Collegiate field trips

Things are definitely starting to speed up as we head toward the end of our London Stay. This week was intense, to say the least. It also marked the beginning of our study of Shakespeare. On Monday, we toured the Globe Theatre. It was incredibly interesting to sit in the newly constructed, yet historically accurate building. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and funny. He showed us examples of what the actors' scripts might have looked like. Each of the men would only have been given their lines and the last three words of the actor's lines before his (cue lines). These were written on a scroll and rolled up, which is possibly where the homonym roll came from. Also you would only get your part of the play and you would play a part. Who knows? One of the other valuable parts of his lecture was when he encouraged us to pay close attention to Shakespeare's use of prose versus verse-iambic pentameter. For example, Prince Hal is the only one of his kings to speak in prose, that is, up until he quits living the low life with Falstaff. In addition, he distinguishes Benedick from Beatrice in Much Ado in that, when she falls in love, her diction switches from prose to verse. However, Benedick remains in prose for the entire play. We continued our homage to Shakespeare with a two day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon. Our coach picked us up at 8:00 am in front of our flat. We stopped in Oxford and were given of a tour of the campus before reaching our final destination. In Stratford, we visited Mary Arden and Anne Hathaway's houses. Much more exciting in theory. It was really hard to figure out what was original and what was replaced. Little was actually there when Shakespeare's mother and wife were there. After doing the site seeing, we collapsed at our bed and breakfasts. My group was split up among three different places. Amanda, Emily, Maggie and I stayed together. Our room was extremely adorable. We rested for about an hour and then went to the Courtyard Theatre to see Richard II. It was phenomenal. The next day we had a delicious breakfast and then walked around the city on our own. It is an adorable, quiet area- aside from the large amount of construction. We saw a number of Shakespeare properties, none of which were extremely interesting but the afternoon brought a performance of Henry IV part 1. Even though Richard II was my favorite, Falstaff was hilarious and Hal was played by a great actor. We were all very tired and had a quiet ride home.

Tonight we were able to take a tour of the Houses of Parliament. Our tour guide told us about the rich history of the building and I think I am actually starting to understand the convoluted succession of monarchs - maybe. He even pointed out a dent in one of the tables that is rumored to have been made from Winston Churchill's ring during intense meetings.