises for the Juliet monologue but did not have time to really flush out the idea of the chorus yet.

After dinner we saw our second production “As You Like It.” The show is sold out through September so it was great to have received tickets. The director Thea is very young and this has been her first production of Shakespeare. It is set in Elizabethan England and the costumes in the opening scene in Court were fantastic. Cecelia’s costume was very reminiscent of Queen Elizabeth and I thought could have been an interesting parallel to the cruelty in her court as to the cruelty in the Dukes. The acting was fabulous. The actor playing Touchstone was hilarious and took on the part in a way I had never imagined. I had a seat for the show but ended up standing as a groundling for the second half which I think is the far better way to see the show. Afterwards, as is becoming out custom we went to the Swan and ended up having drinks with the cast. As it turns out the guy playing Silvius has some friends in common with Allison back in NYC- small world the theatre. I was fascinated to learn when speaking with the actor who played Touchstone that this was his first Shakespearian role not withstanding some small scenes in drama school! He obviously did his research and had some interesting thoughts on Touchstone and his unease in the forest. Also he did such an amazing job on the monologue about rhetoric. Laura, who played Cecilia offered to try to get me some tickets to see the show again when Ryan comes to visit, which would be amazing seeing as it’s totally sold out. Again we closed the Swan down around 1 and headed home. Lucky for us we didn’t have class until 11am on Tuesday.

This trip just becomes more and more amazing.

A time to rest...

Ah the weekend. A day off. On Saturday I slept and slept some more… When I finally emerged still tired I walked down the river to Boots to pick up a few necessities such as shampoo and conditioned because the little travel bottles I brought weren’t doing the job. I had to sit outside the shop for a while because unlike the 24 hour convenience of the major US cities, the shops in London open up at their leisure and are often closed by 7pm. Finally at 10:35 someone idled up to the door and let me in… After a quick shop I took the stairs to the top side of London Bridge for the London Bridge festival. The bridge was lined with vendors and shops etc. In its heyday, (before- like the nursery rhyme says London Bridge started to fall down and was eventually replaced and sold to some American and replaced again) London Bridge had tons of shops and homes etc built on top of it lining the bridge itself. I had just begun to browse the shops when the skies opened and the rain London is famous for came pouring down on us. So I quickly scrambled back down along the river to my room, where slightly damp and still tired I headed back to bed for the remained of the day. With the sound of the rain, looking out my window at the poor folks caught in the downpour, I made a cup of English tea, put on my pj’s, and read a book, cover to cover. I use to read voraciously. It seems in this past year or so with the puppy and work and the new business I have stopped reading anything I wasn’t teaching. Hmmm. “Change Priorities Ahead…” In the evening I stepped back out into the rain manned with umbrella and slicker and headed to the nearest bookstore for another book! I stopped to get some dinner and returned to read…

However one can only spend so much time in bed so on Sunday when I woke up at the crack of dawn to hear the dumpsters being emptied in the street bellow me, and I saw the shining sun in my window I knew this was to be a good day on the town! Allison and I met up at a café and headed out to see the sights. We walked around Victoria and went to St. James Park (off of Buckingham Palace)and got a few glimpses of the changing of the guard. Waled past Big Ben, goofed off in a telephone box, and even saw some creative Simpsons sand carvings. (See pictures) We met up with another Winona friend, also called Laura, in Victoria. We walked everywhere it was such a beautiful day. In the afternoon we walked back to our side of the river and headed up to Southwark Center, near the London Eye. On the green there is a giant upside down purple cow. It’s a summer comedy venue called “Underbelly.” This is its first summer in London before the bovine heads up to Edinburgh for the comedy festival that it has been a part of for years. Allison used to work with Second City so she was very interested, and I of course like to laugh so I was game. We got tickets for the next show Katy Bond and Friends. Katy Bond is very up and coming right now in the UK. She has done several TV specials and has a bit of a following I guess. We were a little early so we sat in the “pasture” and had a pint before the show. The pasture was full of giant games of connect four and hopscotch. Very clever. And now the show. Hmm, well we got fantastic seats (inside a cow, go figure) because it was first come first serve. Katy is known for parodying celebrities so I wasn’t surprised when she came out in a 50s style dress and a ratted up beehive wig on her head and took the piss out (one of my favorite British expressions meaning to make fun of) of Amy Winehouse. She sang a parody song about her divorce. Amusing I guess. However every time she came onstage she simply donned a different wig to mock a different celebrity. Same voice, same character, some slovenliness, same crap. She played Lily Allen as well as Kate Winslet- seriously were it not for the wig change I would not know the difference. The other sketch comedians were in fact better than her with a few funny bits. And I did see one cool sketch with a member of the cast miming every word (every word not the story) to the 90’s pop song Torn. I actually think it might be a cool exercise for my advanced class to help with precise movement, tension etc.

