All the World's a Stage...

Outside of our lovely Bed & Breakfast homes!

Perhaps it’s something in the Stratford air. Perhaps it’s because we have seen 6 plays in 7 days. Perhaps it’s because we sit on the first few rows in each performance, and we’re so close to the stage that we see the actors spit when they talk and we make direct eye contact with them on a very regular basis. Whatever the reason, something huge has happened to us. We have changed. We have become Royal Shakespeare Company groupies. Real live groupies. Just in case you are keeping track at home, we have seen Macbeth, Cardenio, The Homecoming (a fascinating play but impossibly dark and depressing), The Merchant of Venice (set in modern day Las Vegas), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The City Madam!  All of the performances have been fantastic, and it truly is amazing that we have gotten to see so very much! And it has never become more apparent than it did last night, after we left the theater from seeing the amazingly wonderful production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This has always been my favorite Shakespeare play so I had very high hopes for the show, and I am ecstatic to say that this particular production exceeded every single hope and expectation that I had for it. It was incredible, and most of all it was just plain HILARIOUS! Despite all the deep Shakespearean themes that we analyze and discuss, sometimes it is fun to realize that at the very core, Shakespeare just wanted to make people laugh, and I would have loved to hang out with him if I had been alive in the 1600s. Anyways, so we were all leaving the theater in very high spirits, when all of a sudden we saw one of our favorite actresses, whom we had seen in Cardenio and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, pass by us on the street wearing normal clothes and a black hat that somewhat shaded her eyes.  Now, just to clarify, this is a very normal routine for the members of the Shakespeare Company to change clothes and leave the theater quickly after their shows to hang out at the local pub, The Dirty Duck, and you can often go there to chat with the actors and actresses after the shows. However, when we saw this one particular actress walk RIGHT by us on the street, we were instantly star-struck, and without a moment’s hesitation we began following her down the street. Naturally, it makes sense that this is what you should do if you see a very famous person walking down a dark street very, very quickly. You should follow them. And so we did. We all started walking rather quickly and excitedly after her, but in the darkness it was hard to keep up with her because she seemed to keep turning and dodging the crowds. So Thomas and I decided to pick up the pace a little bit, which is when it turned into more like speed walking. And then Olivia and I may have started jogging. And then running. And we may have followed her for a solid five minutes before deciding that we were becoming a bit creepy and that she most likely wanted to be left alone if she was walking so quickly. Sadly, we did not get to speak to this one particular actress, but on our walk back to our home we did happen to run into the actor who played Seyton, the Porter in Macbeth, who recognized us from a previous question-and-answer session that we had with him a few days ago, so we stopped and had a quick chat with him on the street corner.  It’s just a typical day here in Stratford, hanging out with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. No big deal. It is worth pointing out that these actors really are terrific. All of the folks we have encountered have been extremely gracious and obviously adore what they do.

•                     Our last play of the week was Phillip Massinger’s The City Madam. Although it is not quite the same as Shakespeare, it was a hilarious play! It provided a biting critique of greed and ostentatious capitalism. As a side note, I was strolling out of the theatre during the interval (intermission for us Americans), Miller pointed out a plaque to me. The plaque informed us that Frederick R. Koch donated the funds to reconstruct the theatre. You may be asking yourself: why is this interesting? Well, first of all, Mr. Koch is an American. Obviously, as American students, this is fascinating. However, I would encourage you to look at the last name one more time! Recognize it? In case you didn’t, the Koch family is one of the wealthiest families in the United States. Their wealth was achieved through Koch Industries, a private energy company. Koch Industries donates millions of dollars to support free market causes. Two of the Koch brothers, David and Charles, are huge supporters of the Republican Party. Although Frederick no longer sold his shares in the company, I take great pride in the fact that a family of Republicans helped support the Royal Shakespeare Company in such a profound way! Also, it is just a little ironic that funds from a private energy company that reaped the benefits of capitalism provided the theatre for tonight’s performance, particularly given its thematic material. Oh the wonders of liberal democracy!