After the show we headed back out to pasture… ha ha, cow jokes… and tried to get tickets to the next show which we were informed by one of the stage hands was much better. Of course this show was sold out, so we decided to wait until show time to see if there were any returns. In the meantime we ran into some of the company members of the show we had just seen and got to talking to them, as is apparently our new tradition to have drinks with all the performers we see here in London. I do like how accessible everyone is! I have really enjoyed discussing the performances with the actual performers. It was interesting and a bit sad because they could tell they had bombed. To be honest I felt for them. How hard to continue for the entire hour when you aren’t getting any response in the first half. He told us that Katy had called him just a week or two before about doing the show and that they hadn’t performed together for some time so they had hastily revived some old material- making a lot of sense with what I saw. One of the guys suggested that he thought that the cow might have been the problem. It’s a big blow up cow so all of the noise and music from outside was heard clearly in the show. I vehemently agreed because I am sure that it would have been hard to hear it in the back rows and I wanted to bolster some of their confidence. However what I didn’t tell them was that even if it were in a sound proof studio I still wouldn’t have laughed as Katy trotted out the same tired character in different wigs for an hour. At 7:30 we realized we were not going to get any returns so we headed to Wagamama’s for an awesome dinner and home to bed to prepare for our long day on Monday.

It was nice to spend some time this past weekend reflecting on the classes of the week. When we all sit together and talk about how we are going to use this experience in our teaching everyone gets excited and speaks at once. I can see lots of things, but truly I think I will need some more reflection. So much of what we are doing here is learning and/or relearning to see through a different perspective.

Late nights and full days

Friday morning July 10th was an excellent reminder to me of why I normally don’t stay out late on school nights! Our 9:30 meeting with Heather Neill was bit of a challenge for those of us who had been up late the night before with the actors. This is not to say we didn’t participate, but oh I would have loved another hour of sleep!

Heather Neill is a professional theatre critic and is not employed by the Globe Theatre. Having her lead a discussion of the performance was a lovely idea because there was no concern about hurting the feelings of someone who might have a friend on the cast etc. In our discussion it seemed that everyone had a similar feeling to me that the Puck interpretation was flawed in its execution. Heather made an excellent point about the staging in that they usually perform on lawns and outdoor spaces so the illusion of the forest is probably more often achieved by the surroundings. We also discussed the use of music in the production, particularly the singing of Puck’s prologue, which I have to say I hated. I hate to sound negative about the show because I did greatly enjoy it and the energy was fantastic. However it is a good illustration of the difficulties of taking on a beloved and well known play such as the Dream because your audience will have certain expectations before they even arrive at the theatre. I for one would rather have seen the If we shadows…” epilogue delivered without the entire cast singing.

Following our discussion we had our first ensemble scene rehearsal with Adam Coleman. Everyone on the program has been cast into small group scenes from Romeo and Juliet as well as an ensemble scene with the entire group. The ensemble scene is the opening market scene with Peter and Gregory etc. The “do you bite your thumb at me sir…” scene. I have been cast as Benvolio. I wonder if this means I get to fight Lindsey, who has been cast as Tybult? … First off I love Adam. Adam sort of nimbly moves around with the sense that it is costing him no energy at all to be everywhere at once. His smile is ear to ear. He is a fabulous director- one after my own heart with warm ups and character exercises and a clear goal of what to accomplish in every rehearsal. In this rehearsal Adam took us through what I think he called the 10 point plan. (We had no time to write anything down but he assures us he will have a handout with the steps next time!) Basically the 10 point plan is a scene treatment to help actors take on the physical nature of the script. The actors perform the scene ten times each time using a filter such as hitting your script every time you make a point etc. This was especially effective in the group setting. Some of the teachers on the program who are strictly English teachers with no theatre training have been dreading the performance but this method was unintimidating and fun for everyone. The most remarkable thing was by the final time everyone was taking on a distinct physical character and no one seemed self conscience. Adam also introduced us to the shadow personalities of the four archetypes. The Sovereign-Tyrant, The Warrior- Aggressor, The Care Giver- Smotherer, and the Joker- Manipulator. The more we work with these archetypes the more I am sold on their effectiveness.

In the afternoon we met for our first small group rehearsal. I have been cast as 1 of 4 Juliets in the scene when the Nurse informs Juliet that Romeo killed her cousin Tybult. This is going to be interesting. Basically the scene is divided up by the transitions in Juliet. So each of the four of us have bits of speeches weaved through out the entire script. Our director Ann is a beautiful amazon! Truly she is well over 6 feet tall and wow is she graceful. Ann is an actress. She has worked with the RSC for the last several years performing on their productions, mostly the histories. Everything about her screams performer. She speaks with total control and her stillness is enviable. I do think that this may be Ann’s first time directing so it’s an interesting experience. We began the rehearsal reading the script discussing text, working on transitions, thought, meter etc. Ann had a fabulous vocal warm up that worked on resonance. I loved it, and am hoping to get a written copy before we leave. After the warm up we read our scripts again and the difference in sound was amazing. The tones were more varied the vowels richer, the alliteration stronger. Next we were asked to read our parts but on this read thru to find a physical movement for every vowel we came across. Suddenly the piece took on a physical life. We ran through the script several more times and then began the detailed characterization. I have a lot of sympathy and respect for the English teachers in my scene who have never done any acting. What a terrifying experience to be given a script and asked to gallop around the room saying “gallop a pace you fiery footed steed…” We are an interesting group. Myself, an acting teacher, Allison an acting teacher, and Kate an acting teacher are together with Martha and Lindsey- both English teachers. I am not sure Ann was expecting such a wide variety of experience, it will be a challenge. But I love my group and my scene so I am expecting a lot out of the experience.

Finally on Friday we met with Patrick to discuss the week’s experiences and review what was on deck for the next week. From everyone’s comments it’s easy to tell that this is a rejuvenating experience for everyone. Deirdre, an English teacher from Charleston made an interesting remark. First I have to tell you that on the roads in England when the lanes shift or close etc. the road sign says “Change Priorities Ahead.” According to Deirdre it is not just a road sign, but her SIGN. She sees this experience as a clarification of her goals both professionally and personally. I can see how this experience is changing priorities for everyone. The English teachers are eager to get out from behind the desks and use performance to make the work accessible. The drama teachers are furiously scribbling down each new exercise too bring home. I have already filled up half my notebook!

After dinner I took the Tube to Oxford Circle to meet up with my good friend Sophie. Sophie and I met 9 years ago in Maine at one of my favorite places in the world Winona, the summer camp where we both worked. Sophie is now working in the HR department at the headquarters of Debenhams running some of their training programs. She travels loads so it was nice to catch up even if I was exhausted. I met her at a place called Bond’s with her workmates. It is a very different to experience London with Americans vs. experiencing it with Londoners! Her friends were lovely and when they asked me why I was here I was surprised to learn that not ONE of them had ever been to a show at the Globe. It seems the English are as intimidated by Shakespeare as many Americans. I mentioned the 10 pound tickets and several decided they would check it out. That’s me! Converting the masses to Shakespeare one happy hour at a time…

Greetings again. I really should be memorizing my lines right now, but I love you all so much I am trying to catch up on my blog. As ever, the days are completely full and its been hard to find to process everything.

On Thursday we had our second class with Glynn. This time we worked on the four elements and the physical cycle between all four. This was a fabulous warm up exercise- again different than I have used the elements in the past. With these the sense of breath is key. Once you can identify the breath by experiencing the element (through the cycle) you can use that breath to develop the elemental nature of your characters. Net we did an adaptation of a Soufi exercise that I have done in the past, the arrow. The arrow is an exercise to help you to focus every muscle group to prepare for focused play. It involves tension and precision movement. It is a great way to build up energy and to experience how one takes built up energy and applies it conversation, attack, wooing etc. it would be a great way to help students free themselves physically when speaking because it gives an action to their words. To finish the morning we repeated and reviewed the 4 archetypes.