•                     In other news, this has been SUCH a full week of theater and historical site visits, but one of my favorite parts of the week was a special session on Tuesday afternoon with one of the costume/wig/make-up ladies who works behind the scenes at the Royal Shakespeare Theater. She was a crazy old lady named Brenda who has been working for the Company for over 40 years and has so many wonderful stories to tell about her job, so it was not only fascinating but quite entertaining! She taught us all about how actors are wounded and bleed on stage (both from weapons and from blood coming out of the mouth, gross), she told us how fake throw-up is made and stored within the actor’s mouth (even grosser), and she also shared many of the secrets about how actors and actresses change clothes and costumes SO quickly between scenes of a play. The best part came at the end, when she needed costume and wig models, and naturally Thomas was the best choice for the pirate outfit. Juan volunteered to demonstrate the fake knife wounds, and Katherine made quite a stunning Renaissance woman as well (though she was supposed to be imitating a small boy dressing up as a woman, since all the women characters in Shakespeare’s time were played by men) Although I appreciate Julie’s shout out about the pirate costume, I don’t think she quite did justice to Brenda in her description. Not only was she an entertaining woman, but she was also a spitting image of Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter! Also, Julie neglected to mention that one of the other male students in our group dressed up as Queen Elizabeth I. They can remain nameless….

Yesterday we also ventured over to the site of the house where Shakespeare spent the last seventeen years of his life, and learned about the current process of excavating the site of his house to find historical relics and clues about Shakespeare’s daily life.  Then we participated in the interactive “Dig for Shakespeare” activity where you can actually sift through piles of dirt that have been excavated from the site to see if you discover any Shakespeare relics yourself! (I’m pretty sure this whole set-up was designed specifically for third grade field trips, but we participated anyway and had quite a lot of fun!)

I just wanted to briefly chime in with a few other details from the week. Our stay in our bed and breakfast guesthouses continues to go really well! Richard, my host, gave us a wonderful tour today of an old Guild Chapel in Stratford. Since he helps manage the Stratford Trust properties, he was able to show us some of the wall paintings! They were painted in the late fifteenth century, and they survived the whitewashings of the Protestant Reformation. For all they have been through, they really look pretty good! We have had several more lectures this week, and two question and answer sessions with cast members! As previously mentioned, they have really been terrific, and their willingness to engage in a meaningful way with American college students is amazing! Also, I wanted to add a few comments about The Merchant of Venice. As I mentioned above, this production is actually set in modern day Las Vegas. Although there were mixed reviews as to its effectiveness, I thought it helped hammer in some themes and enhance others in a meaningful way. Also, several of the characters had “southern” accents! Although they did lose them at some point, it was most enjoyable seeing Royal Shakespeare Actors attempting to talk like characters form Steel Magnolias! Apparently, Irish actors have the most ease impersonating the southern accent. Tomorrow, we are heading to Warwick and Kenilworth Castles! After a full day of visiting castles, we will head back to Stratford for one last night before we depart for Dublin. Our time in Stratford has truly been remarkable, and I really consider us blessed to have experienced so much. It really is futile to attempt to put into words some of our experiences so far, but I hope you are getting a small taste of what our trip has been so far! 

We're missing all of our family and friends (and the warm weather) back in South Carolina, but we're looking forward to sharing some jolly good Irish adventures with you in the near future! (Personally, I'm hoping to fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a professional Riverdancer, and I've heard that Thomas has quite an extensive background in Irish dancing too, so we'll see how that goes...) I highly suggest that you all treat yourselves to an extra bowl of Lucky Charms next week so that you can be part of the Irish experience with us! :)

Yours Truly,

Thomas and Julie

PS: More Fun Facts!!!!

• Many of the most common idioms and phrases we use today first originated in Shakespeare's plays! Examples: dead as a doornail, in a pickle, night owl, off with his head, woe is me, etc... You never know how many times you may be quoting Shakespeare every single day! :)
• English people pronounce the word schedule as "shedule"...I always get a good laugh out of that!
• I think English cows are much larger than American cows...this morning Brian and I went for a run through a nearby countryside farm (we're getting spoiled with our running landscapes around here, that's for sure), and we got stopped for about five minutes waiting for a VERY large cow to finish her grass-chomping breakfast and move out of the path. It was hilarious but also kind of scary!
• There is already a value-added tax built in the price of consumer goods, so you don't have to worry about calculating tax when you buy something from the store or restaurant!! In other words, if the ham and cheese sandwich says that it costs 3 pounds, then by golly you only have to pay 3 pounds for it! Quite brilliant indeed!