At 12:30 we were brought across the way by a Globe Educator (Nicholas) to the archeological site uncovered in 1989 of The Rose theatre. (see pictures, the red lines delineate the stage and outside walls) The Rose was the first theatre on the south bank and it was one of the theatres (in addition to The Theatre and The Curtain) that Shakespeare’s plays were performed in until The Globe opened in 1598. He foundations were discovered in ’89 when a site was being prepared for a new office building. One of the amazing things about the historical respect in England is that before any site can be built on the builders must pay for an archeological survey of the site. The archeologist at The College of London had 2 months to “dig and see.” Interestingly enough the site was directly next to some of the current Globe offices (even though there was no Globe yet they had an office to head up the fund raising etc) and each day the employees would ask they had found anything and each day received a “no.” Then 6 weeks in they found a bear skull (a good sign due to prevalence of bear baiting)! And the next day they had found the foundations to the Rose. Unfortunately they only had 2 weeks left until they had to stop and allow the bulldozers to continue. The staff of the Globe encouraged actors and other people of import from around the world to protest the building going on top of the site. Laurence Olivier wrote a letter, Dustin Hoffman was there, Dame Judy Dench etc and finally a last minute call from Dame Peggy Ashcroft to the Minister of the Environment and told him that if he didn’t stop the bulldozers from destroying a historical landmark that she (who was 81 at the time) would lie down in front of them! The matter was soon resolved and the building was re-planed so that the site would be preserved and capped for future excavation. Nicholas had several of interesting facts about the site (see picture of site. The red lines delineate the outer walls and the stage). For example there was an open sewage line that ran past the theatre; in fact there was a small bridge over the sewage “moat” that you had to cross to enter the theatre. Knowing this, the line “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet…” has a double meaning! Of course it s still that romantic lovely idea of Juliet not caring about Romeo’s lineage, but at the same time to Elizabethan audiences it was also a not so subtle joke of Shakespeare’s about The Rose. Another example of Elizabethan local knowledge making its way into the plays comes form 12th Night when two of the characters talk about meeting at a good pub called “The Elephant.” While the play is set in an Italian style area- there is still loads of English sensibilities and references. The Elephant pub was actually just down the road! Perhaps the first example of product placement and sponsorship! ;-)

In the research of the first Elizabethean theatres there has been work done on how the actors procured the costumes of the time. Clothes, especially those denoting high status could be quite expensive in this time. It has been found that the rich would give their “worn out” garments to their servants. There is a problem with this in that there was a law called Sumptuary Laws. These laws restricted luxuries to enforce the class system. They restricted the wearing of certain colors and fabrics to only the upper class. So fat lot of good these clothes did the servants right? So these clever servants would sell the clothes to the different theatres to be used as costumes- and they often fetched a good amount.

Another interesting fact that Nicholas shared with us was the origin of the term “roll” for a character part. I have to say it never occurred to me before to ask fro where the term came! If you think about the time, it wasn’t as though playwrights could transpose 15 or 20 scripts to give to the actors etc. There was usually only one complete manuscript. Actors were given a “role” of parchment that had only their lines and the three words before (their cues). Thus, their roles! In order to keep up with the play there would be a summary of the play by scene so that the actors could see what was next etc. As a side note a company called “The Original Shakespeare Company has done several performances trying to duplicate the exact circumstances in which Shakespeare’s plays would have been preformed. These actors learned their roles off the same style of parchment rolls of Elizabethan England. During one of the plays rehearsals they found that there were several times a character repeated the same three words that were in fact (at one certain point) a cue line. What they surmised from this is that it was intended that this character got continually interrupted! It’s a joke on the actor and the character as well as the playwright’s manner of creating a character tick. It’s interesting to think of what other puns and nuances have been lost over the years. Shakespeare of course wrote for his players, his time. He could never have foreseen the centuries of following that he would receive.

An additional antic dote I have to share (and I can’t say these are bible and verse truth, only that this is what I was told by the head of the program- a man who has spent his entire professional career studying and teaching Shakespeare…) Apparently a gentleman called John was a member of The Chamberlain’s Men. He too was a playwright, but he acted in many of Shakespeare’s plays; usually playing the put upon father whose daughters didn’t listen. He played Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Egus in Mid Summer (and several others) and of course Polonius in Hamlet. Polonius has the speech in Act 2 sc 2 when he comes to tell Hamlet that the actors have arrived. Hamlet has a line “then come each actor on his ass.” (Which is cheeky in its own right!) To which Polonuis answers in order to prove that he has brought the best actors possible “The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastorical-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light.” Now of course knowing nothing of the original players this is funny in its own right. Some might even see the joke that Shakespeare is speaking of his own company with mockery and flattery. However what you need to know is that John had a well known stammer. Shakespeare wrote this part for him and this speech knowing how it would sound. Reread the speech imagining the stutter- I am sure the audience by the time he got through it was rolling. Then in Act 3 sc2 Polonius shows up again with an interesting line. The family is seated waiting for the play to begin when Hamlet asks Polonius if he had ever acted at University. Polonius responds (do keep the stutter in mind here as well) “That I did, my lord, and was accounted a god actor. I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed I’th’ Capitol. Brutus killed me.” Of course hearing him say he was accounted a g-g-g-good actor must have gotten a laugh, but there was again a more topical joke. John had just acted in Julius Caesar two weeks prior and the actor playing Hamlet had played Brutus in that performance. Here was the man who had killed him, and in Act 3 sc 4 he is about to do it again!

After our tour and discussion of the Rose (I didn’t really mention much did I? It was an interesting talk and to stand in the feet of that theatre was magical.) We walked down to Burrough Market for lunch. (See pics of glorius food!) The market is open Thursday through Sunday and is full of amazing fresh foods cheeses turkish delight... everything you can imagine.

After lunch we met again with Yolanda. Her class is lovely because you get to play all of the marvelous acting games. Some are new t me and some I had forgotten about! We warmed up with an exercise called “The Tempest” which got everyone working on focused movement. Following this we played an old game about changing status and then incorporated it with the level game (kneel sit stand) to work on a scene from The Temepst. It was interesting to play with farcing people to change their status.

After what was a long day we headed to dinner to discuss and get ready for our first of the four shows we will be seeing, the touring production of Mid Summer Night’s Dream. I had a seat in the lower gallery for this production. The show was set in the 1920s with deck chairs and umbrellas, flapper costumes etc. (I described it to one friend as Anything Goes meets Shakespeare). The actors doubled and tripled up on roles which for the most part worked well. The energy level was fabulous and the cuts were good. There were some problems with delineating the Arden Wood from the town and the Puck character was in my mind a problem. First she was clearly female which bothers me because a Puck, Robin Goodfellow should be changeable. Everyone should be attracted to Puck. In this production Puck is like Bob Fosse meets Betty Boop. She wore sequin hot pants and a white dinner jacket. In fact there seemed to be a sexual relationship between her and Oberon which I thought undercut the fairy kingdom story. On to the good. The actor playing Bottom was fabulous. The Mechanicals (possibly my favorite of all Shakespeare’s characters) were played perfectly with the right amount of sincerity and ridiculousness. Titania/Hipolyta had a wonderful stage presence. She could whisper and all eyes would be on her. After the show some of us headed back into the Swan (the bar/restaurant attached to the Globe Centre) to chat and have a drink. Very soon the actors came in as well and we ended up talking with them for several hours. Interestingly enough the Puck character hadn’t really been solidified until 2 weeks before the show- which seems to me to be directly related to the shallow character values. The actors had such excellent research. They also did a considerable amount of text work. It is exciting how much time the directors have to play with text analysis and movement and technique.

We got to bed that night around 1am. It’s so exciting to talk with other theatre people and discuss the plays. Of course Friday morning was a bit tiring… Till next time!

Globe Education Observation and Practice and the Shakespeare Rally

I am not sure if its something in the water or what but I can’t seem to get to sleep before 1 am and I pop out of bed at 7:30 every morning. On second thought it is most likely the very present springs in my back form the mattress that catapult me up and out of sleep each day. I am perfecting my “grin and bear it” English mentality but I may have to find a Marks and Spencer’s and get a cheap mattress pad for the sake of my sanity.

Tuesday we met first thing at 8:45 am with Yolanda Vazquez. Yolanda is an actress and Globe practitioner. She is also warm and centered and her stage presence is equally as palpable standing at the bus stop, as it would be on stage in front of an audience of thousands. Yolanda worked with us on the physicality and characteristics of the four archetypes (based on the Jungian but adapted dramatically for drama- pun intended). They are: The Sovereign, The Warrior, The Care Giver, and the Joker. Each has their own physical posture. The Sovereign wears her hands like a crown on her head, The Warrior creates a sword and shield with her arms, The Care Giver creates two closed hands “white knuckled” and opens her arms to the person they care for or the thing etc (an addendum by Glynn is that love/caring is a reflex and an impulse not a planned event). The Joker is unstable, constantly moving (spin, run in space with head totally dropped throwing off equilibrium,- look, point and move) she deflects and deceivers. The cheeky character. I can see the immediate usefulness of this! Instead of having my students highlight by transition perhaps having the students highlight by archetype… It seems that the archetypes are easier for students to conceptualize tan some of the elemental work I have done in the past.

In the afternoon we broke up into small groups to observe Globe practitioners work with visiting school groups. I observed Tia with a group of 11 year old students from Northern England (love love love the accent). Tia began with a nonsense language voice warm up (rum tum tum, a taki taki tom, ooh bulla bulla ohh...). The kids enjoyed the warm up a lot, in fact more than I think American kids of the same age would have, or would have admitted. Tia drew the kids in by explaining that in fact actors were originally called players; that acting is really just “focused play.” It seemed that this allowed the kids to accept working on “Acting.” First she played the game Stop and Go- which I think all acting students have played a version on… At first you follow simply the commands, stop and go, and then added jump and finally switched up what the commands meant. Ex- stop meant go, go meant jump and jump meant stop. Then she began to include the characters/archetypes of the play that they had been studying- Macbeth. Yes Macbeth! 11 year olds! And to be honest when questioned on the plot line, it seemed they knew it better than some of the seniors I have encountered. (Sorry seniors;-) Using the warrior archetype Tia had the students repeat the line “my noble lord” and using the joker archetype Tia had the children repeat “all hail Macbeth.” (for the witches.) then again Tia switched what the instructions meant to keep the kids on their toes. The second game Tia played was to split the group into 2, the Macbeths and the witches/heaths. The students playing the area of the heath and the witches surrounded the students playing Macbeth (who had their eyes shut) and create the environment with sounds and lines such as owls shrieking, winds blowing, the witches saying ‘all hail Macbeth’ so on and so forth. This created a discussion about how the environment affected Macbeth and his actions in the play. The kids then played a game (yes/no) to learn about how to use and identify tactics. Finally they created Macbeth in 2 minutes. (see video.) What impressed me most about Tia’s workshop was that the students were knowledgeable and very willing. They were having fun!

In the late afternoon we got together to discuss our observations. It seemed that everyone had very similar experiences even thought they had different practitioners and different age groups. The Globe does a marvelous thing with students. After dinner we had some free time which was nice because Alison and I (another teacher on the course with me) ran up to Covent Garden to see Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia.” It is an absolutely fabulous play but I had never seen it performed before. Samantha Bond was in the lead- she is a tremendous actor. I saw her in “The Memory of Water” 10 years ago and she has done quite a lot since. The play takes place both in the early 19th century in the estate of Lord so and so, and in the 20th century in the same estate. The modern day characters are researching the historical relevance of the visitors to the estate while the characters of the 19th century are living those events. It’s hard to summarize but it is very exciting (even though my explanation may not be). Tom Stoppard, who is known for his sophisticated wit and well researched plot lines really did some of his best work on this play. Alison and I both thoroughly enjoyed it, though I should mention that the upper balcony of the theatre, where we were sitting, was about 200 degrees. During intermission we ordered cups of ice to help us cool down during the second act;-)

On Wednesday we were spilt onto groups and sent on a rally around London to see 9 different monuments/representations of William Shakespeare. It was a bit of a softball event but a great opportunity for first time visitors to see London. However even I saw things I had never noticed before even though I lived in London! First we walked over to the spot where the original Globe Theatre once stood. Sam Wannamaker, an American actor, director, and film maker came to London in the 1970s and when he went to look for the monument to the Globe Theatre, he was distraught to find that there was nothing but a plaque on the wall of a forgotten building. Sam Wannamaker is the man responsible for the Globe. He spent the last 20 years of his life raising money and support for such a theatre. The tragedy is that he died in 1993. He never say the Globe which opened in 1997. He did see one support beam going in so at least he died knowing that his mission was going to be completed. Anyway the first stop on our tour was the plaque on wall. We then walked down to Southwark Cathedral the last building standing on bankside that would been around during Shakespeare’s life. Shakespeare’s brother is buried there and there is a phenomenal monument to Shakespeare there. It is an alabaster life size sculpture of Shakespeare lying down writing. Where there was once a quill which broke, some clever person has placed a sprig of Rosemary (for remembrance ;-). All around the monument is a huge stained glass window which depicts several Shakespearian characteristics. Prospero in the center with Caliban and Ariel, the seven ages of man along the bottom, Hamlet and his skull, etc. We had such a great time identifying the characters. Throughout the rest of the day we traveled all over London seeing several different types of depictions of Shakespeare. (See pictures.) One particularly moving experience was our visit to the British Library where we saw one of the few first folio’s in existence. (about 30 years after the death of Shakespeare 2 actors put together all of Shakespeare’s plays, with the exception of a few somewhat controversial ones due to authorship, and published it together. There are, I think, something like 35 left in the world.) We also saw the Magna Carta. It almost takes your breath away to be in the presence of a document so old and important It was issued in 1215. The Magna Carta is considered one of the most important historical documents in relation to democracy and freedom. It limited the power of the monarchy and gave certain powers to free men. Many of the judicial laws that we enjoy today (ie the right to a speedy trial etc) were first guaranteed in this document. In addition I was excited to see one of the original printings of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (one of my favorite of the King Arthur stories) and a whole wall of Beatles artifacts. There were several original documents such as the lyrics to Help, and She’s Got a Ticket to Ride. Soooo cool. On our way out of the British Library we took a quick side trip to Kings Cross railway station to platform 9¾. Yup I was halfway to Hogwarts but had to return to my studies at the Globe.

After returning and soaking my poor feet we had dinner and discussed the meaning of Shakespeare, referencing the many unique monuments to him. By the end I was exhausted and headed to bed. So far this trip has been a whirlwind of information and activity.

Well I promise to get caught up and write more about my studies this week! I hope everyone is well at home.

The real work begins!

If ever I thought my affection for London was a fleeting memory of youthful entertainment I was completely wrong. This is my fourth trip to London and each and every time I find a new reason to fall in love with this ancient city. As a tourist I loved the age and history of the city. I was overwhelmed with the idea of buildings and monuments older than my own country. When I was in conservatory it was a love of new experiences and higher learning of my craft. There is no coddling in the British education system. If you are wrong they will let you know and the experience was refreshing. Good, great! Let me move on and learn from this mistake! As a graduate I returned and fell in love with the independence and anonymity of being an ex-pat, at least for 6 months;-). I explored museums, worked in a museum- I met challenges living in a foreign country with odd neighbors and a different culture. I had Sunday dinner with friends and strangers. I grew up a bit.

On my fourth visit, a full decade after my first, I return to a familiar and yet very changing place. The historic monuments and dry British humor remains and the Southbank is transformed from a shady territory to a center for culture. This time I find a renewed excitement in studying acting and directing. I asked myself today if I ever had as much fun acting as I did studying acting… I am sure I have!- But there is something so satisfying with experience leading to response; experimenting; allowing someone else to do the teaching. A classmate refers to herself as a “sponge.” This is a wonderful idea. My only concern is that the tutors keep telling is not to worry about taking pictures or notes and that we will revisit these places and ideas. I am not sure how much absorbance I have before I am totally saturated. We have 15 minute breaks twice daily and a lunch so I am furiously scribbling down thoughts and ideas from the sessions before… My muscle memory is kicking in and I am reformatting my brain to think creatively from a personal sense.

There is too much to touch on so I will mention highlights of today’s sessions. We began the day with introductions and Patrick Spotswood gave a quick talk about The Globe Theatre as an instrument of the play. Have you ever had someone verbalize an instinctual idea and suddenly had the “aha! I knew that but never articulate it” response? This was the case for me this morning. I was so excited to be in a discussion of theatre theory and concept. Collaboration is really one of the greatest tools of the artist and it felt exciting to be bouncing ideas off each other as professionals. Patrick began a discussion about the stage space being unlike the traditional theatre of our time and how that affected the work. The Globe stage is in the round (almost completely) and the thrust juts out into the audience. It is amazing being inside to feel how a theatre that can “seat” (including groundlings) upwards of 2000 people can feel so intimate. Patrick discussed the “Circle” of the Globe vs. the “Square” of our common proscenium and black box theatres. This is not a new concept to me but was brilliantly rehashed and speculated on in terms of Sam Wannamaker’s vision. Sam Wannamaker was the American actor/director who came to London to discover the only monument to The Globe was a plaque on the side of an overlooked building. He felt strongly that to study/discuss/enjoy/ and conceptualize Shakespeare- a national treasure- it was important to experience his work as one might of in his life time. Bach on the forte piano or Bach on the Sony synthesizer… same notes very different performance. The stage is another character, another instrument of the play and can act upon characters and audience alike.

The rest of the day was spent learning about the history of the Globe (both past and present) and the Globe Education Department. An interesting note, the Globe as we know it today opened 12 years ago (right before my first trip) however Sam Wannamaker and Patrick Spotswood together created the Globe Education Program over 20 years ago. In the afternoon we had our first session with Glynda MacDonald. Glynda is a movement tutor at the Globe and works with the actors on Alexander techniques (which she LITTERALLY wrote the book on) as well as breath and speech as it relates to the body, reflexes and Jungian archetypes. Needless to say she is quite accomplished and divine (in the literal sense!). In our first session we discussed “what we wanted” and went back to basics with cross pattern reflexes. Glynda inspires tremendous focus. One of her pearls of the day was emotion is truly e-motion. I love this! So often my students get bogged down with feeling they stop doing altogether on stage. Glynda’s exercises will really work for me; and as a previous student of Alexander Technique it feels good to return to the method. In the first five minutes I realized major issues with my 7 level exercise simply because I have neglected to release the jaw and the skull. Fabulous.

Alright its 12:37 am. To sleep, to rest…

Ps- I am already a day behind in writing. My apologies! I will try to catch up and post pictures!

What a crazy 36 hours. Ryan and I went to the Atlantic Beach Saturday morning with our “puppy” Zooey celebrate the 4th and to do something fun before I let. I enjoyed standing in the water in the 99+ degree weather- probably because I knew that very soon I would be enjoying the cool afternoon breezes on London similar to New England (hence the name right?) on the banks of the Thames. I in fact did enjoy those breezes this afternoon on a balcony off the Tate Modern, however first was my long journey!

I arrived at Jacksonville Airport at 5:15pm, 2 hours before my international flight connection as is suggested. When Ryan and I pulled up we could tell we were a bit over zealous. Luckily my wonderful husband parked the car and helped me check my giant bag and had dinner with me at Sam Sneed’s. Finally 45 minutes before my flight we kissed goodbye and I walked through security and was at my gate in 5 minutes. Note- July 4th is the day to travel. I flew from JAX to DC on the most, MOST uncomfortable seat and was received in DC with a little surprise; my flight to London was delayed until 12:40 am. Finally we boarded and took off. I popped an Ambien and after a slightly fitful slip arrived at Heathrow at 1pm July 5th.

The Bankside, the residence hall I am staying in, is fabulously located. It is directly behind the Tate Modern; where I meandered through the Picasso’s today; and very close to the Globe. Both are situated on the Thames close to the Millennium Bridge. If I could just find a Boots or a Sainsbury’s I would never need to get on the Tube.

I am excited to get started and hope I am up for the challenge. More to follow!